Making Your Garden Frog Friendly

Backyard pond

Here are some tips from the experts at the Queensland Museum about how to create a garden with where frogs can thrive. To make you garden frog friendly, you must provide:

• Insects to eat
  Insects can be attracted to your garden if you mulch your garden beds, keep a compost heap, and grow a wide variety of local native plants.

• Humidity
  A well-vegetated native garden increases humidity. Grow ground covers, understorey plants, and small to large trees to decrease wind movement. You can also discourage toads from laying their eggs in your pond if its edges are densely vegetated.

• Hiding places and lots of shade
  Plants of various heights provide retreats and shelter for your frogs.

• Suitable places to breed
  Ponds with shade cover and emergent aquatic plants are good breeding places for frogs. You may want to experiment by creating a temporary pond that fills only after rain - which many frog species prefer. Warning: Do not locate your pond under your own or your neighbour's bedroom window - frogs can be very noisy.

• A clean environment
  Chemicals should be avoided in your garden. Frogs have thin skin that easily absorbs chemicals such as fertilisers and pesticides. There is some evidence these chemicals cause growth abnormalities and reduce their immunity to disease. Frogs can also die if they eat poisoned insects.

If frogs are slow to arrive you could play a tape of frog calls on a hot humid night. Once one arrives, others will quickly follow and soon you will hear your own frog chorus.

Frogs sometimes drown in swimming pools, attracted by their high humidity and surrounding vegetation. Place a sloping float in the pool near the edge to give frogs a toehold so they can climb out.

For further information see our Inquiry Centre Fact Sheets or contact the Inquiry Centre.