Cool pic....he looks to be quite happy in your garden.

Well obviously he's getting enough to eat! I wish I had one of those. We have so many raccoons, etc. I don't think one would last long. We do have a lot of lizards though. Thanks for the picture.

Great picture! Last time I saw something like that in my garden, the neighbor called 911 and the sheriff came. I guess my scream was a little loud. My 8 year old came running out of the house. She thought I'd finally had my "nervous breakdown".

Lol Gesila. I hate frogs/toads too. They just give me the creeps. I don't know why. I react the same towards them as I do snakes. I know they're beneficial to the garden, but.............! If it surprises me, I'll yipe and run for the house. I'm usually done gardening for a while after that. Nice picture, though.

Great picture! I have been so tickled by all the toad action in my garden this year. I do not appreciate being startled by them, I always love to see them,and I always invite them to eat all the slugs they can find! Today I saw the cutest small green frog. A first for that species. I much prefer toads and frogs to the snakes I was running into earlier in the spring.

I did some reading and found that this is an Eastern American Toad. They need a pool of water to breed in so I am going to put one in for him in a newly expanded hosta bed and plant hostas all around it for him. I wouldn't mind having more toads to wipe out my slugs for me.

Great picture, Frank. I've seen several this year around the garden- I have to admit, they scare the beejesus out of me every time because they don't move til the very last second and they are so hard to see until they do. I also worry that my dog will get one and get sick. But I have more affection for them than I do garter snakes, that's for sure. I wish I could say I notice that they keep the slugs down, but find I still have plenty of those!

I want one! I'm even thinking about going to the pet store and asking them if they have any to sell....
Karen

Hope he gets his fill. Seeing lots of toads here the last couple of years.

Paul

When I was a child, I'd spend my summers at my grandmother's home on the Fox River. She had sandy soil at the back of her house in an area shaded by birch trees.

One day while digging in the sand, I discovered, much to my horror, that toads like to bury themselves beneath the surface to keep cool...

He definitely looks happy. Wish I had toads here in the heart of the city instead of rabbits and chipmunks.

Endearing photo, I just want to give him a nice pat!

We have tons of toads, hope they stay, as my new cat wants to chase them. (Not good, toad saliva can kill a cat in 30 minutes, so I'm always worrying.)

The cat is successfully keeping away the chipmunks and groundhogs this year....unfortunately, my personal JFK bird airport is experiencing a downturn...kitty loves to await their landings under the feeders.

I just learned here that the toads keep the slugs at bay, I hadn't realized that. It's certainly survival of the fittest around here.

I am working on installing it for my toad today. Six feet from a huge Silver Maple. I am taking pics of the process for Ken since I know how much he loves Maples. :) There's just a few roots I have to cut out.

After the initial startled jump, I always am thrilled to see a toad. None yet this year, sadly.

As for the garter snake that was lying casually on my basement floor -- not thrilled at all -- there was screaming, a broom, the "Grabber," a very deep cardboard box, and general anxiety.

Really - in my BASEMENT???? Was that really necessary?

I'll pass on an idea you might like. I don't have to state how great it is to have toads in our hosta beds. I use old clay pots half buried in soil to give them shelter. In other posts, people have talked about what kind of tags they use to label their hosta. My problem with tags is that when cleaning up I tend to pull them out. If you take a clay pot, spray a splash of light colored outdoor Krylon on it, write the hostas name in the splash with a paint pen, then bury it near the named hosta half in the ground with the name facing you, you have a label thant can't be raked up, looks very garden friendly, and attracts toads. What more can one ask?

In hot weather I fill a couple of clay saucers full of water for the toads, and have lots of them and few slugs. I don't know where they lay their eggs. They may migrate to my property from a creek a half mile away and go back to breed. All I know is that I have toads and they make me smile. You don't have to make pets of them. I stop mowing when one is crossing my lawn and let it pass.

Les

I love frogs and toads. We have quite a few toads in our yard, no frogs, though I hear tree frogs in the spring somewhere in the neighborhood. This past Sunday we had an invasion of tiny baby toads, literally thousands of them, hopping through the yard and on the driveway--everywhere! We had our new patio dug out two days before and the outside edges of the patio we had trenches dug out three feet deep and the poor little babies were falling into these trenches. We tried to save as many as we could, but more and more kept coming and we finally gave up. The following day, this past Monday, the concrete guys came and poured the concrete for our patio, and so many babies died in those trenches. It makes me sad to think about it, but the yard still has hundreds of baby toads hopping around, and I have to be careful where I step so I don't step on them.

Karen

They definitely migrate in the spring. I can see where people think it has rained toads. It is more obvious in warmer climes where spring rains seem to put them on the move. In northern Arkansas I have seen them covering roads as they migrated at night by the thousands. Regarding tree frogs, if you find one they are so cute you have to fight the tendancy to want to pick it up. I don't recommend it. Their defense is to urinate and their body mass must be 1/2 bladder or more.

It only took me about 8 hours to dig the hole for the preformed fountain basin. It was a bit of a work out. This is what I have to deal with everytime I plant anything. To add to the trouble some lazy person buried big chunks of old concrete sidewalk all over the place.
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Wow....quite a pile of roots you have there. Looks like that little hatchet got a workout.

Good work, but hard...at least we have nice, cooler weather for it this week. Hope you will post a pic when you have the fountain up and running!

When I lived in Arkansas I had 3" of topsoil and 3" of shelf rock. I never dug a hole without using a rockbar. I grew a nice hydranga from a leaf cutting once and after a year of nurturing it I planted it. It took me about 2 hours to dig a nice hole to plant it in. The clay dirt below was a greenish-grey. The soil did not perculate at all. When I put in my 9'x14' pond by my deck my grandson, 2 son-in-laws, myself and most of a case of Bud and it took a day to dig and grade the hole. My heart is with you. But the toads are worth it. Slugs - yecht!

Les

A picture of one of hundreds of baby toads hopping around our yard.

Eat lots of mosquitoes, little ones. Eat lots of mosquitoes.

Karen

Yeah!

Is this gardening with toads still pretty much the topic? I hope so because when we moved 4 years I had a great army which took care of our slugs and other insects. I even wanted to collect and move them but my daughter convinced me I was a little close to crazy, so I didn't.

I wish you could send for them like you cans for ladybugs.

chris

FNJ, we had the same thing behind our garage. Some owner at some point threw a bunch of cinder blocks back there and buried them. After we purchased our home and began landscaping, we found buried toys, rugs, garden tools, garden art, etc. At least it keeps things interesting.

I see all those pots of hostas just waiting to be planted! Can't wait to see the finished product.

I had almost 60 new hostas that I overwintered in pots. I got 17 of them planted last week then I went and bought 17 new ones. It's a vicious cycle. I probably have 40 more pots of hostas on the driveway that I need to get rid of along with some clumps of things I need to dig out to get rid of to make room. Adding the toad pond is a part of expanding the beds as far as I can while leaving just a 2' wide path through the middle. I just went out and counted, I have 61 new ones that have to be planted. I keep them all grouped by mature size so when I plant I can grab things easily as I put something together.

Frank, when I re-did one of my gardens 10 days ago, I kept saying to my friend, "I'll be right back, I'm going shopping". What that really meant was: I'll be right back, I'm going to get a plant that I already have sitting in a pot....or I'm going to dig one up that has been maturing while I waited for the right spot. This weekend, I am going to gather and alphabetize all of my hostas that are still in nursery pots and do a re-count, as I did lose some over the winter. Some were very slow to emerge, so even 3 weeks ago I didn't know if some were going to make it or not.

My list is done by mature size listed in the Hostapedia.

Hostas in pots (I did get 17 of these planted)

D Blue Mouse Ears Supreme 8"x19"
D Cat's Eye 5"x14"
D *Cheatin Heart* 8"x18"
D Cherish ??
D Chirp ??
D Corkscrew 8"x18"
D Frosted Mouse Ears ??
D Gemstone 7"x22"
D Green Mouse Ears 8"x19"
D Holy Mouse Ears ??
D Imp ??
D Lakeside Baby Face 8"x26"
D Lakeside Zinger 6"x17"
D Little Devil ??
D Masquerade 6"x18"
D Slim and Trim 5"x12"
D *Tears of Joy* 4"x??
D Trifecta 6"x10"
D White Dove 6"x17"

DS Baby Bunting 11"x26"
DS Goober 10"x24"
DS Hope 10"x24"
DS *Lemon Frost* 10"x24"
DS Spartan Arrow 9"x14"

S Deja Blu 14"x20"
S Fire Island ??
S First Frost 14"x36"
S Golden Empress 14"x40"
S Hyuga Urajiro ??
S *Little Aurora* 14"x40"
S Little Bo Peep 12"x26"
S Lovely Loretta 14"x36"
S Malabar ??
S *Maui Buttercups* 12"x24"
S Miss Ruby ??
S Moonstruck ??x18"
S Pineapple Juice 12"x30"
S Prairie Sky 14"x?
S Shade Finale ??
S Wylde Green Cream 12"x30"
S Yin 12x26

SM Ann Kulpa 19"x44"
SM Atlantis 20"x48"
SM Band of Gold 21"x31"
SM Dance with Me 16"x40"
SM *Dawn's Early Light* 19"x47"
SM Diamond Tiara 18"x42"
SM Grecian Vase 18"x53"
SM *Hadspen Blue* 18"x48"
SM *Invincible* 20"x48"
SM Lakeside Kaleidoscope 16"x40"
SM Luna Moth 18"x30"
SM *Katie Q* 18"x45"
SM On the Border 18x30
SM Patriot's Fire 18"x45"
SM Silver Moon 19"x50"
SM Sparkling Burgundy 18"x36"
SM *Summer Lovin* 19"x45"
SM Veronica Lake 17x50

M Climax 22"x48"
M *Dust Devil* 23"x50"
M *Minuteman* 23"x50"
M Ripple Effect ?
M Woop Woop ??

ML Abiqua Drinking Gourd 24"x46"
ML Antioch 24"x56"
ML American Sweetheart 24"x41"
ML Jimmy Crack Corn 24"x60"
ML Popcorn ??x24"

L American Icon 26"x75"
L Earth Angel 26"x60"
L Hirao Majesty 26"x67"
L Liberty 26"x63"
L montana Aureomarginata 27"x68"
L Queen of the Seas 29"x?

VL *Blue Angel* 32"x70"
VL Frosted Jade 32"x63"
VL Ulysses S. Grant 36"x70"

I like lists, especially a hosta shopping list. I did manage to get my Want list to a number below my Have list. Have 195, Want 187. lol

Hmm. Hallson's has Atlantis listed as 30"h x 70"w, VL. The Registry lists 30x70 also. Where did you get that number?

Steve

I got almost all of the sizes from the Hostapedia. I kind of thought Atlantis was bigger. It is about 24" in the pot.

Here's the Toad Spa. I used 15 varieties.
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I used American Sweetheart, Golden Scepter(temp filler), Ultramarine, Golden Tiara(temp filler), Earth Angel, Gemstone, Sparkling Burgundy, Yin, Spartan Arrow, Cat's Eyes, Praying Hands, Little Bo Peep, Chirp, Lakeside Zinger & Blue Mouse Ears Supreme.

Very nice, Frank! I hope your toad tells a buddy or two to join him in his new spa!

I had a similar experience when I planted my two flats of impatiens in a raised rock bed. Four or five times as I pulled my trowel out of the soil to dig a hole to insert a plug, I pulled out a very upset toad who was resting under the soil! I only let out a startled scream the first time . . .

Very cute. I want! :)

Karen

Love, love LOVE your toad spa, Frank!!
Karen

Love the Spa. How far away is your source of power for the pump? You hide it very well.

In my back garden the old cement block garage became a Teahouse, the heat pump drip catches in a clay saucer and hopefully is not too hot to provide a little liquid for the birds and butterflies. Here is a picture of the spot where the air exhaust and the drip/condensate exhaust go into the flower beds.

Constant drip drip, which keeps the area wet, even though the air exhausted is warmer than I would like it to be.

We have toads, tree frogs, and also numerous snakes. I leave them be most of the time, since the snakes can be king snakes (eat poisonous snakes), or rat snakes which get fat off of squirrels or rats. Our location not far from a bayou means snakes could well be moccasins, rattlers, or even the small deadly coral snakes. All are native here.

In fact, during the drought earlier this summer, I had a couple of big pots elevated above the ground, and when I dumped them out, a small snake was curled up in the bottom, having entered through the drain hole. And when it is easy to dig the soil, like it might be a cream puff, I now realize that some creature has tunneled it already, and watch out in case I encounter a snake or some other varmint.
Especially around my sweet tater plants.

Frank & Jim, Have we seen pics of the finished pond and hostas? Nance

The last two pictures I posted on Sun, Jun 12 show the finished project. You can see the power cord in those pics before I mulched over it. Power comes from the yard lamp post that is about 10 feet behind the pond.