Friday, July 6, 2007

Location location

This is the site of our future frog bog. As you can see it's not much to look at right now, in fact this is where we just dumped stuff like Peter's trailer. Water is pooling here, not quite as badly as it looks in this shot. This is partly because the ground has been compacted down for so long and not been turned over (I've noticed that where it has been turned over the water is draining through nicely) and partly because the concrete path is blocking the natural flow of water away from here. The rest of the garden drains really well as we have mulched it and turned the soil over, also I don't think it received all the pressure this area did from building equipment and so forth.

I need to do more work on the front garden so the bog is hold for a little while. This is a shame as there is evidence of frogs breeding in the paddocks nearby where there are lots of puddles and ponds. Hopefully they won't have given up by the time we're ready - I don't know much about their breeding cycles.

We're starting a frog bog blog

We have a great patch of dirt around the side of the house surrounded by a concrete path and the washing line. It has a tendency to retain a little water and this has attracted a visitor of the amphibious variety. So with this in mind Sarah and Wendy have decided to create a frog bog so that lots more of his or her froggy friends can come and stay.



Having done some research it is actually illegal to collect frog spawn or tadpoles. However, frogs are known to travel long distances and seeing as all the houses being built around here will be taking the frogs' natural habitat, a lovely custom built frog bog should soon be on every local frogs must see list.
Our first step on the frog bog journey was to do some research into the construction and types of plants we need. Frogs need some shades so we'll put a couple of tree ferns in. They also like some long grasses around the bog and some water plants in the pond. They need a pond area to practice swimming in and a boggy area as well. Places to hide such as rocks, logs or even old tiles will also be welcome. We also need to get the some protection against our dog (frog v dog not good) so perhaps a short brush border.
Our next step will be to start preparing the area. Wendy has removed the junk that was stored there and has hand weeded the area - no chemicals for our frogs! We think we might put an extra drain in, just in case it starts to overflow - that way frog spawn shouldn't end up across the path and drying out when the rain stops.




It will be a slow progress but we're up to the task.

Bye for now.

Wendy & Sarah