Talkback: Hopper and crawler - Talkback

25/10/2007 at 10:14

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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25/10/2007 at 17:57

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.

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26/10/2007 at 11:21

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.

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29/10/2007 at 10:15

Sandie, I too have a friend who does not like frogs - I may call my frogs, who I adore, Margaret from now on!

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30/10/2007 at 21:13

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?

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31/10/2007 at 01:13

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.

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31/10/2007 at 12:25

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.

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01/11/2007 at 21:52

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?

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02/11/2007 at 21:55

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.

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03/11/2007 at 11:37

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.

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03/11/2007 at 20:52

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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27/11/2007 at 19:52

I too have tadpoles in my "pond" - a discarded childs sand pit. Will they survive does anyone know?

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27/12/2007 at 17:05

I believe a type of frog stays as a tadpole over winter but I don't know if it is native to our country. Living where I do out on the moors we only have spring water in our house, it comes from further up the moors underground, there must have been a hatching? of frogs somewhere near because our water keeps going off in the house and sometimes in the barn where it is fed from a different spring.

One dark night I was getting ready for work (nights as a nurse) and went for a shower having just got up, No water my husband and I had to go out to our water tank in the dark, in the wind and rain (me in my dressing gown) take the water pipe out of the tank (my husband got soaked) I then fetched him a bottle brush to unblock the pipe with. When he had finished he threw the brush down to me saying the problem was solved, I had to use the torch to find the brush, you've guessed it! on the end of the brush a frog. It has happened many times since though we've usually managed to save the frog or sometimes it has unblocked itself, so we assume the frog swims off somewhere else.

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09/10/2008 at 18:53

Next to my compost bin I have a pile of logs left over from a major conifer hedge cutting session done a couple of years ago. I have been putting shrub trimmings on top of this heap for a year or two.

I decided to tackle this mini mountain and as I gently took it apart some lovely big fat toads jumped out at me - I nearly fell over in surprise! I have also found a toad in an old wheelbarrow that I havent used for some time. I must admit I thought you only found toads and frogs near ponds.

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26/05/2009 at 08:18

The first year I had my pond a frog found its way into it. Every year the frog population keeps growing to the extent that there is now no room for my five goldfish. Every year I fish out the frogs - don't get me wrong - I don't mind a few but it is getting ridiculous. I have still some escapees but I took at least fifty down to the local lake. Trouble is if there were over sixty this year and if left and they all came back next year with their offspring, I would have been overrun - and my pond is only a couple of feet wide by about three feet long!!! I believe they find their way back to their old breeding grounds so I still may have not gotten rid of them permanently.

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28/11/2011 at 18:30

I have disturbed several frogs this week too! I have covered my compost heap with 3 layers of carpet mis-shapes and a sheet of black plastic. I lifted the black plastic this week to add to my compost heap and there were 3 frogs sitting on top of the warm carpet! They found an ideal spot, and lots of slugs and snails to eat as well!

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