Pond Plants For Amphibians

[GCN lova]

hi there,

im soon to be building my pond and wanted to know what plants will attract lots of wildlife, especially amphibians? water lilies and irises and marigolds are allready on my list. if you want to suggest anything else please mention it. i hope to start a pond diary as well.

thnx a lot

[aeshna5]

When I went on a herps course recently the leader did say Water Mint was often used by newts for laying their eggs when the leaves are submerged.

The plant may also attract some attractive leaf beetles like Chrysolina herbacea + C. polita, the Mint Moth, Pyrausta aurata + the flowers are popular with a wide range of nectaring insects.

[Gill Catton]

Avoid planting things in pots with soil if you can because this could enrich the water (which causes an algae bloom and the water to go green).

I'd also recommend Hornwort and water cress not only because you don't need a pot but also newts seem to like them to lay eggs in these plants and a big bonus is that they can grow very quickly using up nutrients that would otherwise make algae grow, the bonus being that they are easy to remove portions of if they start taking over (though the more of it there is the more hiding places for invertebrates and baby amphibians).

One of the most diverse ponds I have ever surveyed (stuffed full of smooth newts and invertebrates including nationally scarce species) had virtually nothing but stacks of hornwort in it!

[Fauna]

May i also suggest Water forget-me-not and Water plantain for the newts. Its been a long time since i surveyed for GCN and others, but i can remember they seemed to favour the forget-me-not over many other plants.

I'm a few good months away from starting my new pond, its been 2yrs in the planning and i'm itching to make a start...good luck with yours, it will bring many, many hours of fun

Regards Chris...

[King Edward]

How big/deep are you planning your pond to be? Try to incorporate lots of shallow water round the edge. Good plants for the shallows are Water Mint, Water Forget-me-not, Glyceria fluitans/G. notata (Sweet-grass), Watercress, Water Starwort.

I'd miss out the Water Lilies unless you particularly want them. I find they get rather too big. Hybrid dwarf varieties might be OK, but for a wildlife pond I see no reason not to stick with regular native species. Frogbit is a good floating-leaved plant.

I'd plant in a sand layer on the bottom, rather than in pots. This way it's easier to incorporate really shallow margins sloping gently from, say, 0"-6", rather than a conventional 10"-12" deep planting shelf for baskets.

Perhaps you could put up a photo showing the site with the approximate layout of the pond marked on the ground.

[Kayleigh]

A quick word of warning as the pond/garden centre will not tell you is not to plant floating pennywort (this retched stuff)
floating pennywort hydrocotyle ranunculoides - Google Search
I cant get rid of it..

Also a no no is Water fern Azolla filiculoides..
These two plants are causing a lot of trouble out in the environment..

You will need lots of oxygenators to keep the water clean I threw in about 10 bunches and never take any out as it never seems to get out of hand and if it did all I would do is rake the surface with a garden rake but be careful not puncture the liner doing this.

[GCN lova]

thnx,

its about 50-75cm deep and 2 metres long. i was originally gonna use a pond liner but switched to butyl liner. ive begun to dig it but my garden has rocky ground. ive got a blue bog iris and will plant iin the shallow area and as well as water mint.

[King Edward]

75cm is far too deep for such a small pond. To be honest, I don't see the need to go more than 40cm at most. Otherwise, you will be very limited in the amount of shallow water in the pond. I'd also consider an asymmetrical design with the shallows concentrated at one end/side and the deeper area at the other, rather than a tiny margin all the way round and a deep pit in the middle. Have a look at these links:

How to make a really good garden pond

How to make a really good wildlife pond (3): the pictures

What not to dig

[GCN lova]

Originally Posted by King Edward

75cm is far too deep for such a small pond. To be honest, I don't see the need to go more than 40cm at most. Otherwise, you will be very limited in the amount of shallow water in the pond. I'd also consider an asymmetrical design with the shallows concentrated at one end/side and the deeper area at the other, rather than a tiny margin all the way round and a deep pit in the middle. Have a look at these links:

How to make a really good garden pond

How to make a really good wildlife pond (3): the pictures

What not to dig

hmm the links arent working and i jst checked and the measurements were 2.5 metres long and 60cm deep . i brought the butyl premade pond which has a shallow end of 10 cm and the deeper and wider side on the other side.

[King Edward]

Sorry about the broken links - for some reason I have been having trouble with links recently. I put in the correct ones but then the forum software changes them to xexexexex etc. when I post. Does anyone else have this trouble? I think these should work now:

How to make a really good wildlife pond (3): the pictures The Garden Pond Blog

How to make a really good garden pond The Garden Pond Blog

What not to dig The Garden Pond Blog

Back on topic, I could never quite understand the appeal of preformed rigid ponds. They're generally more expensive than the equivalent sized liner + underlay, more difficult to install (since you need to dig exactly the right sized hole) and not a particularly suitable shape being too deep with steep slopes and not enough shallows.