Frogs vary in colour and size, from brown to green and even yellow to red! Their length varies from 8-13cms. They have a lifespan between 5-10 years and have been protected in the UK since 1981. They are commonly seen between February and October in most of the UK except for some of the Scottish, Scilly, and Channel Islands.
One of the benefits of having frogs visiting your garden is that they are fantastic pest-eaters. Frogs, toads, and newts will eat up slugs, snails, and other invertebrates and so they will all help to keep your garden pest-free!
Amphibians and reptiles, such as frogs, toads, newts, lizards, and snakes will frequent gardens with log piles, sunny spots, ponds, bogs, and compost heaps.
Surprisingly perhaps, whilst frogs breed in ponds during the spring, they spend much of the rest of the year feeding in woodland, gardens, hedgerows, and grassland.
How to attract frogs
The most obvious thought would be to provide a pond in the garden. If you do have a pond where you wish frogs and tadpoles to develop always ensure that at least one side of the pond has a gradual slope to dry land so that the young amphibians can leave the pond once the tadpole stage is finished. If it is not possible to provide a gentle slope, cover a steeper slope with chicken wire to give enough grip to the small frogs.
To prevent predators such as birds accessing the frog’s plant food cover around the pool to give shelter. To allow the frogs a place to rest out of the water, then lily pads work during the season, but year-round rest can be provided by rocks which protrude above the surface of the water.
It can be a hazardous task to populate a pond by transferring spawn or tadpoles as they are very susceptible to infection and diseases. The best way to populate a pond is for amphibians to colonise the pond naturally, as there are very possibly amphibians living locally in the area already.
Remember that fish will eat spawn, tadpoles, and other pond life, so if you wish your pond to be a haven to amphibians you should not keep fish in the pond.
Keeping Frogs
During the winter amphibians and reptiles live in underground chambers called hibernacula. This enables them to be protected from the cold. Providing a hibernaculum in the garden provides a space for amphibians and reptiles to hibernate. Frogs will also hibernate in pond mud.
To make your own hibernaculum you should use a sunny spot in the garden. Dig a hole, about 50cm deep and approximately 1.5m across. Place logs, branches, bricks, and rocks in the hole whilst leaving plenty of gaps in between. For the entrance, insert drainpipes from ground level into the hole and then cover the whole pile with soil to a height of around 50cm. Once you have your mount, plant meadow seeds or long grasses which also provides a summer haven for pollinators.