New Life

Leopard frogs have found my artificial pond
Soon after I moved into this new house, I wrote about the wetlands I created. The larger one uses a pond liner and is designed to have saturated soil, but no standing water. The smaller one consists of a large clay pot set inside a black-plastic pool. This artificial wetland stays wet by wicking up water from the swimming pool and the swimming pool holds water when the rains are regular and dries up when they are not.
A wetland like this can be a nuisance if water stands in the swimming pool for more than 3 days in a row because it will allow mosquitoes to breed. There is no reason in the world to encourage mosquitoes even though a few other living creatures might feed on them. No living thing, to my knowledge at least, requires mosquitoes to survive and mosquitoes harbor some of the most deadly diseases known to humankind. I use a "mosquito dunk" to eliminate the mosquito breeding when the pot holds water for more than 3 days at a time. Although there could be repercussions that no one is now aware of, they have always been touted as safe for other aquatic organisms and I now have frogs and tadpoles so I'm believing that to be true.
The benefits of this wetland are the life that it can support. My saturated wetland is great for plants and the wildlife that use those plants, but it does nothing for aquatic species such as amphibians (frogs & toads), dragonflies, damselflies, and the like. Besides being fascinating neighbors, these species are invaluable allies to creating a balance in a living landscape. Last week, my landscape was deluged by frequent rain storms that brought it more than 15 inches in about 7 days. Shortly after that, I noticed small tadpoles in my pond. Not knowing what they were, I resigned myself to having to wait out their metamorphosis to see the final result, but then I noticed adult frogs. I've allowed a little adjacent vegetation to creep over the lip of the clay pot and this has seemingly provided the cover necessary to make the adult frogs feel comfortable. Some days I see one and on others I've seen two. Although not completely positive that these are the parents of my tadpoles, it seems likely.
Yesterday, I saw my first hummingbird. I've got eastern black swallowtail caterpillars again - to go along with the monarchs and gulf fritillaries that have been here for months. New butterfly species fly over now almost daily - cloudless & orange-barred sulfurs, zebra longwings, white peacocks, giant and spicebush swallowtails and cassius blues to name the most common. I've planted for all of them. Someday, I hope to share my landscape with their offspring.

Comments

  1. Sarah ConnorJune 26, 2019 at 8:19 PM

    I love so many things about this. Thank you for sharing!

    ReplyDelete

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