Small pond for newts

[Martin21114]

I created a small pond in my yard which i want to use as an amphibian habitat. the pond is about 2.5-3 feet deep and holds about 100 gallons. Around the pond I want to create a bog garden.

What plants should I use:

inside the pond? (lily pads, duckweed, something else?)
around the pond? (for ground cover and to attract critters)

I live in Howard county Maryland which is zone 7.

Also, where can I get some critters to put in it? I wanted to introduce some newts or toads to the area. Can anyone here provide any?

My main goal was to create a nice natural habitat in the yard to attract and house critters. I want to use only native species, so I am leery of just getting plants from home depot and putting them outside. When I was a kid back in the 80s our yard had an area of this dense little ground cover of short plants a few inches tall with platform leaves. It was always full of toads. My girl grew up in the city and never got to experience any stuff like that so I wanted to fix up our barren lot and make a nice habitat to enjoy.

 

[rebel]

I have a small Wildlife pond in my back garden, we didnt do much to be honest. We basically put some lnt compopst into teh bottom for teh plants, filled it up with water, that had ben left to sit for a few days. After a few dys we started to notice some critters as it were.
Pond skaters, mosquito larve, dapnia so the critters would find there own way to the pond. Same with the frogs, we have 3 in ours, one male, 1 female and a baby ( just happened) we didnt do anythign special, they'l find there own way there.
As for plants, we used plants that a good at oxygenating teh water such as elodia ( be warned it grows very fast in sunlight) but its good at clearling and oxygentaing teh water.

Hope this helps :happy:

 

[Martin21114]

Here it is under construction. The projects on hold for now until I go to home depot to get the liner and plants, but first I need more info on which plants to get, etc... Plus they are about to cut down the big tree so I figured I'd wait until they are done. As you can see I have pretty much a blank slate to work with. The plan is to catch the rainwater from the gutter and have it flow into a small bog garden where the bush is now. It will overflow into the gravel area (where a TON of water rips through every rain) which will flow through a stream bed I plan to plant heavily and finally into the pond, which I am hoping will eventually house amphibians (not fish). The pavers are just marking the area I plan to use as a patio next to my little creation.

 

[rebel]

Hey

That sounds really good to me, I like the gutter acting to catch the water leading to pond. Can't wait to see the final project Good luck

As before I don't know much about plants but elodia will oxygenate the water:happy:

Rebel

 

[Jennewt]

You might want wait a year and see how the pond behaves in various weather, and to measure the temperatures in the water during various weather. This would also give you time to get the live plants going.

The best place to get critters for the pond would be from other nearby ponds. The closer the better, to reduce the risk of bringing in pathogens or variants from another locality.