Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Bonking in the garden

Frog pond design from Frog Watch

Even though the pond in the middle of the garden does looks nice, it's not why it's there. Its purpose is to make the garden hospitable to a diverse range of wildlife. The plan being that a diverse range of both predator and pray will keep the populations of all the garden inhabitants balanced. One pest predator I would love to see in the garden is frogs, but after reading this article from Frog Watch it looks like I am going to have to make a few changes to the pond before it will be considered an attractive home.

To the families disappointment, the article also warns about relocating frogs or tadpoles into a backyard pond. Not only is their legislation against it, which I didn't realise, but seldom is the relocation successful. It sounds like they are quite choosy little creatures, and like to select their home, not have one forced upon them. Which is quite disappointing as I think it unlikely for the frogs in our local creek to hop a couple hundred meters up the street and into our backyard. But we can live in hope. Regardless the pond still attracts birds and lizards, that apart from making a mess with the mulch and eating the strawberries, seem to be keeping the pests under control.

13 comments:

  1. Don't worry they will find you, our creek is 100s of metres away and we always have frogs in our pond. The most common one is one that makes a bok noise but I have no idea what it is. We rarely actually see them.

    Thanks for the seeds by the way - I was cursing at the weekend that I'd forgotten to order beetroot seeds and hey presto they were in the post Monday. :)

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    1. According to the article I was talking about "The Pobblebonk or Banjo Frog (Limnodynastes dumerili) is by far the best known garden frog in Victoria. Its loud resonant "Bonk" can be heard throughout most of the state." So maybe that is the frog in your garden.

      You are welcome re the seeds, but the thanks goes both ways. Thank you for supporting my business.

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  2. Build it and they will come! My pond has dried up at the moment and I have tiny green frogs living in the lettuces. I took a lettuce to work for a colleague and had to relocate the frog which came along for the ride.

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  3. I bet they do come, frogs love a pond. We just dug up a Pobblebonk in our potato patch yesterday. If you call to them when they are calling, they will bonk right back at you. Lots of rocks and plants for them to hide in is good, we rarely see ours in the pond (old bathtub filled with rocks and plants), but they are all over the garden.

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  4. I am miles from any water Jason and they found my pond. Some plants, a few hiding places and sunlight for the algae and they will arrive, you can bet on it.

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  5. Hi Jason, I have just discovered your blog, it looks like you're having some wonderful success in your garden. I want to put together a series of interviews with garden bloggers about how a new gardener could get started. If you're interested, can you please send me an email to eight dot acres dot liz at gmail dot com so I can explain the details? Cheers, Liz

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  6. Thank you everyone for leaving a comment that has inspired hope. The children will be very pleased to hear your comments. I still need to make a few mods to the pond, me think.

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  7. Ah what a lovely name - Pobblebonk, I will read the article when I get a minute. Have to go and plant some beetroot. ;-)

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  8. I built a frog bog at a primary school at the top of a hill...no creeks within at least 1 km. The frogs found it. Most frogs don't live in water, but around and near it, and even under the bark of trees. They just need it for breeding and for the bugs it brings for food.

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    1. That helps to explain how they get around. It still seems quite a leap in a suburban environment. No pun intended.

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  9. Ha ha! They'll drive you mad if the pond's near the house! Our dam is probably 400m away and we still hear them. I look forward to hearing about their arrival.

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    1. Yes it is 5 meter from the house, but a long way from the bedrooms.

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  10. I echo the comments, frogs can travel incredible distances to find the perfect place to live and breed. Don't be fooled into thinking that you have to customise the pond that you have to make it more attractive, we've had ponds living in the most obscure of places. We currently have about thirty tadpoles happily swimming around in our small kelkay water fountain, with mummy and daddy frogs around every now and again. The fountain is only about 2"x 2" and this is the third time in two years we've had them.

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