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Talkback: Hopper and crawler

Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
in Talkback
With my new job not far ahead now, i am looking forward to the landscaping part and putting my own ideas to good use.
I had, about 4 months ago, aquired 2 of those green plastic ponds, which i couldn't wait to place in the garden, making it a more tranquil place to relax. Since putting the pond in with a lovely trickling waterfall, the frogs that have appeared is quite astonishing. Most nights that i'm in the garden, the lawn always seems to be croaking away and i often here the odd splash from the pond.

They are nice to have in the garden, especially for keeping the bug population down, but they can get in the way when cutting the lawn, oops.

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  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    I still have some tadpoles in my pond are they doomed?? legs are appearing but slowly, i think its because its a new pond this year & maybe now enough food?? any ideas.
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    i have several frogs in a range of sizes and they are all called maureen after a friend who was very scared of them. she passed away recently and since then i have been accompanied in the garden by a gang of maureens - i am sure she is just checking on what i am doing.
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    Sandie, I too have a friend who does not like frogs - I may call my frogs, who I adore, Margaret from now on!
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    I've been taken by surprise by our resident toad a few times over the last year, we moved in 2 years ago and didn't make our aquaintances with Mr Toad until late spring last year. Throughout this year we've met recently and he actually seems to live in my green house! Throughout the summer the greenhouse door was open for a lot of the time but now it needs to be shut to protect the overwintering tender plants. I am watching him regularly and he still seems extremely heathly but I am wondering whether I should evict him now before the weather changes. Any ideas?
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    It wss lovely to read of Richard's garden and the amphibians who live there and also that he is encouraging his young son to take and interest in them. Not so lovely was the tale of the chase up the garden! This poor creature was obviously frantic to get away! This was a poor example to his little boy who must now think that frogs and toads are some sort of mechanical amusement for him.
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    Reply to Jennie: There was no 'chase', more of a 'follow' up the garden. We've often found frogs before and they sometimes sit still for us to peer at closely. This one just kept hopping and we regarded it from a polite distance.
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    I know that down here in Cornwall we are a little milder then the rest of the UK, but I was amazed this week to hear frogs croaking outside of my window - in late November! I do wonder what will happen to them if we get a sudden, sharp, icy snap. Do they hibernate deeper or is it curtains for them?
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    I built Toad Hall for our toad after I pulled down his previous abode. under a sack of rubble. Its a large piece of broken flowerpot. He seemed to like it last summer and could often be spotted basking in the doorway.

    This week Im gardening for my daughter and son in law in Kent. They are a pair of woosies. Handed me the gardening gloves and asked me to remove the frog. Well its a toad and it now has a nice home at the end of the garden. Ive tried to build toad a scaled down version of the bug house in this months GW Mag. Didnt have the pallets so another broken flowerpot and some branches had to do. But...I do have a couple of pallets at home in sunny Shropshire and the bricks, tiles and roof crests... my better half makes them in small quantities. I think the bug house is wonderful.

  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    I love frogs and toads but it can be quite disconcerting to have one leap out at moments when I am least expecting it. Last Autumn, I decided to repair a crack on one of the steps up to my front door. I had opened it up, in preparation, but just as I was mixing the mortar, a frog hopped in through the crack. Panic. One year on, and I am still waiting to do the repair in case I entomb some poor little creature. I feel I owe them. I presume that it is down to their appetite that I have no problem with slugs, even on my Hostas. I have found that tiny newts like to overwinter under my pots.
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    I have made the aquaintance of quite a few frogs in my garden they are so very varied in colour. I have had one which was nearly black and another the colour of a new conker just out of the pod! If they stay still long enough I try to photograph them. I now have a whole rogues gallery of frogs.
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