Oh yes I can. Is that Betty?

great pix! That little guy knows how to cool off!!

Love the picture.

Yes Jim, that is the LOVELY Betty.

Hah! Fun picture....thanks for sending it in. :)

I can too! Good mornin', Ms. Betty ...

Just too bad it looks like one of the invasive bullfrogs that are decimating southwestern native frog populations...

Patrick Alexander

Hello paalexan, This is the second post of mine you've been negative about. Maybe people are rude on the Indiana boards? Why don't you go back there?

LOL, no kidding!

Maybe he was just having a bad day. We all do. ;)

Easy

GT, this photo is very COOL! How many barrel ponds do you have?

Who is this paalexan and why does it say NM by his name if he's really from IN?

Isn't Betty a toad? And didn't she just show up in your ponds, GT? I know we have several LARGE toads that look like Betty who evidently live out here in the natural desert (we are not in a development nor even near one). Each of the 18 years we have lived here, they show up in early summer to sit under our porch light at night and eat bugs until we turn it off and go to bed. They also have always found their way into our little kiddy swim pool that we keep for the dogs. Once the pond went in 5 years ago, they moved there for splish splashing and other antics. I believe they hibernate all year in burrows only coming out in the summer -- we have never seen them except during June - Sept, they seem to leave once the monsoons break. Our current "big boy" is at least 5-6" across.

I have to believe this person is mistaken about your Betty toad.... oh well, maybe he'll learn that big toads live here naturally too. They're called Sonoran Toads or Colorado River Toads and they do love the water even if they are not frogs. And I'm pretty sure they are indiginous to this region.

Kathleen, Betty is indeed a Bull frog :) She was purchased as a wee tadpole 4 yrs ago along with her mate Buford. Together they have enjoyed their cindered block walled habitat in my garden. They hibernate each winter. Bull frogs will eat anything they can fit in their mouths! However, as far as I know I have no endangered species lurking in my 40 x 50 ft city lot ;) My garden is also designated as a backyard wild life habitat by the National Wildlife Federation. I have attached a link to Bull frogs in Arizona. Apparently we should be hunting down the person responsible for introducing them back in the 1800's. From my Froggies to your Toads...MMMUUUAAAHHHHH!!!!!!
{{gwi:412675}}

Here is a link that might be useful: Bull frogs in Arizona

Paalexan does have a good point, and I think we should consider it. I don't feel he is being negative in his post. His website has some awesome pictures and descriptions of the Southwest. As gardeners we have responsibility for our native environment. All too often, people, businesses, and agencies bring in non native species that cause a lot of damage. When I was in TN a few weeks ago, I saw the trees that were killed by Kudzu vines. In Michigan, I heard about the inland lakes and rivers being infested with snails brought in by ships. Look at our desert, and the fires that were fed in part by non native grasses. I feel Patrick is just telling us to be careful. GT-I know you wouldn't take Betty up to Roosevelt Lake and release her into the wild. As gardeners, we take the responsibility that what we grow and nuture in our gardens, stay in our gardens.

Wow GT, I didn't think Betty was a frog. I mean I thought she probably popped up in your yard just like mine did and she looks so much like my toads :) But don't tell her, might be an insult to say she looks like a toad :) On closer inspection, she is much greener than my tan toads....oops, another potential amphibian/toadian insult to Betty!

Interesting link on Bullfrogs, amazing that they eat anything. It's actually good they are eating crawfish which are also now considered a pest species here in AZ. But I can see how they might put a dent in other secies that we'd like to keep around too. I suppose if you were breeding and releasing little Bettys and Bufords that wouldn't be so great for the environment. But seeing how they are your pets in your own little garden of eden, don't see how that hurts anything. Like Jim said, it's when people go releasing non-natives, spreading them around the native areas, when we get into some troubles with balance. It's much easier to control the spread of animals like frogs contained in a closed yard than controlling the spread of plants like grasses which are subject to distribution by birds and wind though.

I never could get paalexan's site to come up - wonder if too many of us were trying to access it.....

I agree that the information is very important, it's just the delivery that sucked... this post isn't the only one he put up that wasn't exactly warm. Unfortunately, there have been a few people who have come in from other sites (i.e. the woman who decided we should get down on our knees to a Saguaro that was potentially dangerous, etc.) that kinda put their .02 in without knowing what they're talking about, such as Patrick not knowing that GT is on a lot no where near a place where a frog can harm the environment in any way. Unless it can jump a 6' cinderblock wall - there is always that.

And he doesn't know just how lovely and sublime Betty is. And that's just not right.

That's my .02!

P.S. Kathleen, it appears that is a grad student from Indiana working in New Mexico.

{{gwi:412677}}
Yeah....I run with scissors too ;)

PC wrote:
"...delivery that sucked... (i.e. the woman who decided we should get down on our knees to a Saguaro that was potentially dangerous, etc.)"

WOW I guess I missed a real humdinger on that one, I'm sure I'd remember if I'd read her... LOL

"Unless it can jump a 6' cinderblock wall - there is always that."

Yep I think that is just a bit too high for 'ol Betty and Buford :)

"And he doesn't know just how lovely and sublime Betty is. And that's just not right."

Uh oh, I sure hope I haven't offended sublime Betty bullfrog what with calling her a toad !

GT wrote:
"Yeah....I run with scissors too ;)"

Oh GT you are such a bad bad girl, always living on the edge. It would be so boring around here without your wild stories of topiary critters and other adventures! I guess I'm with ya on that morning glory vine rebellion - I have the exact same one. Only right now, it's barely surviving the summer heat since I'm not a stellar irrigation monitor. Sure is pretty when it blooms and doesn't wilt though....

Your ...uh...nameless flowers are sure pretty! But you've got to stop that scissors thing. Bad GT, bad!

I have a feeling that Betty is so sublime - subliminal?- that most comments roll right off her back.

Great pic of the MG's.... it's almost tempting...