Coming home in the dark on Thursday evening, I was surprised to almost step on a Toad as I came through the 'Woodland Garden'. I had to do a nifty pirouette in the torchlight to avoid a nasty squelch - my mind just wasn't in a 'Mind the Toads' kind of place.
It prompted me to think all things 'Toady' over the last few days.
Thought No.1) Is this an early Toad for my garden? It certainly felt so. I dived into my records to check, and was surprised to find that two Toads were already busy here on 5 February 2008, and mid February activity is not unusual.
I do think that is the beauty of keeping records - it irons out all the frailties of memory, and the tendency to leap to heartfelt but wildly inaccurate conclusions.
Thought No.2) Are there more things I can do in my garden to help Toads? Clearly building the pond was my big gift to the Toad World, which I augmented with lovely stick piles and brick/stone piles and open compost heaps for them to snuggle beneath, and rich, verdant, unpesticided borders for them to hunt through.
I will continue to enhance those things where I can, but I have one big issue to address - my boundaries are still too solid, with fences down to ground level in too many places restricting the movement of Toads out through other gardens, and blocking them coming back in again if they make it out. Creating more Toady/Froggy holes around my boundary is now firmly on the To Do list
Thought No.3) Might there be Toads already in the pond, then? Out I went with torch, the Toad-hunter's most important piece of equipment, and there sure enough was the first male. He's possibly still a tad optimistic, but it couldn't stop me from allowing myself Thought No.4) Spring is coming!
If you want to drop by my RSPB wildlife gardening blog, it is updated every Friday, and I'd love to see you there - www.rspb.org.uk/community/blogs/hfw
Toads are every where in my garden, I believe this to be down to having a number of heavily planted areas which are never touched. Behind the pond is a dry stone wall, rotting tree stumps and terracotta pipes all of which are ideal for toads. I also mulch under my shrubs and trees with leaves. The grass is never cut short so is home to hundreds of tiny slugs.
The toad’s favourite place to spend the day is buried in a pile of building sand. I copied their idea and piled some sand in a shaded corner and covered it with some terracotta ridge tiles, there are always toads making use of it. Have you got an undisturbed area where you could try something similar?
Build it and they will come.