I was going to call this post ” Sex orgy in my pond ” but I thought that might attract the wrong sort of person and their comments!! When walking past the pond yesterday there was such a lot of croaking going on and then the noise of lots of splashing, I just had to investigate. Sure enough, the frogs had arrived to do what frogs do at this time of year!
This frog seemed to think that he owned the pond and kept croaking at me.
An action shot, I don’t think I need to say any more!
Poor female, there must have been at least 9 males in the pond.
This one stayed to guard the frogspawn and is still there today, at least I think it is the same one.
This is the result of all their frantic efforts, lots of lovely frogspawn. In previous years we have seen grass snakes swimming in the pond, they love a tasty soup of tadpoles so I hope they stay away this year!
While writing this post, it dawned on me that I hadn’t shown photos of the pond area before. I will try to show areas this year that haven’t been previously seen, the pond, vegetable garden and the border by the field. The pond is approx 10ft x 6ft, with hindsight, wish it was bigger because by the end of summer when everything has grown so much, you can hardly see the water! We had started the tidy up in the pond area but stopped when we heard the frogs croaking, hence half the pond is still rather untidy, but the frogs were hiding under the fallen leaves and stems. We will have to wait for all their activities in that area to come to an end before we finish clearing up.
I think the variegated Iris has burst out of its basket and needs dividing. I also think it has floated away from it’s shelf so attention definitely needed. When the garden was open last summer for the NGS, I promised some to a visitor from the village, now is the time to take some round to him.
At the far side of the pond, Kingcup or Caltha palustris, is forming a good ground cover, these grow quite huge in the summer with large yellow flowers and form a nice edging to the pond.
Between the pond and the vegetable garden, I have planted willow, Salix alba Britzensis, for the coloured stems in the winter. These will be pollarded soon as it is the young stems which have the brightest colours. Can you see the hedge in the background, which has just been laid in the Devon style? we got it done now before the birds start looking for nesting sights. Do you have lots of visitors to your pond or garden, do you manage to see them or the evidence that they leave behind? I’m quite happy to share the garden with lots of wildlife, but I think you all know what I think of moles and rabbits!!
I’d love a pond. How amazing to have all that going on in your garden. The closest I’ve got to a frog so far this year is the squished one on the road outside my house. A very sad sight and one less creature eating the slugs in my garden. Will look forward to seeing more photos of your pond as the year progresses. Have a good weekend, Pauline.
Sorry to hear about your squashed frog WW, not nice when that happens. We have newts in the pond as well as a toad, but don’t see the toad very often. When grandsons visit, we can usually do a bit of pond dipping, examining the newts intimately, before returning them, hope they don’t mind! Bats also swoop over the pond in the summer, hoovering up the midges that are dancing about, less midges to bite us thank goodness!
Hi,
Ooooh, I do hope we don’t get any cold weather which kills off all the eggs! Oh dear, but also very exciting at the same time 🙂
No pond here, sadly. I just don’t know where I could have one and with the garden being tiered it makes things even more difficult. Although I do realise I really ought to have one and that it’d bring a lot of life to the garden.
We were worried in January Liz, when we had our warm spell, that the frogs might have come early, only to have the spawn frozen later, the frogs knew better though and have arrived at their usual time. In the past we have found that if frost does come it is only the top layer that is lost, usually enough survives as so many eggs are laid. Will keep you up to date!
Frogs are so much fun… I gotta admit that I prefer the newts…
No pictures of the fish? Need some gold fish…
When the grandkids visit… Time to dig out the recipes? Deep fried bullfrog? Crunchy, crispy fried tadpoles?
:b
No Stone, no goldfish or fish of any sort. they would eat the tadpoles and I need the tadpoles to grow into frogs so that they can eat the slugs!!! Next time we go pond dipping I will try and get a photo of the newts for you !
My goodness that is a lot of eggs! I’m curious is there any odor to them? This will be my first summer with a pond (If I finish it!). I can’t wait until I see the first frog.
Thanks for stopping by Stacy, there are even more eggs now, more were laid the next day! I’ve never noticed any odour around the eggs, so no need to worry on that score, hope all goes well with your pond, the local frogs will soon find it!
This is a very steamy sort of post to read on a Monday morning. Such romantic goings-on that I think I might need a cuddle and a cigarette, except for the fact that I don’t smoke! LOL I hope that the snakes don’t make an appearance. I don’t mind snakes, but I don’t like them either. It will be fun to see all the tadpoles swimming around soon. Wish I had a pond in my garden too!
Thanks for the laugh Jennifer, I needed that! The grass snakes that we sometimes get in the garden are harmless, but knowing that they enjoy eating the tadpoles makes me want them to go elsewhere. I need my tadpoles to become frogs and eat my slugs!
Sadly the number of frogs in our small pond has declined over the years and what frogspawn we get has not produced tadpoles for the last two years. No frogs so far this year but I am hoping!
Wonder why your frogspawn hasn’t produced tadpoles , Easy gardener, do you have fish by any chance? They will eat any tadpoles that are swimming around, hope you have better luck this year.
Pauline, I’ve promise to myself not to comment on the frogs orgy.
I didn’t understand at all what the Devon style hedge is for and how you made it… just for birds nesting? And does it work? I mean do you have birds nesting in there?
To thicken a hedge Alberto, at the base, it can be layered by cutting half way through the upright stems and bent over. The branches will sprout all along the bent stems and form a nice dense hedge. Here in England each area has their own style of hedge laying and mine has been done in the Devon style because that is where I live! It is a dying craft, as most hedges are done by machine these days which leaves them thin at the base. Birds will nest in the hedge, we had to get it done before they started their nest building, it wasn’t done just for the birds, more to make it thick so that we can’t see through it.
Hello there Pauline, great images from your pond. I hear its a noisy time in the garden 🙂
Yes, lots of garden visitors here but thankfully no moles or rabbits. We’re looking forward to possible hedgehog visitors next month. What a great pond you have there. I’m planning a build in my garden this year – I wonder how long it will take for frogs to find it – I fear they won’t as my neighbours don’t have many plants and little cover for them en route to finding my garden.
Thanks for stopping by Shirley, yes it’s still noisy in the pond, more frogspawn each day! We very occasionally see a hedgehog, usually just find it’s droppings, nice to know that they’ll be around soon. Hope your local frogs find your pond or maybe someone could give you some of their frogspawn to start you off?