toad returns

I finally gave my garden a deep watering today. I didn't bother the past few days as I didn't have time to water deeply. And our community garden has limited water and it not really worth watering if anyone else is watering. (Next year we are getting a new system! Yippee!)

As I was watering, I discovered my old garden toad from the last two years. He is still here !!! He had dug into the soil under the squashes. As I watered, he moved on to another, likely drier, location.


He's (she's?) a really BIG toad.

another toad!

I came across another toad in my garden today. A very small one. Big Oracle Toad has company!

a toad house for my birthday!!

I was really lucky to get some garden gifts for my birthday this past week - a toad house, a little sign and a rain gauge. I put the toad house in a shady spot under the parsnips at my community plot. I hope Oracle Toad will appreciate his new home.

I spent an hour or so working in my plot today. I mostly removed mildewed and wilting squash leaves and vines. This gave me good space for fall seedlings. But it also removed shelter where Toad was hiding. I hope he will like his new home.

My new rain gauge is on my window sill as I admire it - a small gnome is holding the gauge. Looks like he will be good company for the other gnomes in my side yard garden.

garden toad

This toad is one of my best garden helpers (along with Skippy and my gnomes). The toad is at my community plot. I imagine he hopped into my garden when he was tiny. He is now way too big to get out through my chicken wire edges. I have seen him in the garden for 4 years now! He's (or she's?) probably about 5 inches long. A big one! He/she mostly hangs out under the potatoes or parsnips.

Any ideas for a name? (I've been calling him "Toad".)

garden toad

I think this is why the slug damage isn't so bad in my garden any more. Toads eat lots of bugs, slugs and snails. This big guy has been hanging out under my squash vines.

garden amphibians