Grow Your Own Magazine

One good result from all this rain seems to be an increase in the number of frogs and toads about. Every time I lift a bit of mulch or a carelessly left pile of weeds there seems to be a family of toads under it. Makes you feel very guilty to be moving their home but I've rehomed them all in the current compost bin, must be getting a bit crowded in there! Haven't been able to strim the grass paths round the allotment for ages as it's been so wet, now I daren't do it anyway before cutting all the long stuff, carefully, as I'd hate to injure any of them. Some big frogs kept hopping out as I investigated some grass edges and hurriedly dashed off under the comfrey, the frogs not me that is. I might not have many crops after all this flooding but I've certainly got a good resident population. After a mouse dashed out from one clump I'm hoping there's nothing bigger around! Just wish they'd eat all the slugs a bit quicker! Anybody else noticed a similar increase?

I wish! Do you have a pond on the allotment, or have they entered from outside?

I am planning to put a pond in the allotment and I would be interested if the increase is due to your own pond....

Cheers

I do have a sunken bath which is very overgrown but was full of frogspawn earlier on and still has some large tadpoles left in it, but the size of the frogs I've found are too big to have come from there. I suspect I get a lot of wildlife from other allotment pitches as I'm trying to be fully organic whereas most of the others profess to be, but still use slug pellets. However they mostly get a lot more crops than I do! I'm hoping that eventually it will all even out with a decrease in pests as the goodies increase. Meanwhile I enjoy watching all the birds, bees and butterflies.
Are you growing organically too?

I've noticed a couple of frogs and a toad in my back garden which I've not seen before - like yours, my grass is getting longer than it should do in between cutting it in this weather. I haven't got a proper pond, just an old tin bath with a couple of pond plants in it. Haven't noticed much decrease in the snail population, but I'm not finding many slugs. I'm trying to dcide which bit of the garden I can leave over-grown to encourage them to stay

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Sarah

“Tell me one last thing,” said Harry. “Is this real? Or has this been happening inside my head?”
“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”

I'm trying to grow organically, but I have to admit I use Slug Pellets to get rid of slugs. I was in a garden centre today and they were selling nemotodes (I think thats the name).

I have also read about this last month in the GYO mag wereby you put the powder into water and the natural bacteria grows and poisons Slugs for upto 6 months.

Has anyone tried it, does it actually do what it says on the tin? I'm a little sceptical.....

Hello there Vicpivo....
Don't think I've said welcome to you as yet?????
Yep...nematodes are more than worth their value, but you do need to use them at least for a couple of years to make a difference - we didn't bother this year and we have loads of slugs
I'm hoping that once on top of the slug population, they will become easier to control. Be aware though ...they don't affect the snail population!

Put a small pond (old childrens sand pit)on allotment a few weeks ago frogs found it within a week. I now have quite a colony.
I got the sand pit off freecycle.

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I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food.
W. C. Fields

I cleared a patch of weeds under a window next to a gravel path the other week and found half a dozen little toads I didnt know I had! I have no pond, or source or water other than the damp conditions under the weeds and bushes for them so moved them to another part of the garden, under my magnonia tree. I'm not sure they'll stay but I hope they do.

I only seem to have my usual resident frog this year, pity it's the only one as it doesn't manage to keep the slug/snail population down enough although I have seen it having a go! Here's a pic. of it posing in the tiny pond I have.

Attached Thumbnails

 

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Into every life a little rain must fall.

Great! Just don't run your lawn cutter over them...

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"I got a business card, 'cause I want to win some lunches. That's what my business card says: "Mitch Hedberg, potential lunch winner."
Gift ideas... fruit baskets or gardening kit?

Lucky people, I have a pond and as yet not seen 1 frog. I expect I need to put some grasses etc around the outside, it's not very appealing at the moment.....

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An onion can make people cry but there's never been a vegetable that can make people laugh.
Will Rogers

Thought that you said GLASSES there, Sebster......LOL! Just wondering what frogs drink!!

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Hazel
www.hazelandjanesallotment.blogspot.com
update Sun 30/11/2008......Indoor Allotmenteering too!.....

Down lottie yesterday at least 3 adult & 4or 5 little ones.

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I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food.
W. C. Fields

Have you tried giving him a kiss SueA? Handsome prince maybe?

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Earth laughs in flowers. Ralph Waldo Emerson

www.vegheaven.blogspot.com

Updated November 30th - Mr Stinky's Excellent Adventure (and a Christmas Cake)

Lol Hazel, I'll try anything

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An onion can make people cry but there's never been a vegetable that can make people laugh.
Will Rogers

Don't mind giving him a cuddle Flum, but not a kiss, not on our first date anyway!

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Into every life a little rain must fall.

A pond isn't necessary for frogs. They only need a pond for mating, other than that they are perfectly happy to skulk around in damp vegetation (like slugs).
Unfortunately my resident frogs seem to be vegan. I am overrun (over-slimed?) with slugs. The snails I can catch in upturned pots, but the slugs hide under the soil, so I have no chance.

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~ What do I think of Western civilisation? I think it would be a very good idea ~ Gandhi