Frogs have been naughty in my fishpond

Beautiful day today!

Temperature: 71 °F / 22 °C; Humidity: 29%; Wind: 12 mph / 18 km/h from the SE.

The fishpond outside my door was becoming a disgrace, and since Spring is sprung, old Adam the Gardener came out in me this morning.

I got rid of all the rubbish (click thumbnail), tipped some boiling water on some clinging roots and stems that were too hard to extract from the concrete, and planted a grafted Grosse Lisse tomato. I've never grown grafted tomatoes before, and I've been told that you don't trim the laterals as you do normally, but you stake them. We'll see how she goes.

Getting down and dirty with the pond, I got a good glimpse of frog spawn and I'm really pleased with the shot from my Olympus C-370. I regret that I disturbed the eggs in my vigorous gardening but hope they will survive Oaf Wilson and the goldfish.

As most people these days know, frogs are disappearing worldwide. I've long been of the opinion that, wherever I live, if I haven't seen a frog for two years or haven't heard a frog for one, my locality is sick and needs a lot of restoration. By that rule of thumb, Sandy Beach isn't totally sick yet.

Frog decline
The Frog Decline in Australia (1996 paper)
Declining Amphibian Populations Task Force
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frog#Distribution_and_status

Tagged: coffs+harbour, frog+decline, amphibian, frog, frogs, gardening, tomato, australia