LEST YOU THINK I SPEND TOO MUCH TIME ALONE, digging holes out back then running in to blog about it, be assured I have plenty of company. Including several dozen affectionate amphibian types like this deliciously hairy beast, who lets me cop the occasional feel.
THE LECTURE that he’s been giving for a number of years is not-so-subtly called “Kill Your Lawn.” Ecological horticulturist Dan Jaffe Wilder knows that starting over and creating an entire native habitat instead of a lawn isn’t for everyone. But Dan just wants to grab our attention and get us to start to make some changes at least in the way we care for the turfgrass we do want in our landscapes. And maybe give up a little square footage of it to some other kind of more diverse planting, too, like the wild strawberries (Fragaria virginiana, inset). Alternative, more eco-focused styles of lawn care, along with some lawn alternatives is what he and I talked about on the podcast. Dan is Director of Applied Ecology at Norcross Wildlife Foundation in Wales, Massachusetts, and its 8,000-acre sanctuary. He’s also co-author with Mark Richardson of the book “Native Plants for New England Gardens.”
(Stream it below, read the illustrated transcript or subscribe free.)
Look at him! How did he do that? I still think you need a chicken or two for company. Imagine how delighted Jack would be.
@Erika: Welcome to A Way to Garden (and sorry to ruin your morning caffeine infusion). I just love my frog boys, and really cannot control myself around them.
@Paige: I will discuss chickens with Jack, promise. As for how the frogs allow my advances, not quite sure. It’s as if they think that I do not really see them even when I’m holding them, they stay so incredibly still…like maybe I won’t notice that there’s a frog in the handful of duckweed if they just act like statues.
oh my gosh, i almost spewed coffee all over my computer from laughing so hard.
I wish I lived in your back yard!
They’re fascinating things, aren’t they. Do you have little fishes in that pond?
Okay, do you have a method for controlling that duck weed? My frogs are looking like relatives of yours! Balancing the camera while holding ‘hairball’ must have been a challenge.
Welcome, Brian G., to A Way to Garden. Yes, snakes…some years more than others, and sometimes in the house (yuck). Is there a big stone slab at the back door, or any rock wall nearby? Their favorite haunts. I would never hurt one but they do make me shiver.
@Brian: Now that you mention carnivorous creatures, I will reveal that my bullfrogs catch and eat mice, too. True! Maybe I could post a photo, but some people would freak, I think. I have documented it…an unbelievable sight. Shiver bigtime.
Are you on equally familiar terms with the snakes? My house is in Eastern Columbia County and I have snakes up the, well you get my drift. They LOVE to congregate at my back door for some reason. Harmless, but I’d rather have frogs.
Thanks for the welcome, happy to be here. It is a particularly warm corner of the house but I think the actual reason they choose this spot as their hang out is the abundance of baby chipmunks and mice. Shiver indeed!
Our neighbors maintain a small pond and I can hear those “croakers a’croakin'” in the evening… actually a very pleasant and bucolic sound.
Cool! That’s a new one on me. Right to not post the evidence. It might shock the children;)
Welcome, Trina. Give your boys my love!
oooo, cute friend you got there. My little pond has lots of frog citizens too. They are much more entertaining than fish. I like that some have gotten so used to me that I have to shoo them away when I want to work where they are sitting.