The most common type of amphibians are frogs, toads or newts. They can be very beneficial to your garden and can be encouraged by building a suitable pond habitat in which tadpoles could live and grow up. There are two types of native frogs and toads and three types of newt in Britain. As their name says the Common Frog and Common Toad and distributed widely over the country and are in abundance in gardens that offer good living conditions. The two types of newt that are also widely distributed are the Common or Smooth Newt and Palmate Newt. A few gardens, especially those situated in the south east of England may hold the Scarce Great Crested Newt or the non-native Green Marsh Frog. Two very uncommon types of amphibian are the Natterjack Toad and the Pool Frog and these will not usually be found in the garden. You should try and encourage small insects and spiders into your garden as this is what these water loving creatures eat.

The one key thing needed in order to house amphibians such as frogs and toads, is a small pond area that has at least one sloping side so as to allow young and developed amphibians to easily leave the water during mid-summer, at which the tadpole stage would be over. If, however, you cannot install a new pond with sloping sides, fit a ramp of some sort in one of the corners and then cover it in chicken wire. It would be extremely beneficial to the pond creatures living in your garden if you planted some plants around the edge of the pond to protect them from predator birds as the plants will provide cover for these amphibians. The amphibians need a place in which they can rest and breathe out of water, this can be provided by adding some lilies to the pond. If you want to make it a bit more permanent, you could stack up a pile of rocks or place a log so that it is half in/half out of the water in order to assist them.

To attract newts - which are probably the most aquatic of the three amphibian creatures that have been mentioned - you should let plants around the pond grow a bit. By letting grass grow over the pond edge and by slowly introducing submerged aquatic plants that are non-invasive, Newts will find it easier to settle down and lay eggs. You should definitely try and plant narrow leaved plants as these are what the newts lay their eggs on, by placing one egg between each folded leaf. Amphibians hibernate towards late autumn until the following spring, during this time, they will seek a quiet and sheltered place so as to hibernate properly without disruption. To provide sufficient shelter, you could pile up some logs but at the same time, frogs, toads and newts will find suitable places to hibernate at the bottom of hedges, compost heaps and sometimes, under stones or at the bottom of the pond, without human intervention. Instead of introducing amphibians to the pond, you should let it become colonized naturally by water dwelling creatures that are already present in the surrounding area.