Ponds, compost heaps and log piles are all great for wildlife, and will help encourage newts, frogs and toads to make your garden their home.

Make a pond

All amphibians require ponds to breed, so a good first step is to provide one! Visit our wildlife gardening page to see how to create ponds large, small or even in a container. Don’t add fish though, as they will eat any spawn they come across. 

Newts carefully wrap each egg they lay in a leaf, so adding plants with broad leaves, like water mint Mentha aquatica and water forget-me-not Myosotis scorpioides will help to persuade them that your pond is the perfect place to breed.  

If you can’t create a pond 

Whatever the size of your outdoor space, you can still help amphibians, even if they have to breed elsewhere. Providing shelter in a damp area (like as a shaded log pile), a rockery, compost heap, or even underneath your shed – anywhere with lots of nooks and crannies are great for amphibians to overwinter in. 

A bog garden can be created by adapting an existing soggy area, or from scratch, either at the edge of a pond, or as a standalone feature – even in a container! Like a pond, it should attract amphibians and even reptiles such as grass snakes. Dragonflies and damselflies will perch on the taller grasses, and bees and butterflies will flit around the flowers.

Other ways to help

You can also help amphibians by supporting the invertebrates they eat. Leave a wild patch in your garden, tidy up less (hurrah), and plant some native wildflowers. See our Action for Insects page for a free guide to help you take action.