The Frog Garden.
This spring John built a new garden. He had an interesting concept. He found this in a magazine but we lost the magazine so if someone reading was the writer of this please get in touch and I will give credit where credit is due as this is a great little garden.
In a nutshell. He dug a shallow wide hole close to the woodshed (the Woodshed is called the Wendy House). He lined this depression with heavy plastic. 
He layered broken bricks, gravel and broken concrete (just rubbish that will drain) onto the plastic. He divided the hole into three -lengthways, and created a channel through the middle part with concrete blocks. The outside two parts he filled with the excavated good soil and compost, etc. 
So the raised beds are in a U around the channel of water. With a boardwalk running above the channel. He weeds and works from this little bridge. 
He ran a pipe from the guttering on the Wendy house to the channel. This filled the channel with water when it rained. This water filters outwards and waters the plants. It is so simple. And it would be perfect in a small backyard garden. 
It grows fantastic peppers and eggplants. I worried about mosquitoes but this little garden is noisy with these guys. This is why it is called the Frog Garden.
Boo
c
The Kitchen's Garden 
65 responses to “in a frogs eye”
The veggies on your patch looks so nice, I wanna have a patch like those 🙂
This is the beauty shot patch, it got all the best compost!! c
LOVE IT!
Have a happy week.
🙂 Mandy
Thank you Mandy, you have a happy week too!! c
Gotta love the froggy-music in the spring!
I know Miss Tomato, judging from the noise i think about 6 or 7 frogs have taken up residence there for the summer, evidently they hibernate in the winter so here is hoping they will all be back next year.. Frogs are pretty amazing.. c
What a great idea. So simple. The photos are amazing.
Good Morning early bird, Simple ideas are always the best i think.. c
I can’t wait until I save up enough to rehab our yard/garden. I will gladly incorporate a ‘soaker channel’ into my main back bed so I might have the remotest of chances of growing tender stuff despite the drought here. Connecting to the gutters is perfect use of resources.
Good idea kathryn, I think it would be a perfect garden for a small area, plus John pretty much made the whole thing from junk, except for the plastic, even the boardwalk is made with packing timber.. c
That is a wonderful garden C 🙂
I love eggplants..I am sure they taste heavenly fresh
What a good idea! And I love the sound of frogs at night 🙂
very simple and good fro day places too! c
How nice that you and John put in all that effort to make such a nice garden for the frogs! 🙂
Nancy
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I shall pass that on to John Nancy, that will give him a laugh! thank you.. c
I can’t believe the wonderful photos you got of the frog. The frogs that line the pond at our home jump in the water the minute I am ten feet away.
He was a very patient frog, Karen.. the best kind.. maybe he WAS a prince! c
Beautiful pictures!! That frog is amazing!!
Thank you Ambrosiana, he is a sweet chappie.. c
I really love this post and the frog pictures. Thats such a good idea to build.
And as we really did have a very dry summer it was the garden with the best fruiting plants, the big gardens got so dry! c
What a fantastic idea – our neighbour seems to have a garden full of frogs but they won´t visit us…don´t think they´re keen on the dogs!
What a cool little frog, do you mind sharing your garden with them? Do they get into the veggies?
they eat bugs so we love them!! c
Love it… and thank you for welcoming the “frog people” in your garden. They are such gorgeous creatures (I know, beauty is in the eye of the beholder!). They probably think you built this little haven just for them… and perhaps you did, unconsciously!
Morning Granny, yes john made it for frogs and plants, he promised they would come and they did.. It is quite the loudest garden in the summer! c
Oh Cecil, please do tell us more about this frog garden! I LOVE this idea! And I’m going to do it but I need details and a google search produced nothing. May I ask clarifiying questions/statements?
1. Dig up an entire area – let’s say a 10 x 5 ft garden, 2 feet deep or does it need to be deeper? A foot or so deeper in the middle water channel?
2. Line the entire area with plastic and then add 6 inches? a foot? of rocks and bricks.
3. Backfill the entire area, all but the deeper middle channel, with dirt/compost.
4. Place the board walk boards over the deep middle channel and edge it with bricks/blocks to keep it from filling in with dirt and to hold the boards in place.
5. Fill the middle channel with rain water.
6. Plant the garden.
7. Wait for frogs.
8. Wait for veggies.
I can hardly wait to get started!
That is just about right but you also need to run a hose from the gutter of a nearby building to channel that rain water under the board walk. John found the directions in an english magazine years ago which is long since gone.. the sides are very shallow and slowly it grades down to deeper in the middle, make your brick walls before you create the boardwalk. I don’t think it is any deeper than two feet in the middle, maybe a bit less if anything, as you need the water to stay high for osmosis to keep the soil damp. WE got rid of piles of old bricks and debris that were laying about the buildings. Those poles you see on the sides are for when he turns it into a plastic house in the autumn. What I will do Lacey is try to get some better shots for you.. Oh dear my answer is quite muddled. I am not at my best this morning.. c