Frog houses are a great idea. They snuggle into a cool corner of your garden and give your frogs somewhere to hide from the cats and cool off when they are not in the water. Frogs are important in the garden as they gobble up that nasty mosquito larvae. So if you have water you need frogs. How to make a frog house!? Drive around on the ride-on mower with the flames painted on the side, and yawn at the same time as you take a tight corner, then smash into a terra cotta pot housing your most precious Polyanthus Tuberosa Tubers that look like bulbs. That is Step number One.
Because the best Frog Houses are made of junk and broken pots. I repotted the Polyanthus Tuberosa ( I like to say Polyanthus Tuberosa because is sounds so intelligent when you say it out loud and it is the kind of word that rolls about your mouth!), using some of the smaller pieces of terracotta in the bottom of the new pot for drainage. Then I took the big curved broken pieces and added another broken pot that had been waiting for just such an occassion, and made a dark damp hide away for frogs. I tucked it in beside the wine cask that sits under a down pipe, where a frog lives every year. The cats hate my frog houses. 
When we were kids at the beach in NZ, we used to fill the inside of an old tire with water and almost always a frog would take up residence. Then you make the frog house inside the tire. Not as pretty but still fun for children.
Now look who we have here. This little chick has two mothers. I am not sure how this happened but yesterday I saw both chooks fly at and run off a bemused pea hen, then zoom clucking with indignation, back to this one little chick. I guess it is some kind of shared parenting. I would like to think it is the chicken TonTon retrieved but I don’t think it is. I think that one fell through the cracks in time. This might be his sister though. 
And here is our wee Stinky the Second. The chick recovering from a hawk attack. She has these two massive wounds on either side of her body but they have dried up and no longer smell. Yesterday I let her back in with her sisters. And they accepted her without fuss. Her ability to get about is improving too. There are plans afoot to make a mobile run for them. So they are hanging out in a makeshift run on the lawn. 
I call her Stinky the Second because the first Stinky was the first chick that I nursed back to health after a rat gnawed at her head. This was before I got cats and guineas for the barn and a rooster for the hen house. They keep the rodent population in check. Stinky lived for years but had a tendency to walk in circles. 
Now you are never going to guess what these seedlings are. Wait, I will find you the link. OK. Remember when we collected the hedge apples in the fall and stored them in a bucket outside all winter. Well, earlier in the spring we took the pongy mess down the back and poured it along some shallow trenches. I did not blog that step because frankly it looked like grey vomit and I could not see how any seed could be viable in that mess. However much to my surprise the seeds are sprouting. We are growing a hedge! A very old fashioned hedge! Oh me of little faith!!
Good morning. We had some rain in the night which was very welcome after such a hot day yesterday. It looks like today will be much cooler but sunny. The plants will have a wonderful stress free growing day today.
There are many new readers to the Kitchens Garden pages and WELCOME to you all! I am going to do a walkabout with the camera today and post the shots tomorrow for you. I will put together a page with introductions and updates for all the animal characters whose stories we follow. So you will all know who is who.
One thing to remember when you are reading is that I post around dawn every morning and the material is always from the previous day. So everything is absolutely current and from The Kitchens Garden and it’s Farm, unless we have a field trip. I will tell you if I use a shot that is more than 24 hours old, but I very seldom do.
Remind me to call the swine herd again today. I need to find out when we can pick up Sheila The Baby Piglet. I will certainly take you in my camera on that field trip.
Well Minty is calling from her gate. She is being weaned down to two bottles a day and is not taking it well. I hate the weaning.
Have a lovely day.
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
75 responses to “How To Make a Frog House”
Another interesting post. I hope you will have a wonderful week!
we have 3 big clusters of eggs in our pond – we aren’t sure if they are spring peepers, frogs, toads or salamanders. whatever they are, i will be sure to have some frog houses all throughout the garden and near the pond. thanks for the reminder!
your friend,
kymber
I would really like to be able to tell all the frog calls apart, there are so many different ones here but not having grown up with them, I am at a disadvantage.. Morning Kymber our new friend!! c
it’s the afternoon now so i will say – good afternoon Celi…it is really nice to be here. i love blogs that are upbeat and happy..and yours certainly is! i am almost finished reading through all of the previous posts and am enjoying myself. your followers and commenters are so nice…it is really nice to be here and among such nice friends. thank you!
your friend,
kymber
I am one of the “newbies”! In the one week that I have been following your blog, I have been fed and refreshed. This gal knows absolutely NOTHING about farming, but loves the idea. There is a smile on my face while reading your posts. What a wonderful way to begin a day!
i sure wish i had frogs here. i would love to have them by my ponds. i can’t wait to see the photos from the walk around!
Good morning Celi. The chorus of evening tree frogs is wonderful for our ears. Enjoy your day!
Ahhh, lovely to think about an evening shower. Sigh! We have a toad or three that lives with us in the yard…we see large ones and small. The cats don’t seem to bother them, Fuzzy can’t really see anymore and Boomer thinks all things are his friends. My only real enemy to our toads are the chickens…
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com
Your post was full of useful information today! I have tried on several occasions to grow the osage orange, and they didn’t even try to cooperate, so I will try your method next year! Oh, and thanks for introducing me to one of the common names for this useful shrub/tree! I do prefer “Hedge Apple.” ~ Lynda
I love the frog houses, Celi, and would love to introduce some froggies to my garden stream. I’ve tried, but they disappear and I am not sure we have the best conditions. We do have mosquito fish and that helps. I also wanted to comment on how glad I am that Stinky the Second is getting along well. What a harrowing experience for everyone. Good morning to you, too, Celi. My day starts out so warmly when I can pop in on the farmy early:-) Debra
Happy Monday morning!I find myself in need of a little frog house..yesterday, we save a tiny tree from from the coping along the pool( chlorine would not be his friend) After climbing up my sister’s head, and hopping on a very surprised Lexi’s head..we transplanted him to a nearby birch tree. A terracotta home would have been better.
J
How sweet, to have a frog climbing on you!! I am sure he is happy in his tree! morning jess.. c
Those osage oranges are something (I clicked back to the earlier post). Can’t wait to hear about the transactions around Sheila the pig. Be sure to wear your high heels!
Frog houses, what a wonderful idea! I’m going to print this right now and put it in my “to-do” binder that I’ve created for the big move so I don’t forget about it. The houses and land we’ve been looking at have lots of trees so it should be more than moist enough to attract a few frogs.
“Stinky lived for years but had a tendency to walk in circles.” That made me laugh out loud. 🙂
Have a great day! ~ April
I love frogs. We have lovely big green ones in our garden in Brisbane. I will make them a home when I return.
How very interesting.
I found this
“It was once thought that placing an Osage orange under the bed would repel spiders and insects. This practice has declined with the rise of synthetic insecticides. However, scientific studies have found that extracts of Osage orange do repel several insect species, in some studies just as well as the widely-used synthetic insecticide DEET.[4]” on Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maclura_pomifera
along with other interesting info!
Hi, C – catching up now that I am back – how interesting! Nice to check in on everyone and see that they are doing well 🙂
My heart is just aching for Stinky and Stinky Two. You are really a marvel Celi. I always stop by here, get a quick tug on my heartstrings, usually a little giggle and am left being amazed by all that you do.