[Rene]

not seen much of the tadpoles this week, when i go near the pond the few Ive seen dart off into the shady corner to hide, they are getting bigger but didnt see any legs coming yet when i saw them last weekend? do they hide as they are about to change? Also do i need to keep the comfrey leaves from dangling into the water? as i know it makes potent fertiliser in a bucket of water pretty quickly so thought it might not be good for the pond water saw a water boatman bug at the weekend too and lots of larvae of mosqitos i think especially where i moved the comfrey out of the water.

[Paul Plots]

Tadpoles appear to be harder to find as time goes on but they have a nasty habit of the biggest eating the smaller ones.  So I guess by the time they are almost ready to change into froglets there are usually far fewer of them around.  :blink:

[Rene]

Yeah I heard that, seen a couple this morning when the sun was shining before dissappearing under a rock, theres plenty of rocks in there for them to hide under, survival of the fittest then, natures way. Still dont know about the comfrey touching the water and if its a bad thing or not, will keep pulling those leaves out until i know, theyre good for the compost anyway. theyre growing on 2 sides on the other side of the liner and give good shade.

[Paul Plots]

Comfrey touching the pond water shouldn't be a problem unless the plant begins to die off and then, like any dead plant material, it will begin to influence the water quality.

[Rene]

thanks learner, after i came off here earlier i googled comfrey and pond to discover comfrey is a pond /bog plant so then thought it should be ok. theres plenty of life in there and everything else looks fine and hunky dory spottrd another taddy later this afternoon when i went back down, it darted under a rock when my shadow cast over the water. Pond is new to me so need reassuring especially after being ticked off for accepting the tads from another pond. 

[Paul Plots]

I wish you luck with the new pond - they are great to have in any garden as they attract so much wild-life. The frogs alone will help reduce slugs and flies.

Frogs have a knack of finding water and any new pond will soon fill up with all sorts of critters. My old cast-iron bath on the plot has become home to water-boatmen... not the safest place for them to be! I worry about scooping them up every time I fill my watering can but they seem to scoot out of the way pretty fast!

Keep an eye on the oxygenating plants – you may find you need to thin this out a little by the end of the summer as it grows like wild-fire.