Over the last couple of days the pond has become alive with frogs, loads of them croaking and making out for all they're worth. I'm guessing that the warm weather has bought them out. We had lots of frog spawn last year, which turned into lots of tadpoles, however a lot of them never turned into frogs, though guessing by the sheer number of them which have turned up last week a fair number must have done so!
The problem is that the pond was really in need of a clear out, with planting baskets overflowing, mare's tail clogging the surface and a shortage of clear water, so with the sudden frog influx the only option was to clean it out today. Even with my pond gloves on the water was very cold, so how the frogs manage I don't know! I pulled out bucket loads of unwanted foliage and root mass, and disposed of a couple of the more overgrown baskets entirely. It looks a bit barren at present but it will look all the better for it in a couple of months. Now the frogs can lay as much frog spawn as they want without me having to disturb it further.
The other thing I've been doing is to do some serious cutting back on the hedge which the council decided last year was mine. I cut it back on the pavement side quite hard so it doesn't come as near to the pavement, which means that this year it can grown back in quite thickly without overhanging the footpath. I also tried half cutting through and bending over a seedling ash tree because frankly I don't want an ash tree there...but I could live with, and in fact encourage, a bushing ash if the bulk of it was back nearer the hedge itself. There's loads of bun on the hawthornes which have so much more room now the hedge has been thinned out as it was last summer too. I've bought a couple of bird boxes to put up in some of the taller trees in the hedge so I'll have to get those put up soon. Quite a lot of stuff is showing buds beginning to break, so spring is definitely on the way.
Now the warm weather has come the birds are all over the feeders...in the cold weather when you'd expect 'em to want extra food they hardly showed up, now there are always birds on them: go figure.
The problem is that the pond was really in need of a clear out, with planting baskets overflowing, mare's tail clogging the surface and a shortage of clear water, so with the sudden frog influx the only option was to clean it out today. Even with my pond gloves on the water was very cold, so how the frogs manage I don't know! I pulled out bucket loads of unwanted foliage and root mass, and disposed of a couple of the more overgrown baskets entirely. It looks a bit barren at present but it will look all the better for it in a couple of months. Now the frogs can lay as much frog spawn as they want without me having to disturb it further.
The other thing I've been doing is to do some serious cutting back on the hedge which the council decided last year was mine. I cut it back on the pavement side quite hard so it doesn't come as near to the pavement, which means that this year it can grown back in quite thickly without overhanging the footpath. I also tried half cutting through and bending over a seedling ash tree because frankly I don't want an ash tree there...but I could live with, and in fact encourage, a bushing ash if the bulk of it was back nearer the hedge itself. There's loads of bun on the hawthornes which have so much more room now the hedge has been thinned out as it was last summer too. I've bought a couple of bird boxes to put up in some of the taller trees in the hedge so I'll have to get those put up soon. Quite a lot of stuff is showing buds beginning to break, so spring is definitely on the way.
Now the warm weather has come the birds are all over the feeders...in the cold weather when you'd expect 'em to want extra food they hardly showed up, now there are always birds on them: go figure.
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