Attracting Frogs & Toads to Your Garden

Last Updated on July 8, 2021 by Michelle

I’m pretty much obsessed with attracting frogs and toads to my garden. And I am always extra happy when one greets me while I’m pulling weeds or staking plants.

This cutey often visits me while I’m weeding around our squash patch. Which makes me exceptionally happy given the trouble we’ve had with squash beetles in years past. This guy probably enjoys beetles the way I love Toblerone.

Why Do I Want Frogs & Toads in My Garden?

These wonderful bumpy, jumpy creatures love to dine on all the pests that are dining on my plants. The perfect snacks for a frog or toad? The very things gardeners want no where near their veggies–caterpillars, cutworms, grasshoppers, grubs, slugs, and my personal nemesis: the squash beetle.

Crazy enough, one frog or toad can eat more than 100 insects every night. Score.

Read on for 5 Ways to Attract Frogs & Toads to Your Garden.

When Hayley discovered a new species of frog, I immediately wanted to look him up, see what he feasts on, and encourage him to take up residence in my vegetable garden.

One Girl’s Obsession with Frogs

Hayley has always loved frogs. Even a decade ago.

But now that she’s “all grown up” (at 11), she is even more intrigued by them. She spots them in camouflaged niches, transports them around the yard (and, yes, around the house), doesn’t mind when they leave some wet traces of their fear on her palm, talks to them softly, and even—if they’re extra special—gives them a comfy home, serves them delicious crawling delicacies that she collects under rocks, and calls them by a name she has christened them with.

Given her years of amphibian expertise, I was surprised to hear that a sedate, little, bumpy guy went unnoticed by her trained eye for many minutes.

He was squatted low and calmly resting, perched on the outdoor shower stall while she rinsed chlorine out of her locks from swimming. (The fact that she was brave enough to conquer the tepid water on an overcast New Hampshire day is a feat worthy of note.)

Once she spotted him, she was mesmerized that her new friend was so content. He didn’t fret that a spider had spun a wisp of translucent silk across his brow.

He didn’t mind Hayley’s camera lens circling around him, and he barely seemed to care when she cradled him in her hands. He definitely had a laid-back, rural New England attitude. The mid-atlantic frogs she was accustomed to were always hyper and flighty, especially if Bixby gave them a close canine inspection.

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The Gray Tree Frog

Nothing phased this placid ectotherm who befriended Hayley.

We learned our new friend is a gray tree frog. (Fellow New Hampshirites, try this site to learn more about critters in your yard: NH Fish and Game.) And he’s quite a crooner.

I had noticed an unusual song around our property for days; how surprised I was to realize the chirpy melodies were not those of a bird. They were coming from a plump, sedate, lump-covered little guy now known as “Cookie.” (After, of course, our favorite Frog and Toad children’s story.)

Hear the gray tree frog’s song here.

We set up an extra frog home in our garden–aka a cracked pottery bowl turned upside down in a cool corner of the garden–and we hope Cookie stays around to dine on our aphids and beetles. And sing us an occasional song while we garden.

Attracting Frogs & Toads to Your Garden

How do you attract frogs and toads to your vegetable garden?

1. Avoid using chemical treatments in your garden. Nobody wants to eat food laced with yucky tasting chemicals, including a slimy amphibian.
2. Provide covered, shaded areas as little frog homes or toad houses. You can buy super cute ones–I truly love this toad house. And then there’s this handmade pottery toad house that I would love to prop in a special garden nook.
3. Keep some leaf cover. Frogs and toads like a quiet place to hang out, free of fear from predators. A small pile of old, dried leaves provide the perfect cover.
4. Offer a small dish of water. Amphibians absorb their water, through their skin. They love sitting in a shallow bowl of water, so try to provide a few in your garden, in the shade. Be sure to toss old water and provide new at least once a week or your resident toads will have more mosquitos around than even they can eat.
5. Provide a small pond. If you really want to pamper your toad they love ponds. But I know many of us don’t have a way to move our garden to the edge of a pond or you may not have the inclination to install a garden pond but I found this adorable fairy pond that pampers a toad quite well.

Frog & Toad Homes Can Be Super Simple

Whenever a plate or bowl gets chipped or broken, I know this is a little odd, but my first thought is “toad house.”

When one deep dish plate broke right in half recently I used half upside down as a small hut for a frog or toad and the other half holds a little water beside a small chipped bowl… I find that is the preferred amphibian hang out, so I propped the whole kinda-silly set up in my squash bed, where Cookie and his friends are needed most to help me avoid a repeat of last year’s Squash Beetle Invasion.

I’ll be writing an upcoming post about the other steps I’ve taken this year as well in my battle against the beetle.

I was thankful to rediscover nature’s excitement and appreciate the beauty and sounds of our new home through my daughter’s perspective this week. Now I just hope our new a garden resident sticks around.

 

Other articles about gardening:

What Every Gardener Needs to Know about Eggs Shells

What Every Gardener Needs to Know about Coffee Grounds

5 Reasons You Might Not Want to Compost

Planting and Growing Lilacs–tips from a pro!

5 Helpful Gardening Tips

 

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“If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world.” -Rachel Carson

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