What can I add to the garden to attract frogs and especially newts? Obviously a pond, but apart from that what kind of things do they like? Both in the pond and outside of it.

A long time ago there were lots of newts around but there don't seem to be as many today. I don't know if that is just my imagination or whether they are really declining in numbers, but either way I would like to see them back in the garden if I can.

Thanks!

I don't have newts in my garden but I do have frogs all you have to provide for any wildlife is shelter, habitat and food.

I find they like, long grass (preferably a wild flower meadow to help out the bees and butterflies), ground cover plants such as elephant ear or hardy geraniums, log piles, rock piles (they hide in them and attract the kind of insects they eat) and spaces under rocks or even tiles (I had a toad who lived under one). They also love living in compost heaps as there is plenty to eat. I also recycle cardboard boxes by laying them flat on the ground to supress the weeds (also carpet) and they love living under there as it is damp. Regarding places for them to hibernate they love going in holes and spaces in soil (found this out when I had turf stacked up)- so don't do any major digging in winter where they might be.

Above all, don't let chicken or cats go near them and if you have a pond, dont have any fish as they will eat them, their eggs and babies. Wildlife ponds are more entertaining without the fish.

Don't under any circumstances use slug pellets (I don't even trust the organic ones) or pesticides use copper rings to protect your plants or you can get chalk type stuff that they wont go over.
Also be careful when mowing the lawn or using a strimmer or rotavator, make lots of noise with the machine in the area you will be working on before actually working there. (Oh and check for hedgehogs too as they wont run but curl up)

Hope this is of some help to you and brings back your newts.

This post was last modified: 19-08-2007 04:33 PM by Kingfisher.

There favourite places are damp places, so a log pile would be a good idea althoguh everywhere seems to be damp with this weather. If you have loose paving stones they might like it underneath them, as will a lot of other wildlife especially insects.

Try and give them as many places to hide as possible, also some water forget-me-not in the pond may help as females can lay their eggs on there. The mating season is a bit earlier in the summer so this may help for next year. If you have the right sort of pond and take the advice suggested above I'm sure you will have them coming back to the pond.

Thanks for the tips, I will try and implement some of them into the garden. We do have a log pile already but a I will try and let some of the grass grow a bit longer and add some sort of feature involving loosely placed pacing stones in one corner.

Good luck with getting them back to the garden. The great thing about the suggestions made is that they will also attract other sorts of wildlife to the garden so it will be well worth the effort.