Reward yourself with a pond that attracts wildlife and supports beautiful water plants. Container ponds are an excellent addition to any landscape. But they do need a bit more care than a flower bed. Learn how to over-winter a pond, its plants, and the creatures it is sure to attract. Overwintering pond plants Unless your container water garden is buried in the ground to a depth greater than the average ice depth for the location (or you use a pond de-icer), tub pond plants and animals will have to spend the winter indoors in moderate and cooler climates. Some people set up an aquarium for such purposes, while others simply move the entire pond indoors. (Use common sense when it comes to pond animals that may not necessarily stay put.) To overwinter hardy plants, cut them back to about an inch above the pot and store them in your coldest nonfreezing room (34° to 50° F) with exposure to natural light, if possible. Or wrap bareroot plants in wet newspaper, put them in garbage bags, and keep them in your coldest nonfreezing room, checking periodically throughout winter to make sure they remain moist without getting moldy or rotting. Tropical plants prefer to be stored bareroot in damp sand at a temperature range between about 50° and 60° F. You'll have more success keeping tropicals active all winter than you will with hardy ones, which require a period of dormancy. Tropical plants require intense lighting—fluorescents will do, but metal halides work best—and a temperature range between 60° and 100° F (80° F is ideal). Overwintering aquatic frogs indoors Frogs often show up at ponds to breed and hang out. When winter comes, if there are no deep ponds around, the frogs may leave to find one or they may stick around. If they don't leave, without intervention they will freeze solid along with any shallow pond. First, identify the frog to be sure it is an aquatic hibernator. Bullfrogs, green frogs, and pickerel frogs hibernate under water. If the frog is a tree frog, spring peeper, wood frog, or other terrestrial frog, it hibernates on land, behind bark, around trees, or under the ground. Toads also hibernate on land. If you do have aquatic frogs, then either move them to a pond elsewhere that is deep enough that it will not freeze solid or bring your portable pond indoors. It is best, if bringing them inside, to mimic nature. Keep the pond in a cool area such as a garage, shed, or basement where the temperature is preferably between 35 and 45 degrees F. If it is cool, the frogs will just stay in the bottom. Do not feed. If the only place that will not freeze is warmer than 45-50 degrees F, the frogs will need food, and they will try to hop out. That means covering the pond or better yet, using an aquarium. Frogs only eat live foods such as insects, snails, spiders, or worms. Dealing with visiting wildlife As the saying goes, "Build it and they will come." Wildlife will naturally be curious about anything new in their home and so will come to check out a new pond. Most, like most insects, small mammals, small birds, and various thirsty critters will have no visible impact on the pond. Others like raccoons and herons can make a mess, dumping pots and eating fish. You can solve wildlife problems by keeping your small pond out of reach (such as on a deck or porch) or by netting the entire pond (over the plants too) which can be unsightly. An alternative is to forgo fish in areas where they tend to get eaten or simply accept that the pond is the local diner. Larger ponds can thwart raccoons and herons by having a cliff around the edge and few shallow areas. Providing fish in any size pond with places to hide (lots of plants, clay pots, PVC pipes) will keep prying feet and beaks from catching a meal. While most people enjoy amphibians such as frogs and toads, in the spring they can create a lot of noise as they sing. Aside from keeping the pond out of their reach or netting it, there is no way to deter them. You have to learn to love them (and perhaps locate the pond away from your bedroom window). Remember though, these creatures need all the help they can get as pollution and habitat destruction have taken a great toll on amphibians. Snails will also find almost any pond, arriving on plants or on the feet of birds. In most cases snails will do little harm and will eat some algae. If overpopulation becomes a problem , the introduction of fish that eat snails (such as paradise fish; bring them inside when the mercury drops below 60°F) can reduce their numbers. Accept snails along with algae and visiting wildlife and your ponding experience will be stress-free. After all, the animals think you built that pond for them, so who knows who will pay a visit tonight?
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