Dragons in your Garden - garden with care

Dragons in your Garden

Help amphibians and reptiles near you: Gardening with care!

The garden can be a hazardous place for amphibians and reptiles so it's important you and your neighbours garden with care. Here are some tips on how to reduce the risk of harm to these creatures.

Common frogs, particularly, like to sit in long grass in the summer months, so be very careful when mowing the lawn, especially if you've noticed froglets recently emerging from the pond. Carefully walk the area you're planning to mow before you start. Any amphibians or reptiles in your garden should be disturbed by your footfalls and will move on.

Avoid the use of pond tonics and garden chemicals as the effects on amphibians are still unknown. Even organic products can disturb the natural balance of a pond. Also, many amphibians (and slow-worms) are excellent natural pest-controllers and pesticides remove their prey.

Cats are a particular predator of amphibians and reptiles in urban areas. You can reduce the likelihood of them, and other predators, catching animals by increasing the number of hiding places in your garden: make sure there are cracks within rockeries, openings around your compost heap or add a pond for amphibians to flee into when startled.

Garden netting can trap and kill wildlife. Grass snakes in particular, when going in and out of ponds, may become entangled in pond netting with a mesh size of less than 5cm.

Be wary of paving slabs near the pond during summer. On sunny days emerging amphibians can quickly dry out and die on hot paving slabs. You can stop this happening by covering these areas temporarily with a damp towel or moist lawn roll, or making sure there is plenty of planting up to the edge of the pond.