Anja Murray: So many reasons to create a wildlife pond

Dig a pond and they will come — get ready to see dragonflies, frogs, whirligig beetles and more creatures 

Anja Murray: "Creating a pond is one of the most effective ways to combat declining diversity across Irish landscapes. Ponds and wetlands have been rapidly disappearing in recent decades despite an abundance of lakes and small water bodies. One academic study estimates that 90% of all wetlands across Ireland are now gone. Pond creation is a creative, rewarding and surprisingly effective way to make space for aquatic ecosystems that have been made so unwelcome across their former range."

I recently visited County Roscommon farmer, Tommy Earley, who seems to be hooked on ponds. The first pond he dug a decade ago was soon surrounded by bulrushes and decorated with water lilies, adorned with emerald- and crimson-coloured dragonflies, and from the very first spring, alive with frogs and frogspawn.