F IS FOR FROGS
My neighbour has a wonderfully rambunctious garden with brush, trees, grasses and flowers all living perfectly happily alongside vegetables and a patch of lawn.
One of the nicest things about her garden are the water features. There are numerous ponds, some with fountains some without but all have a tranquility and beauty about them brought about by the plantings surrounding them and in them.
The main purpose of the ponds is to attract frogs to her garden. We live in suburbia but neither of us believe that that means we should forgo visitations from our native fauna, so we supply the habitat and hope that a passing frog/bird/mammal will pop in, love it and stay.
Our first little home maker was the common marsh frog. A prolific breeder who has a rather disappointing mating call, which you can listen to on this site (http://frogs.org.au/frogs/species/Limnodynastes/peroni/. ) We started hearing him calling out to his partner whenever it started to rain and sure enough the next morning the evidence of their midnight daliance was covertly hidden under a floating leaf. Within the next couple of days the tadpoles (taddies) would emerge and we would have the pleasure of watching them grow.
The next and most exciting frog to grace the garden was the Perons tree frog. His distinctive call is loud and proud (http://frogs.org.au/frogs/species/Litoria/peroni/) and thanks to the ponds they are very happily ensconsed in our suburban landscape and have migrated to many other surrounding back yards. Their taddies have a prominent orange stripe down their sides and they have an angular shaped head. They grow to about the size of a grape before legs appear so they are easy to see in the ponds.
I have to be so careful now, if I move a brick or a piece of wood or a bowl of water invariably there is an amphibian of some sorts sitting under there. We have a Perons living in a hole in our wooden fence, I find them swimming in the dogs' water bowl and one has even been spotted on the Hills Hoist (clothesline).
They are very cheeky and not at all afraid of us. We can even take photos with a flash and they dont blink an eye.
F IS ALSO FOR FEBRUARY
My least favourite month of the year. February is usually hot, humid and horrible the only bearable thing about it is that it is a short month. The veggies dont like the humidity any more than I do and all are looking a bit mangy by the time March comes along.
One of the nicest things about her garden are the water features. There are numerous ponds, some with fountains some without but all have a tranquility and beauty about them brought about by the plantings surrounding them and in them.
The main purpose of the ponds is to attract frogs to her garden. We live in suburbia but neither of us believe that that means we should forgo visitations from our native fauna, so we supply the habitat and hope that a passing frog/bird/mammal will pop in, love it and stay.
Our first little home maker was the common marsh frog. A prolific breeder who has a rather disappointing mating call, which you can listen to on this site (http://frogs.org.au/frogs/species/Limnodynastes/peroni/. ) We started hearing him calling out to his partner whenever it started to rain and sure enough the next morning the evidence of their midnight daliance was covertly hidden under a floating leaf. Within the next couple of days the tadpoles (taddies) would emerge and we would have the pleasure of watching them grow.
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| Peron's tree frog |
I have to be so careful now, if I move a brick or a piece of wood or a bowl of water invariably there is an amphibian of some sorts sitting under there. We have a Perons living in a hole in our wooden fence, I find them swimming in the dogs' water bowl and one has even been spotted on the Hills Hoist (clothesline).
They are very cheeky and not at all afraid of us. We can even take photos with a flash and they dont blink an eye.
F IS ALSO FOR FEBRUARY
My least favourite month of the year. February is usually hot, humid and horrible the only bearable thing about it is that it is a short month. The veggies dont like the humidity any more than I do and all are looking a bit mangy by the time March comes along.
Frogs are fun. It must be cool to have a pond that the frogs visit. It is strange to think of February as hot--it's snowy, cold weather that time of year here. Thanks for posting.
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