I guess it’s no surprise that the Roman snails that I moved to the garden are still lurking around, doing their bit to rid my garden of slug eggs. However, elegant creatures as they are, they really tend to call very little attention to themselves.
But… I also moved some 15-20 baby frogs to the garden – or so I thought! Upon further reflection it seems more likely to have been baby toads, and last night I got the proof:
A tiny toad sitting by one of the ventilation holes in the foundations of the house. Isn’t it just adorable?
It didn’t seem to enjoy the flash, though, so I left it to find some better place to spend the night. The little fellow was perhaps just over an inch long, which is still around 5 times as big as when I collected him and his siblings some months back while they were crossing a busy road, and he gives me hope that there might be others of his ilk that have also chosen to hang around the garden after I moved them here.
There is a very real risk that I might be as excited about the animals living in the garden as about the plants growing here; it’s just such a thrill to feel that we are the custodians of a plot of land where these protected species will actually want to live. They are proof that I’m certainly doing something right here.
The little garden creatures are definitely a sign that you are doing it right.
A toad is always a good sign in a garden, and I have at least three that I know of… And that I am proud of!
Excited for you, Toads are great garden companions !
And this one is most likely one of my little babies… I think he’s absolutely cute, and of course I hope he will eat his fill on slug eggs this autumn so he’s ready to hibernate through winter.
I get a real buzz too, when I see wildlife in my garden or on the plot. Came across a frog at the plot on Friday and then screamed in a quite embarrassing way when I discovered a grass snake on Saturday. It was hiding under some black plastic, covering a pile of turf that is rotting down. I really wasn’t expecting it and I guess neither was it.
This morning there was a squirrel in the hammock… How cute is that???
Whenever I move anything that has been lying on the ground I tend to either use a tool (fork or spade) to move it or at least wear gloves, because I do hate getting that sort of surprises, no matter how innocent they might be. (And there will ALWAYS be something lurking beneath anything…)
I love the wildlife that come to the garden…it is why I garden these days ..from the frogs to the bugs…it is all wonderful and exciting…great to see all the wildlife in your garden
It’s a nice thought that we are somehow sharing our gardens with loads of inhabitants who actually spend their entire lives there. (Well, the toads go roaming, and the squirrels leap from garden to garden, but at least the Roman snails are rather territorial.)