Why our amphibians need a helping hand

Frogs, toads and newts are among the most rewarding garden visitors you can encourage, and they ask for remarkably little: damp cover, a place to breed, and a bit of untidiness. In return they hoover up slugs, snails and other pests through the growing season. Yet the common toad has been slipping away from much of the British countryside in recent decades, and the humble garden has become genuinely important for them. Ponds, hedgerows and rough corners in our back gardens now form a patchwork of habitat across towns and villages.

The trouble is that our gardens are also full of quiet hazards. A toad is a slow, deliberate creature with short legs and no real ability to climb. A frog is quicker and a better jumper, but no match for a petrol strimmer. With a few thoughtful changes, you can turn a garden from a obstacle course into a genuine sanctuary.

Check the grass before the blades start

Long grass is one of the best things you can offer amphibians. It stays humid, shelters insects, and gives frogs and toads somewhere cool to sit out a hot day. It is also, unfortunately, exactly where they are hiding when you decide to cut it.

Never strim or mow long, damp grass without walking it first. Part the growth with a rake or a broom handle and look properly, particularly around the base of walls, fences and shrubs where the cover is thickest. Move anything you find to a shaded, damp spot well away from your working area.

• Mow from the middle outwards, rather than cutting the perimeter first. Amphibians caught in the centre are driven outwards towards safety instead of being boxed in against a fence.
• Raise the cutting height for the first pass, then lower it if you need to. Two gentler cuts are far safer than one scalping.
• Choose a dry afternoon when the grass is not wet. Fewer amphibians will be active near the surface, and you will see them more easily.
• Leave a margin of at least a metre around boundaries and under hedges, cutting it only every second or third year, or on rotation.
• Never leave cut grass in thick heaps in the border. It heats up and smothers whatever is beneath it.

Make the pond easy to enter and leave

A steep-sided pond is a trap. Toads in particular walk in and simply cannot get out, and they will drown. Frogs manage better, but a vertical butyl or plastic edge is still a struggle, especially for juveniles. Every wildlife pond needs at least one gentle exit route.

• Build a shallow beach on one side, sloping at roughly a twenty to thirty degree angle, using turf, pebbles or rough stone so there is something to grip.
• Add a ramp if the pond is already built. A piece of weathered timber, a rough stone slab or a strip of liner dressed with pebbles, angled from the water to the bank, works well.
• Keep the water level steady where you can, and top up with rainwater rather than tap water in summer.
• Avoid netting over the pond surface. It tangles birds, hedgehogs and amphibians alike. If you must use it, peg it taut and raise it well above the water.
• Never empty a pond in summer. If maintenance is essential, do it in autumn and inspect the silt carefully for newts and hibernating frogs before you spread it.

Cover drains, gullies and other hidden traps

This is the hazard most people overlook. A road drain, a soakaway, an open gully at the bottom of a driveway or a gap between paving slabs is, to a toad, just a dark, damp hole worth investigating. Once in, it cannot get out.

Fit a mesh cover or grate over any gully you have, with openings no wider than about a centimetre. Check gully pots weekly through spring and autumn, when amphibians are on the move. If you find something, lift it out with a soft net and place it in damp shade, then rinse your hands. A rough strip of material left angled inside the pot gives anything that falls in a fighting chance of climbing out.

The same logic applies to buckets, watering cans, wheelbarrows, bins and empty plant pots left outside. Tip them upside down when not in use, and always look before you empty one.

Mind the small stuff: netting, pellets and pipes

Several everyday garden items cause more harm than any predator. Fruit cage netting and pond netting should be pegged taut and held at least thirty centimetres above the ground, so animals pass underneath rather than through. Slug pellets containing metaldehyde are lethal to amphibians, as well as to birds and hedgehogs; hand-picking, beer traps or nematode treatments do the job without the collateral damage.

Be careful with weedkillers and pond treatments near water, and avoid spraying on damp evenings when frogs are out hunting. Coiled hosepipes left on the ground make snug hiding places, so uncoil them carefully. Compost heaps are wonderful for amphibians, but always fork the surface before turning them.

Build in a few safe havens

Once the hazards are dealt with, add the things that make a garden genuinely good for amphibians. A log pile in dappled shade, a heap of leaf litter in a quiet corner, a stack of stone, and a patch of rough, uncut grass will all be used. Toads favour drier, sheltered retreats, so a clay pot laid on its side under a shrub or a purpose-dug toad hole makes an excellent summer home.

Resist the urge to tidy everything in autumn. Leaf litter, seed heads and hollow stems are winter accommodation, and frogs may well hibernate in the mud at the bottom of your pond or beneath a shed. A little managed neglect, checked over carefully before you reach for the mower, is the kindest thing you can offer them.