IT’S A CERTAIN SIGN OF SUMMER, AND IT ISN’T PRETTY. The various male green frogs (Rana clamitans) out back are engaged in hand-to-hand (webbed-foot-to-webbed-foot?) combat, trying to prove who’s top frog. Meantime, because it finally started raining after a very dry spring, their larger, truly aquatic cousins the bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana) slipped out the back on a storm the other night, as if I hadn’t made them feel at home. What’s up with that? Remember the A Way to Garden frogfights of 2009, one of my favorite slideshows, and the Great Bullfrog Exodus? Here we go again: ribbit, er, I mean repeat.
frogboys
I shouldn't play favorites, but I guess the amphibian species are my favorite co-inhabitants of the garden, constantly amusing me with their antics and utterances (and eating a good share of unwanted pests).
they’re at it again: more frogfights and farewells
June 20, 2010 at 2:58 pm
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they’re back: hangin’ with the frogboys
April 2, 2010 at 11:19 am
SUNSHINE BRINGS OUT THE BEST IN PEOPLE–AND IN FROGS. That’s the word out back at poolside, where the annual Amphibian Assembly of America is starting to convene. This little green frogboy thought the bamboo poles I place across the pool to thwart hungry herons looked like a railing on a boardwalk, I guess, and there he hung all morning, catching rays. The full-body view of this young hunk: [read more…]
he’s back: one big-boy bullfrog returns
October 7, 2009 at 6:32 am
IN A RAINSTORM HE DEPARTED, AND IN A RAINSTORM HE RETURNED. One of my five beloved big bullfrogs (above) hopped back in the other wet night after a four and one-half month absence, with not so much as a single word of explanation, and just that same stupid smile on his face. The young female bull the frogboys had deserted, now grown to adult size, wasn’t having any, and turned her back to him across the pond. Hell hath no fury…but only temporarily. [read more…]
gardeners and frogs, on the edge
September 29, 2009 at 11:02 am
THE FROGBOYS CAN’T BELIEVE IT, EITHER: Another warm-weather season is drawing to a close, and with it the “everybody into the pool” mindset that pretty much sums it up around here will be traded for something involving snowsuits, not swimsuits. Everywhere I look this week, there’s a frogboy on the edge of the colder reality ahead. Meet them in this impromptu little slideshow: [read more…]
my life in a cabinet of curiosities
July 1, 2009 at 8:23 pm
I OFTEN FEEL LIKE I LIVE IN A CABINET of curiosities; you know, those Renaissance-era rooms full of oddities (a vintage image follows), many of them nature-inspired, that in time evolved into an actual piece of furniture filled with the most fascinating mix of stuff? That’s my life here these days. Curious. [read more…]
frogfight!
June 25, 2009 at 7:41 am
P EOPLE WHO VISIT SAY IT SEEMS LIKE PEACEABLE KINGDOM or at least “Animal Planet” at my place, but I am here to tell you otherwise. There’s a whole lot of fighting going on. Since my big bullfrogs departed for better digs during a heavy rain in early spring, the species called green frogs have been full of themselves, masters of the universe, and now with mating season upon us, they’re downright violent. Ever watch a frogfight? [read more…]
farewell, my princes: the big frogboy exodus
May 27, 2009 at 10:00 pm
M Y FIVE BIGGEST HUNKS O’ BURNING BULLFROG have up and gone, the oldest boys out back who I was certain were Prime Prince Material. Sigh. Left me flat, during or just after a dramatic 2.75-inch rainfall recently, without so much as a farewell ribbit. And look at the mere pipsqueaks who have got hold of the larger pool since, which they’d never dare have gone near if the omnivore Big Boys were still around (and that’s a froggirl up top; not big and not even a boy!). What’s up with my frogs? Was it something I said? [read more…]
hey, mr. bigstuff: a wood frog stops by
March 31, 2009 at 9:32 am
WHILE A BALD EAGLE CIRCLED OVERHEAD one sunny day last week, this guy let me sit beside him on the still-cold grass and visit awhile. Say hello to a wood frog, one of the earliest species to be out and hopping about, and dressed in garden-appropriate terra cotta, no less. Sometimes I don’t know how I got from where I was to here, but am I ever thankful. Learn more about the wood frog, Rana sylvatica, and our impromptu chat:
slideshow: the beloved frogboys
March 6, 2009 at 1:49 pm
THEY HAVE THEIR OWN BLOG NOW, but meantime they’re still under contract here at A Way to Garden, the site that made them famous. Before you head right over to frogboys.com, have a look at some of the familiar faces “before” they were somebodies: [read more…]
