Thank you Fetters. Really good post. Quite timely for us as DH has suggested putting in a garden pond. My first question was, "What about the mosquitoes?" I was intrigued by the mention of Lemon Eucalyptus. E maculata sounded somewhat familiar so I assumed we call it something else down here. I googled it and this is what I found. E maculata is known as Spotted Gum or Honey Gum (good for bees). E citriodora is known as Lemon-Scented Gum. And there is a hybrid E maculata citriodora. Recently these particular gums have been reclassified from Eucalyptus to Corymbia (useful to know in case the nurseries change the labels). I debated whether to mention the next bit. In some areas they are getting a reputation as an invasive weed. It's hard to know when such a reputation is truly warranted. (I have some birch trees, which are most definately not indigenous to my area, and I do get seedlings coming up, but after all these years my birches haven't taken over the nearby bushland. Or is that because they have no chance against the Patterson's Curse, which was once an introduced garden flower.) I suppose all I can say is do some research if you're thinking of planting one. Perhaps conditions in the areas of the US where they are grown are such that they are happy enough to grow okay but not so happy that they get out of control. And the good news is if you change your mind after you've planted one, it apparently makes really good timber. Hello OzOrganic. Sorry to hear about your landlord issue. Don't get me started on that subject. Hope you find a solution soon.

I did get your link to work, just had to search from the main page. I do have some goldfish in the pond and probably will have more after this spring. Started off with 2 and now have 20 so will give some to a local pet shop probably and give some to friends. I love the toads and my one "pet" frog that made residence. The kids from the neighborhood love watching the cycle of life from mating, eggs, tadpoles, all the way to adults and some of the babies you can even regognize to adulthood by their odd coloring every now and then. Those ones get names. I'm so excited for my first sets of the southern leopard eggs though. We have parrotfeather, hornwart apleanty and iris for the bog and 2 lilly plants and add water hyacinth in the summer. Probably will add in a couple weeks because don't do well if added to early. BTW--The toads do use the lillies, especially the babies during their inbetween stages. We'll often find them still with pointy tails on the pads. We also keep various other plants in the bog that "feeds" down to the pond, usually canna, elephant ear or impatience.

Thanks for the ?encouragement! This is the second year that our old resident toad has met another toad (from where?) at our pond & made such a racket every night, laid eggs & tadpoles hatched; but neither last year or this year (so far!) have we ever seen any of the hatchling toadlets ,, anywhere. I did notice just before everything disappeared that some of th tadpoles had turned beige while the rest were still black ... was this a transition stage I wonder? I did chec the filter when I cleaned it(just a home-made Skippy filter & quilt batting tucked around the submerged pump but couldn't see any trapped tadpoles in amongst the trapped algae, etc.! Which is worse: the 'love songs' of the toads or the frogs? We are not near a body oif water so don't think we'dever have frogs in our yard ... the toads ae enough!

Nice pictures!! The frog is great. Thats really cool that you got to observe it from the tadpole stage to a frog. Have seen a few tree frogs lately. I always love seeing them. I usually try to put them in the greenhouse but rarely see them again. Im sure there is more food outside. Always have lots of toads, tx horned lizards in there, and the occasional snake.