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An Expert Offers Seven Tips for Your Outdoor Oasis

An outdoor pond for your reptiles can not only be a beautiful and unique feature in your yard or garden; it can be entertaining and fun too. Upkeep for a pond or stream is easier than you might think. If designed correctly, they are generally low maintenance, because when all the elements are in place, they work as a natural ecosystem that keeps the pond clean, healthy, and relatively pest free.

Steve Sandalis of Mystic Water Gardens, a top Los Angeles area water garden designer who has appeared on the Discovery Channel and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, uses reptiles in many of the ponds he designs for all types of yards and garden spaces. “There are several things to keep in mind when including reptiles in your pond,” Steve says. “It’s been my experience that turtles and frogs are more prone to wander when the water feature is too small, as opposed to a larger pond with more rocks and landscape.”

Steve’s top tips for adding a pond and keeping reptiles to your yard include:

1. When determining the size of the water feature – always go a little bigger than what you think you need, because once the landscaping grows in, your water feature shrinks in size. This is also key in discouraging your frogs and turtles from wandering.

2. If you plan to keep turtles in the pond, include a well-placed little island somewhere in the pond for the turtles to sun themselves.

3. When creating a low maintenance water feature – It is smart to construct it in a way that you are creating an ecosystem that works with Mother Nature and not against it. This includes incorporating the right balance of fish, animal and plant life. A biological filter and a mechanical skimmer also cuts down on maintenance.

4. It’s also important that the water feature have lots of aquatic plants so the reptiles feel safe and have plenty of cover. Hollowed out logs in and around the water give little hiding spots for the reptiles. Heavy terrestrial plants around the pond also give reptiles cover from prey.

5. To try and create a water feature that is placed strategically in the yard so that it can be viewed and enjoyed from the inside, which creates the ability to enjoy it year round, inside or out.

6. If you have children and are afraid for them to be around water – You can create a pondless waterfall, or create a feature with very little depth, which makes it much safer for the children to enjoy.

7. Plants in a water feature are extremely important. In addition to providing cover for your reptiles, plants help keep the water free from algae, because they absorb nutrients in the water, so the plants are competing with the algae for food.

With all the elements in place, a backyard pond can be just the place for your reptiles to enjoy all that nature has to offer.

More information and sample photos of pond and water garden designs can be found at mysticwatergardens.com.