Tom Fisher is sharing his Buffalo, New York, garden with us today, including a feature in the garden that is popular with all sorts of visitors.
We have a very small prefab pond we bought a few years ago. The day we filled it a toad took up residence. Since then, we’ve added a couple of pondlets to create a small waterfall. Now every season the toads and frogs spawn at least twice a year, the birds bathe and drink from the waterfall, and three goldfish spend their summers in the pond then like snowbirds head south (to a basement tub) for the winter. It has truly been our best addition to the garden; it’s brought so much life and enjoyment to us and the creatures we didn’t even know were around us. I still don’t know where the frogs came from and how they found the pond. We run a 3-in-1 pond filter with the pond that we also take out with the fish in the fall, and the maintenance of the pond is almost nothing at all. I encourage you all to consider adding a pond. You might be surprised how even a little one can add so much.
One of the frog residents of the pond is nestled in the surrounding greenery.
Look closely at the trickle of water flowing through the pebbles and you’ll see countless tiny black tadpoles, a future generation of frogs or toads just getting started in the tiny garden pond.
The three goldfish that live in the pond during the summer come inside for the winter. In larger ponds they could overwinter outside, but a small pond in a cold climate can freeze solid, so these fish need a little winter vacation.
This view of the whole pond includes the series of pondlets above it that make a small series of waterfalls. Even the smallest garden has room for a little space like this.
Here’s the pond lit dramatically at night and surrounded by greenery and flowers.
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