What is this?
It's a Toad House!
Yep, a place to call home for your garden's best little helper, the little toad! Toads are beneficial because they eat bugs, lots of bugs, in your garden. They like dark, damp, shady places, that's why you will sometimes find them making a home under a rock, or an overturned pot that has created a dark, damp, space. So this is a great DIY that I stumbled across a couple of years ago and saved the website.
It's a pretty simple project that recreates the conditions toads like best: All you need is an 8" clay pot, a bag of small stones (your choice of color), and some glue or grout. Glue the stones on HALF of the clay pot using glue like Gorilla Glue or E6000.
You can make a pattern or just do random stones/pebbles. Once dry, dig a small hole in the ground, put the unfinished half in and fill with dirt and leaves and your Toad House is good to go!
I'm going to make several of these using some of the clay pots "Ma" (the previous owner) left behind when she moved. We figured that was a great use for them, since we might not necessarily need all of them out there. We hope to have however, happy toads and happy toads eat bugs! Lots of bugs!
I love your toad house with pebbles glued on. I got the pots and stones but I don't know what type of glue to use, that won't harm the toads. We haven't had toads or frogs for years and they are coming back starting last November, and I'm so happy love to hear them sing. Will the houses work for both toads and frogs? I think I got to large a lot so I will bury them a little deeper. Also does more than one toad or frog use each house. Thank you for the great idea and any answers you send me. We live in Napa Ca in case you are wondering about the area where our frogs have disappeared from. Thanks again Coni B
ReplyDeleteHello! I updated the post with the glue that I used. Gorilla glue is a great and so is E6000. We used the E6000 and it's held up well over the years. I've used Gorilla glue on other things outside and it's worked too so if I do more, I'll use them interchangeable.
DeleteUsually I've only found one frog in each one but who knows for sure, they may come and go a lot. You just dig a hole and bury it so that the upper half is what is sticking out of the ground and then fill up the recessed part with the soil you took out (hope that makes sense).
We are starting to get some toads and frogs back here it's so weird how they have disappeared around the country. Hope this is a good sign that more will come.
Thanks for stopping by!
P.S. You are in Napa, I'm jealous of what kinds of things you can grow there, so many veggies and fruits and flowering plants. :-)