If You Build It …

One sure way to attract wildlife to your backyard is to install a small pond, water being an essential ingredient for life and a prominent feature in most natural habitats. My family and I embarked upon a backyard pond project a number of years ago, but we never seem to complete it. The routine maintenance really doesn’t have to be very labor intensive, but I always seem to be re-landscaping the perimeter or tinkering with the waterfall feature. In some ways it’s very therapeutic.

Installing a pond can be a small project or a huge endeavor, depending on how ambitious you are. Just about all the materials you’ll need can be purchased at the local hardware or department store, and there are an endless number of pamphlets, books and websites that provide step-by-step instructions for the beginning pond installer.

One of the first surprises we received after our pond was dug and filled was the arrival of green frogs, which I had never seen in our backyard before starting the project. About a half dozen showed up within a matter of a few weeks. They hung out all summer long and into the fall, but disappeared well before the water’s surface iced over in winter, only to reappear the next spring. The cycle continues. They still hop from their lily pads into the water when I approach on a warm sunny September afternoon, but it should only be a matter of weeks before they submerge to enter a state of hibernation