UWG members appreciate the need to create biodiversity and ecosystems within our gardens to address habitat loss and help us connect to the natural world. So, at this month’s workshop with Sean Morrow, attendees were keen to know how to create habitat to attract frogs to their gardens.
Sean has been obsessed with wildlife, and especially frogs, since he was a child and convinced his father to let him build his first pond when he was eight. Since then, he has created numerous frog habitats wherever he has lived. His previous 6 1/2 acre property at Pomona, where he lived for 20 years and installed 55 ponds, was featured in an episode of ‘Gardening Australia’. He now lives on 25 acres in the Gympie area and continues to install as many ponds as he can. He also runs a landscaping business creating beautiful pond habitats for other people. He said the primary threat to frogs is habitat loss and that anyone can make frog habitat, whether they live on acreage or in an unit with a patio.
The first step is to introduce water into your garden either by digging a pond or using a container, anything from a water trough or laundry sink to an old bathtub. It is important to consider the position of the pond so it gets some shade and some sun. Tadpoles are easily affected by temperature with sudden changes being detrimental to their survival. Other considerations included not setting up a pond or water feature in very hot, dry, windy or exposed positions, not using chemicals in the garden or around ponds, and keeping cats and dogs inside at night.
Rocks, logs and mulch around the edge of the water help the frogs to enter and leave the pond and ensure that there are places for them to hide from predators. Frogs only use the water source for breeding, so a variety of native vegetation levels, such as strappy plants, thick soft shrubs, trees, grasses and ground covers, planted densely around the pond, provides essential habitat for them at other times.
Sean explained that almost one third of frog species in the greater Brisbane region breed in ephemeral ponds. These are temporary ponds, present from a few weeks up to many months, which are created by random rain events or significant wet periods. So any low lying areas in the garden that collects water can be planted with sedges and rushes to make habitat for different types of frogs. A mixture of pond types will appeal to a variety of species.
Sean also offered suggestions for dealing with cane toads in the garden. He said the best way to deter toads from entering and breeding in ponds was to use thickly planted clumping grasses, such as Lomandra, around the edge. It is also necessary to watch out for and remove cane toad eggs from the pond. They are black eggs in long, jelly-encased strings, which are easily distinguishable from frogs eggs which are laid in foamy masses, small clumps or individually. Toad tadpoles sometimes live in schools, not individually like native tadpoles. Unlike frog tadpoles, their body organs, if viewed underneath from a glass jar, are not translucent, and they have no markings or spots on the body. It is also possible to construct a 600mm high fence around the pond made from 20mm – 25mm chook wire which allows frogs and other wildlife to enter the pond yet keeps the adult toads from entering and breeding. (For more information about identification and removal of Cane Toads and their tadpoles, see the links below.)
Sean’s preference was not to have fish in the frog ponds as they can predate on the small tadpoles. If any, the native fish to have in ponds are Crimson Spotted Rainbow Fish, Pacific Blue Eye and Fly-Speckled Hardyheads, but these are only completely safe if the tadpoles are longer than 15mm – 20mm.
For constructing an ‘in ground’ pond, Sean recommended lining the excavated pond, first with old, non-decomposing, carpet underlay or geotextile cloth, before using a plastic pond liner. The water depth should be about 500mm with rocks and logs at the bottom. A circulating pump can be installed to create a waterfall or fountain, but too much movement will deter frogs from laying eggs and break up any spawn laid. If using town water it needs to sit in the sun for a few days to remove the chlorine. Then plant, mulch and position rocks and logs around the edge of the pond. You can also put water plants in the pond but be aware that too much vegetation on top of the water blocks the air and light and deters frogs from breeding.
As well as providing frog habitat, Sean encouraged everyone to allow their gardens to be ‘wild’ by letting native grasses grow longer, leaving logs and sticks in some places, having native flowering plants for insects and planting different levels of vegetation. This creates a diverse habitat for small marsupials, birds, reptiles, insects, spiders and other wildlife as well as frogs.
Then he recommended that we make the most of opportunities to sit, relax for at least twenty minutes, and observe our habitat gardens.
Thanks, Sean, for sharing your wealth of information and amusing anecdotes, and for inspiring us all to look for places in our gardens where we can create our own frog habitats.
UWG is planning a practical workshop, with Sean demonstrating how to create a pond, later in the year, so check future newsletters for details.
Useful Links:
‘Be Toadally Sure’ Brochure: https://www.qldfrogs.asn.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/be_toadally_sure_QFS_FA_web_1.2.pdf
Removing cane toads and their tadpoles from the garden: https://watergum.org/humane-euthanasia/
Queensland Frog Society: https://www.qldfrogs.asn.au/
Vanessa Presling
