I have five big regular frogs, 1 medium, and 1 small. They were up almost all winter until February when it was very cold, but we also had moths and worms during the warm winter. They went in the pond all of February and the first week in March but are all up now. No losses. The earthworms are out in force tonight with all the rain and today it was 75 degrees, but tomorrow is supposed to be 40, and then will warm back up. I only had a skim of ice for a few days this winter in the large pond and had 10" of ice on the small pond on the north side of the house when the pump and thermopond failed, but after I opened up a hole and reached down I felt a live frog swim from my hand. I saw that one last week alive and well. Knock on wood I've not lost a frog yet due to winter, but I think a heron got one of my original 6 frogs. The biggest frog is 8 or more inches now - a real monster. I'm sorry you lost your frogs - I know I would be sad if that happened. You get attached after having them around for years. CT

You won't need rocks actually IN the pond for the toads. They're air breathers, and they will prefer to sit in a sheltered, cool area outside the pond during the day. When you initially fill your pond, go ahead and use tap water. The chlorine will evaporate before the toads and frogs find the new pond. But when you need to "top off" the pond, that is add water after some of it has evaporated, you can "age" the water by putting water in a bucket and allowing it to sit out for 24 hours or so before adding it to the pond. That allows time for the chlorine to evaporate. Yes, you are correct. A liner is a strip of (usually) black rubber, very flexible, and can be shaped to the size you want. Mosquito dunks are donut shaped objects that you place in the water to prevent mosquito larvae from hatching. You can find them at any garden center, but if you have a small pump in your pond to keep the water moving, you won't need them. Mosquitos cannot lay their eggs on water that has a current. If you can get at least two feet wide and 12 inches deep on your pond, I think you'll be okay. Remember, the smaller you go, the bigger the water loss due to evaporation, and that will make it harder to maintain a healthy balance for the tads. You will get algae in the pond. Tadpoles eat algae, so if there is none, you can buy algae wafers at pet stores to feed the little guys.

First of all, according to various people, you may want to reconsider keeping your catfish and pond fish together. I posted a link below - or you can do a search yourself on the subject. In our pond in Upstate NY (similar in zone to you), I remove all my tropical plants in early October. We cut back our hardy water lilies which are planted directly in the pond and drop to the bottom the other hardy plants. Our pond is 3 feet deep and approx. 3,000 gallons so the fish overwinter in the pond. I don't know what you should do with a pond that small. We purchased a plastic 100 gallon tub at Country Max for our tropical plants, and I think that would work well for your fish if you decide to bring them indoors. You would have to add a pump or air stone for aeration and something for filtration. My husband altered the "plug" with a faucet and we can drain it pretty easily with a garden hose into our basement sewer come spring. Here is a link that might be useful: catfish in a pond

It's interesting digging down into boggy ground because you go through layers of different type materials. In my case, first there is a 6" rooty loose peat layer, where the material falls apart and look dark brown and fibery and woody, damp to wet. There is also old pieces of wood in it. Then, below that, is a totally different material thick that is dark gray to black in color, very compressed, almost clay-like, dry yet sticky, and is difficult to break apart. I think it is compressed muck. Then, below that is another type that is different again. It is greenish in color, slimy, wettish again, and has long fibers in it that look like grass or sedge. This looks lower quality to me. I haven't gone deep enough to hit substrate mineral soil, the above is no deeper than about 2 feet down. I'm thinking some of this material must be very old, ancient, and began to accumalate thousands of years ago. No mastadon or wooly mammoth bones yet tho :-)