Hi Lisa, Frogs and toads come and go without rhyme or reason. Try not to take it personally. ;) Just keep doing what you're doing and they'll be back....if only for a short time. What kind of pond do you have? Do you have lots of cover around for them? Do you have snakes? Sometimes there's just a normal variation in nature. I, too, haven't had as many green frogs as usual, but next year will probably be better.

Mary, My BF would love to hear you say they are nice. After about 3 days he got tired of helping me find "natural" rocks in the woods and hauling them home. He came in the house and said, "Come out to the truck. I have something for you." It was 2 tons of garnet rock!! The Barton Garnet Mine is not too far from here and garnet rock is available at most of the places that sell stone. Most of them just sort of sparkle a little but in some you can really see the garnet. The pond area doesn't look like a natural woodland pond (which was my original goal), but I love it. Thanks for the compliments. Anne

Hey Paula did you start it really early? I had luck with mine when I got it mail order April of 2002 (when I first did this post! Wow I can't believe how long ago that was and this post is still kicking around). I planted it out right away when it was still cool and wet out and by the time the heat came around it was settled in nicely and needed no special care. However we had a really cold winter that year and it did not survive. I am curious as to how yours would do long term though come to think of it I do believe that I remember hearing of one in Virginia. What do I know though? I'm certainly not growing one now. I know they were very easy in coastal California (the garden I was at was digging up seedlings all the time and selling them in the nursery) and in England they were incredible. I will look for my pic from Wisley and post it.

Jessaka, If you get hens, they need a place to be locked up securely at night or they won't last very long. Every predator out there will kill your chicks before they can grow up if you don't have them in a cage with very small mesh. We have a brooder cage for chicks that has 1/4" mesh and very secure doorways so snakes cannot get into the brooder and eat the chicks. If we had flat, even land we'd have a chicken tractor (moveable pen) for them. At our house, our own dogs and cats don't bother the chickens and guineas, but neighborhood dogs, cats, bobcats, ring-tailed cats, coyotes, foxes, raccoons, hawks, owls, chicken snakes and rat snakes do. The snakes are only an issue when the poultry are very young and small. Ours have a very secure coop with doors that are closed/latched at night and a fenced-in run. I turn them loose to free range during the daylight hours most days, but not if there are predators around. So, if you get chickens, prepare ahead of time to protect them or you'll lose them very quickly. Your husband reminds me of my dad. We always had a dog when we were kids, and hamsters and fish and stuff, but he did not want a cat. He absolutely did not want a cat. Then, a stray showed up and we started feeding it. Of course that cat became an outdoor pet that was allowed to sleep in the garage, but it had distemper and we had to have it put down after we'd only had it a few months. Dad surprised us by showing up with a kitten to replace that cat....it was a gray half-Persian which we named "Fluffy" for obvious reasons. She became Dad's cat and was the only one, other than him, allowed to sit in "his" recliner in the den. It was just funny that the man who didn't like cats ended up with a very spoiled "Fluffy" who loved to sit in his lap when he was home, and in his chair when he was gone. Deer are creatures of habit and, once they get in a particular habit, it is hard to change their habits. By putting out deer corn near their deer trail all winter long, I've "trained" them to stay back on that part of the property, which is far from the garden, and have only seen a deer on the edge of the woods near my garden a couple of times this spring. Some people keep deer away by playing a radio (this works best if you can run an extension cord to power it unless you want to buy a lot of batteries) near the garden. You run the extension cord out to wherever you put the radio (our neighbor puts his radio in a tree), put the radio in a large zip-lock bag to keep it dry and put it on a talk radio station. Our neighbor has used the radio technique for many years to keep the deer from eating the apples off his trees. After we put up our taller fence last year, though, the deer came and ate his garden....including nibbling the okra down to about 2" from the ground. So, the radio didn't keep the deer out of the garden but it kept them out of the apples and the apple trees are right beside the garden. He has a 3' tall fence, like ours used to be, that kept the deer out for years, but it doesn't work now that the deer can't get into our okra. No matter what you use to keep deer away--whether it is a spray repellent (which haven't worked long here), radio or other noise maker, water sprinkler like the one you described, etc., the deer quickly get used to it, so you have to change tactics often. At the nursery you described that doesn't have deer damage, there is some reason that the deer don't eat their plants and/or garden because if they are hungry, they'll eat whatever they find. Deer are worst in our garden when the hollyhocks or okra, two of their favorite foods, are large and in bloom. Normally, the deer don't bother our tomatoes or peppers, although they'll eat the plants....blooms, fruit, stems and foliage in early spring when they don't have a lot of other stuff to eat. The longer a drought, the more stuff they'll eat that they normally don't touch. I gave up growing hostas, daylilies and begonias because they are "Deer Chow" here. The deer used to eat the fruit right off our fruit trees, but haven't done that in years now. They used to nibble the shrubs (hollies) when the shrubs were young, but don't do that any more either. Feeding the deer in winter does attract "outside" deer that don't live here on the property year-round, but "our" deer herd comes at specific times. To ensure that "our" deer get the food I put out for them, I put it out right about that time (they stand on the edge of the woods and 'scream' for me to feed them if I am late). After our deer herd eats, if there's any left, the other deer can have it, but they'll have to fight the rabbits, coons and wild birds for it. All the wild things are hungry in the winter months. The way I understand it, the deer's digestive systems work differently on a corn diet and a diet of nothing but corn is not good for them. I feed our herd a mixture of deer corn, hen scratch and black oil sunflower seeds. For the most part, the deer revert back to their regular diet once the winter ends, but every now and then one comes to the yard looking for a handout. And, I am not putting out enough feed for it to be the "only thing" they eat all winter--it just supplements their regular, but sparse, winter meals. Lately, I've seen deer come through the yard and walk right past the crows' piles of hen scratch and into the adjacent pasture. Then, the deer stand there in the pasture and eat native plants. So, given a choice they will eat what is better for them. I assume that they travel past the feeding area in summer just because it is a route they are used to. My favorite part of the deer routine is when they bring their babies here to show them off. Often, I am in the garden working and I look up and a tiny fawn on wobbly legs is standing there looking at me. The doe is not in sight. After a few minutes, though, the doe will come back and get her fawn. This has gone on for years. I don't know if they are bringing the fawns to "show them off" or if I am supposed to "babysit" the fawns while the does do something else. Either way, though, I love it when they bring their babies around. Dawn