Love the company of frogs? In this quick guide, discover how to bring frogs into your tiny home garden, no matter how small your outdoor space.
You can spend a lot of time communing with nature in your tiny home garden. Hours can pass as you enjoy all the beauty and life that exists there. If you’re like most people, though, you probably don’t give a lot of thought to the wildlife that makes its home in your micro-sized garden.
Aside from the plants and flowers you painstakingly care for, everything else is just a bonus. While we enjoy the company of wildlife such as butterflies and frogs, chances are, you don’t go out of your way to make your garden an inviting place to live for these critters.
However, with a few simple modifications, you can make your tiny home garden a frogs’ paradise. In this quick guide, I explain how to bring frogs into your tiny garden, and why you should consider doing so.
Why Frogs are Great for Your Tiny Home
Frogs are beneficial for your garden
There are several ways in which frogs are beneficial in a garden of any size, tiny or large, and lots of things that you can do to attract them. Let’s start with listing how frogs can help your garden…
- Frogs eat garden pests. The garden frog is a predator of many common garden pests. They eat many of the things that annoy you in your garden and help keep a healthy eco-balance. Mosquito larvae, sowbugs, and caterpillars are quite a treat for these tailless amphibians.
- Frogs clean your plants. Plants, especially vegetables, benefit from frogs as well. They will forage on the decaying outer leaves of many plants, which helps the plant remain healthy. These leaves are usually not fit for human consumption anyway, so it means less work for you in the long run.
- Frogs are great company. If you have children, frogs provide a great opportunity for education. Frogs are fascinating creatures that kids love to watch and interact with. Since garden frogs are harmless, having them in your garden is the perfect opportunity to teach young children about wildlife and the proper treatment of animals.
How to Attract Frogs into Your Tiny Home Garden
Many people think that frogs will only come to residences with large ponds and sprawling wild gardens. However, that is not true. Frogs are quite common in urban gardens with the right conditions, including tiny gardens and ponds as small as a half wine barrel.
Now let’s talk about how to attract those little green creatures to take up residence. Try these tips to add some froggy life and beauty to your backyard garden.
Make a Small Frog Pond
One of the best ways to attract frogs to your garden is to create a small frog pond. A frog pond should not be too deep, have plenty of plant cover for protection and hiding, and contain still spots for breeding and laying eggs. You could even add a few fish to your pond, but make sure they are ones that don’t find frog eggs to be a delicacy.
It’s okay if building a frog pond isn’t an option. As long as there is plant life and a water source of some sort (a birdbath, or even a bucket of water that’s accessible) frogs will find your garden hospitable.
Craft the pond edges from wood, rocks or concrete (or make a ramp), with plenty of aquatic plants, so the frogs can easily climb in and out of the water.
Keep Your Frog Garden Damp & Shady
The moister your garden is, the more hospitable it will be to frogs and they will move right in. This doesn’t mean your entire tiny home garden needs to be damp and shady – just dedicate an unused corner to it, and that will be plenty.
Semi-tropical plants such as ferns and bromeliads hold the water and are loved by frogs, as they can hide under the leaves and cavities of the plants.
Build Micro Frog Shelters
Amidst damp garden leaves and near your frog pond, you can even add a few toad abodes (small ceramic houses for frogs and toads) here and there for housing. Make your own toad abode by turning a flowerpot upside down and propping it up with a rock.
Deter Predators
Where possible, try to find a place that is relatively free from predators, such as snakes and cats. Find out more about how to deter cats from your tiny garden here.
That’s about it. Situate your frog garden in a damp shady place with a reliable water source and plenty of vegetation, and watch the frogs flock to your garden.
Now that you have frogs catered for, have a look at ways to bring other beneficial wildlife into your tiny home garden.
