[Jeanieblue]

I've just spotted this post. The allotment next to us has a sunken bathtub, and it's full of tadpoles. Brilliant, only thing is there's a competition on as to who falls in first cos it's right next door to the grass path !!!!

[leeky]

nice  

[milkman]

I have found that youngster froggies freshly made from tadpoles hibernate outside of the pond deep in the undergrowth for their first winter, they then return to the pond in about April or May time.  

When they are fully grown adult frogs they do hibernate at the bottom of the pond.  That's why it's important, when creating a wildlife friendly pond, to acquire a bucket of sludge from the bottom of another wildlife pond to deposit at the bottom of the newly created pond.  

[Jeanieblue]

Thanks for that top tip, Milkman. I'll be sure to tell our lottie neighbour next time I see him. Can't have the froggies homeless during the winter - and the thought of frozen froggies is even more horrendous. I mean to say, we might be in the EU along with France, but we're Brits for goodness sake - toad in the hole is more our style !

[Moonwolf]

They do hibernate out of ponds, we had a small pond in the garden that they spawned in, but it was never deep enough for them to hibernate. The trouble with ponds is that if you have a very cold snap a 3ft pond will freeze top to bottom.

[David.]

Doesn't any one dig wells any more?

Nearly every plot where I grow used to have one about 20 years ago, but they might only work in clay soil with a high water table.

Get 2 steel oil drums and cut off the bases, then dig a slightly larger diameter hole and keep lower the first steel tube in.

Now the scary bit (but maybe not if you've done pipe jacking). Climb inside the drum and start digging under it whilst some one above pulls up the spoil using a bucket and rope and also pushing it down for another couple of feet. Then use a long post hole borer (the type which has a lever to release the spoil) to work from above, but the occasional foray down a rope to clear out is required. It gets very messy working below ground water level and you have to keep baling out.

Place a large slab over, or construct a corbelled brick upstand with a smaller cover over.

After a thunderstorm they would fill right up and sometimes surcharge and flood all around.

Don't know what a H&S Officer would say these days. Probably better sited in your back garden with cast iron hand pump over.