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Timing for wildlife pond tidy

mjstratfordmjstratford Posts: 6
in Wildlife gardening
Hi. I've got to the point where I need to clear out some of the vegetation in our old wildlife pond - it's at risk of becoming more a marsh than a pond. Every year I mean to do it but delay too long and before you know it hibernation is underway. We currently have loads of newts, but no sign of frogs.. is this a good time to try and clear it a bit? Views welcome. Thanks!

Posts

  • PosyPosy Posts: 3,601
    Not so good if you have tadpoles, including baby newts. It's impossible to separate them from the tangle of weeds. I have to do this job myself, this year and was thinking of late summer or early autumn. Don't know if that's ok or not.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    Monty Don featured pond clearing on GW last week. I think it's ok, if you leave weed etc on the side of the pond, so critters can crawl out and back into the edges etc.
  • mjstratfordmjstratford Posts: 6
    Posy said:
    Not so good if you have tadpoles, including baby newts. It's impossible to separate them from the tangle of weeds. I have to do this job myself, this year and was thinking of late summer or early autumn. Don't know if that's ok or not.

    Thanks Posy. That probably is best. I need to make myself do it ! I so often plan to but before I know it autumn is here.
  • mjstratfordmjstratford Posts: 6
    Fire said:
    Monty Don featured pond clearing on GW last week. I think it's ok, if you leave weed etc on the side of the pond, so critters can crawl out and back into the edges etc.

    Yeah, I'm quite obsessive about that! Or I spend ages picking through my net chucking ramshornsback in! I thought Monty mentioned something but it was fleeting. Maybe should find it on iPlayer...

  • EmerionEmerion Posts: 599
    Hello, I found a wildlife website a while ago - sorry can’t remember their name - and asked them when I could best tidy a wildlife pond. They said autumn, as baby animals would be big enough to cope, but not yet hibernating. They also said leave stuff on the side for a day or so as everyone above has mentioned. I thought we had nothing of importance in our pond,  but found several big frogs trying to hide in the last of the debris at the bottom.
    Carmarthenshire (mild, wet, windy). Loam over shale, very slightly sloping, so free draining. Mildly acidic or neutral.


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