The first day of spring & the first 2023 frogs
It's springtime and the frogs are emerging
When I read the last lines of this passage from of a book I wrote in 2004, I’m pleased to find that I was quite accurate in general, but chagrined that I was so very wrong about frogs. Indeed, the frogs came and are wonderful, and they have procreated. But frogs don’t produce little frogs. They produce ribbons of spawn, tiny eggs that then turn into tadpoles. Some of the tadpoles of 2021 still haven’t turned into frogs, though they’re quite large now, swimming and diving even when it is was barely above freezing. So far there are 3 or 4 frogs of varying sizes that seem to have spent the winter in the mud along with the tadpoles.
Attracting wildlife
From The Armchair Environmentalist
An pesticide and chemical-free garden is a welcoming home for animals whose natural habitats are being chewed up by new roads. Many of these creatures will also lend a hand to your organic gardening effort. Toads, for example, will gobble up insects and snails, and birds are beneficial—they can eat their weight and more in insects every day!—and beautiful, too.
Plant native trees and shrubs rather than exotics. Some of the most famous gardens are based on native plantings, and not only are they best for creating a healthy garden ecosystem but they’ll require less watering and other attention.
Choose native perennial and self-seeding flowers and herbaceous plants. Some nurseries specialize in these plants and can advise on what’s right for your area.
Plant old-fashioned scented cottage flowers to attract bees and butterflies. There’s nothing so wonderful to bring into the house as fragrant sweet peas or old-fashioned roses.
Turn part of your lawn into a wildflower lawn that gets cut only twice a year. This saves labour and is a striking to look at. We have a steep bank covered in black-eyed susans, daisies, and golden-rod.
Plant colorful flowers to appeal to butterflies and hummingbirds: scarlet lobelia and crimson- or rose-flowered bergamot are two, and there are many more.
Don’t make things too tidy: the odd fallen log and pile of stones can be attractive while also creating a shelter for helpful garden creatures. (Of course, you’ll want to avoid offering accommodation to larger pests, depending on where you live.)
Leave the weeds. Set aside a little space for nettles (edible and nutritious in springtime, by the way), wild parsley and buttercups. Varieties of buddleia, a common city weed known as ‘butterfly bush,’ is grown as a garden flower in the U.S., and native American golden-rod and sumac are specimen plants in U.K. gardens—it all depends on your perspective!
Put in a small pond. Frogs are in urgent need of places to live and they make wonderful garden co-habitants, munching insects day and night. (You may wake one spring morning to a pond thrumming with tiny frogs—it’s been known to happen!)
Here are the same pages in French:
