Small pond maintenance

[Butterflyflytoday]

I have this small pond in my garden, it’s been here for about 5 years.

I saw newts last year so planted some water mint for them, it’s taking over!
What sort of maintenance should I be doing with this little pond? Should I top up the water too?

I’d do nothing until the Autumn as there will be frog and Newt spawn in there, also other creatures.
In dry weather too it up with rainwater from a water but, if you have one. Tap water has chemicals in it so not ideal. In the Autumn you could thin out the plants, but leave it on the edge so anything caught up can crawl back into the water.

There's a great Facebook group Wildlife Ponds UK - some real experts on there who will help you out.

Leave well alone till autumn. If you must top it up, do so with rain water only, the nutrients in tap water will give an algal bloom.

Newts lay their eggs singly on leaves which they fold over to protect the egg. That makes it really difficult to do anything in summer.

Are you sure that’s water mint and not one of the other mints?

do nothing until october (ish)
then rake out leaves and some surface plant material. leave that next to the pond for a couple of days so that small animals can get back into the water.
before spring do the same again, but go a bit deeper.

and if you don't have access to rain water (no rain like last summer...) to fill the pond then fill containers/water butt/watering cans with tap water and leave it for a day or two before tipping it into the pond.

I also have a small pond and was wondering the same. We don't have frogs in it but I want to encourage them but don’t think there's enough cover for them. It's a fairly new pond, only been in a couple of years
The marginals I have planted have taken over. I was going to cut them back but they have started re-growing. I have some blanket weed which will need keeping on top of but will wait until autumn.

Frogs tadpoles don’t need much water, but a few more non invasive water plants would be good. Ours like living in the roots of an Arum Lily ( it’s too waterlogged to flower and has dense roots and leaves).
Personally I’d top up the water so I can’t see the liner, rain water of course. We have a hose from a water butt that feeds the pond with rain water.