On Sat, 28 May 2011 15:19:12 +0200, David in Normandy
wrote:

On 28/05/2011 13:02, bob wrote:
I've had a frog in my garden for 3 years or so and I wonder if anyone
might have some insights?

It seems to be a bachelor, I've never seen 2 frogs. How does it cope
with the boredom?

Can they survive drought? I've been watering regularly round its
favourite spot but I'm going to have to leave the garden for a couple
of weeks and the forecast doesn't look wet. I was thinking of sinking
a plastic container with water into the soil underneath a heather
thereby reducing loss through evaporation. Or will he (she) just dig
herself down till it gets damp enough.


A few years ago I wanted to attract frogs and toads to my vegetable
garden because they eat slugs. So I bought a large plastic tub (approx
40 litres) dug a hole and set it in the hole with just the rim above
ground level. I planted some trailing ground cover plants around it and
filled it with rain water from the water butts. There are often
frogs/toads in there now. The tub is positioned next to a bush so it is
shaded from most of the sun. The herbaceous ground cover plants trail
around and in the water making it easy for creatures to climb out.

The other day while moving some plant pots on the patio a frog jumped
out so I scooped it up between my hands and dropped it into the little
pond. It jumped out again immediately but another frog suddenly appeared
at the surface as much as to say "Eh! What's going on?"

So despite the drought here, the little shaded tub-pond is a little
haven. They've got plenty of slugs to eat too!

Sounds nice. I was thinking along the lines of a miniature version of
your 40 litre tub, probably just a broad hole with a thick plastic
liner. I'm not sure about evaporation rates so perhaps it should be
deep?