The old pond was in need of a revamp even though the birds and frogs still enjoyed their visits to it.  Gardens by Water Gems did all the work and the initial planting and I love it!  We just wanted it in the same position as the old one but we needed one wider and deeper with a few shelves for planting.
In the old pond the frogs would spawn at the right hand side.  The birds would bathe at the left  hand side and they didn’t disturb the frogs so the frogs would get a chance to hang about with their pals at the surface of the pond in amongst the plants.  In the new pond the frogs now spawn on the left hand side and the birds bathe on both sides so the poor frogs don’t hang about as much but we still get loads of frog spawn in the spring.  I don’t particularly like the pigeons bathing in it as they tend to leave a grey scum on the surface.  Hey ho.  A couple of years on and we are still wondering what to do with the wall area behind the pond.  In the summer it has Purple loosestrife growing in front of it but after that has died down the wall looks very bare and scruffy.There used to be ivy covering that area and although it looked great (I have even seen frogs climbing  up it) it just dropped debris and leaves into the pond and we were always trying to stop it growing into the pond.  I could possibly put some sort of screen over it but there is very little room between the Purple loosetrife and the wall.  Don’t know.  The Water soldiers can be a bit thuggish so they are constantly being pulled out but there is always one or two babies that come back.  The duckweed can also get out of hand unless I skim it off regularly.