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”
That is very cool, I like your first step very much … but how frustrating! I wouldn’t be trusted with one of those ride-on mowers that’s for sure! Poor wee Stinky. I wonder how co-parenting works, any arguments yet? Have a great day. 🙂
We on the west coast can have salamanders in our gardens. My 4 urban chickens love to eat them, needless to say. To make salamander houses, wet the ground and put a heavy-ish board or shingle down in a shady place. You can also put a heavy pot down, but boards are best. The salamanders collect under there, safe from chickens. They’re nocturnal so they come out when the chickens are asleep. You can lift the board and see who’s at home! Great frog houses!
wow that is amazing, so a salamander is a little frog? excellent.. c
No, it looks like a newt, like an amphibious lizard. Some look like earthworms with tiny faces and legs, and others are more lizard-like. But they are amphibians like frogs and need damp and water and dark hidey holes.
well i am entranced.. and thank you! c
A frog house is a wonderful idea my friend – and you show it to be a simple enough structure to place 🙂
Because of our pool we often get frogs too 😉
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
If you break stuff often (like me) you will have lots of frog houses in the garden! c
Wonderful frog house! I can see why the cats would not like it. That’s how I put some of my old crockery to use. Glad to see Stinky the Second is doing well, and can’t wait to see that hedge as it comes (grows) along. 🙂
Morning robin, I will be interested to see how fast that hedge grows in the dry, it is right down the back, too far to water! c
Where do you find the time and energy to do sooooo much? Just reading your post is making me tired, I need to go take a nap.
I should think about building frog houses for my froggies (they are not real)!
Glad ‘stinky the 2nd’ is doing well.
Morning Norma, this is my job I guess. It is what i spend my time on.. so it is not too rushed.. c
Great frog house. I’ll remember to keep the broken terracotta pots. Because we aren’t there all the time, our resident frogs seem to think the house is theirs’ & we just visit. Favourite sub-let frog house of all time has been my old leather gardening joggers hung up high to dry out on a hook. Things are bad when you need to find different shoes so you don’t disturb the sleeping frog.
I can just see that happening! hilarious. c
Maybe that’s why I’m not allowed to mow the grass, you and I got our mowing lessons from the same place, apparently. I’m glad the little chick is doing better! It wasn’t funny, but I had to chuckle anyway at the one that walked around in circles. Oh my! Who knew such things happened to chicks? You are getting quite an education. 🙂
i never rode a ride on mower until a few years ago! thankfully this one is a very old slow model.. c
Just showed hubby your frog house, we have a large pond a the bottom of the garden that was dug in specially for frogs. We have cats too though so half the pond is fenced and cat proofed but I am sure I will see hubby making frog houses over the next few days
Morning Allison, how is the fall? are you getting colder.. c
So glad that Stinky the Second is doing so well. And I love your frog house! I need some frogs. 🙂
I need a frog house and now I know how to make one…thank you, and your Polyanthus Tuberosa for it’s sacrifice.
Sheila the Baby Piglet? I’m ready to see photos!
Morning Celi! Did you know that mint keeps the mice and rats away? It is a good herb to plant near the barn and hen house 🙂
Hi C, Love the frog house. Great idea.
Florence xx
Glad to see Stinky the Second is improving steadily; things are looking up for her with your TLC, but that is no surprise, given the care they get from you.
Great news about the hedge – what a surprise; oh ye of little faith!
I’m so glad your hedge apples are growing! And now you shouldn’t have any spiders, either…at least in close proximity to the hedge apples!!!!!!!!