Water Garden “EGGS by Easter”

the end of a snowman

 Now -  I promised you the water garden Easter eggs, right? Suprise! Some of you love them, some of you are put off by them. Frogs and Toads.  Both friendly garden creatures. The sacks or clusters of either frog or toad eggs in your pond. For most of you who cannot tell them apart ,you probably have toad eggs. If you are squeamish and want those so called “nasty things out of the pond” you probably don’t have friendly frogs all year, because those of us that do, love them.

      Hence, don’t worry about the clusters, toads don’t live in the water. As soon as the little black tadpoles develop legs they will leave the pond on their own, also bigger fish suck them up like a vaccum. How do I tell what animal is in the pond or laid the eggs? Perhaps you saw the adults. Toads are rough, normally lighter skinned, beige or brown, and look bumpy  or dry. Frogs  are green or brownish- green,  their skin looks moist and they are more likely to sit on rocks or lily pads all day and plop into the pond when you startle them. Toads will sometimes just start hoping through your  watergarden as a pond is simply a “public forum” to meet other toads.

Toads - often beige or brown, would rather live near a garden than in a pond

Toad eggs are masses of strands or strings of eggs.

Frogs stay near water, have moist skin. Sit on rocks or lilypads. Feed the frogs by throwing earthworms on nearby lilypads!

frog egg masses

The spring eggs we found growing up around Ohio and West Virginia were laid before the last frost. Some in March and fewer and fewer laid until summer. Sometime toads will even lay them in a puddle that may last only a few days.