How Frogs And Lizards Are Helpful In Organic Gardening

Nothing signifies a healthy garden more clearly than the presence of frogs and lizards. Skinks and lizards, whether darting about or sitting motionless in the sun waiting for passing prey, are an assurance that your backyard will be relatively free of the obnoxious insects on which reptiles feast. Frogs are no mean predators themselves and, like the proverbial canary in the coalmine, are reliable indicators of the quality of your little ecosystem. If your pond's not up to scratch, amphibians are the first to disappear. 

FROGS

Australia boasts well over 200 endemic frog species. Tree-dwelling, burrowing, jumping and running frogs can be found in almost every Australian landscape, from desert clay pans to rainforests, from alpine mountains to urban spaces -including, hopefully, your backyard.

 

But frog populations are in decline and human activity is thought to be largely responsible. Frogs are highly sensitive to chemicals and pollutants that make their way into the environment. The use of insecticides and herbicides, the loss of suitable habitat through the drainage of wetland areas and the degradation of watercourses have negatively affected our frog populations.

There are many frog species that are currently on the endangered list. So, what can you do?

What Frogs Are Need

Water

•  A pond is an important component of the frog-friendly garden and should be placed in part sun and part shade. This ensures a constant water source while providing sheltering sites around the edge and among the associated aquatic plants. Most importantly, it provides breeding habitat.
• Not all frogs have the same breeding requirements, so it's important to provide a variety of habitats. You might consider varying the depth of water in different parts of your pond or changing the density of your aquatic vegetation.
• Your pond can be as cheap or expensive as you like. It can be made from a depression in the ground lined with a plastic sheet, old railway sleepers with a proper pool liner, an old bathtub or a cut-down discarded water tank. Whatever you use, make sure it's safe and young children do not have access. 

Plant life

• A frog pond needs a surrounding garden. Frogs will relish the increase in humidity provided by the plants. You should choose dense plantings of grasses, clumping plants and broadleafed shrubs for frogs to rest on.
• Use native and locally grown plants to ensure they are well suited to your garden. This will help to replicate the habitat that your local frogs like.
• The garden needs to be well structured and layered, with groundcovers, understorey plants and larger trees to create a sheltered environment.

The pond will need a variety of plants: oxygenators, which are submerged plants that help oxygenate the water; floating plants such as native water fringe and waterlilies that float on the surface, providing landing pads and protection from predators when the frogs Are in the water; and  marginal plants that like moist soil or semi-submerged situations and will act as resting places and protection for frogs.

Pots, Frog Hotels And Hidey Holes

• A water pot can be any reasonably sized glazed or terracotta pot with drainage hole/s sealed so they hold water. Placement of vegetation or wood within the pot leading outwards will allow frogs an access point to enter and leave the container.
• A frog hotel consists of a large bowl that will hold water, four different-sized pieces of PVC pipe, pebbles and water. There are many instruction videos on the internet.
• Many frogs will shelter among your garden plants but there are those that shelter on and in the ground. Provision for these species of frogs can be made by adding rockeries and allowing leaf litter to remain in your garden.
• Man-made safe, moist cool retreats can also be provided by partially burying old terracotta flowerpots and ceramic pipes. Logs and rocks can provide attractive, frog-friendly garden features and thick leaf-litter can act as a moist hideaway. Even sandy soil locations for species such as the burrowing frog are important.

Note:

If toad eggs appear in your pond you should remove them. Toads lay their black eggs in strings of jelly that sit on the bottom of the pond or are attached to aquatic plants. Easy to spot.

Food For Frogs

• Frogs eat a vast array of insects. Insects will be attracted to the froggy areas of your garden because of the water and especially if you grow a wide variety of plants.
• Applying mulch to your garden beds is important as it will harbour a multitude of critters frogs can feed on. An active compost bin or heap will also bring the bugs.
• Installing a solar light near your frog pond will help attract moths and other flying insects at night.
• Another option is to grow your own frog food in the form of mealworms. 

Safety

• Avoid using pesticides: Frogs are sensitive and have thin skins that readily absorb common garden chemicals. They will also die if they eat poisoned insects. Stick to certified organic pesticides and fertilisers.
• Keep your cat in at night. Cats will eat frogs and are best kept inside when frogs are active. 
• Never relocate frogs or tadpoles as this can spread disease.
• Once your garden is frog-friendly, frogs will come of their own accord. 
• By encouraging your neighbours to follow your frog-friendly example, you can create a larger frog-friendly zone.

LIZARDS

Like frogs, lizards are also found in almost every environment in Australia: coastal regions, rainforests. arid areas and urban environments. 

Their diversity is vast, with Australia home to more than 520 species, broadly divided into five families:

• Varanidae monitors/goannas
• Agamidae dragons 
• Pygopodidae legless lizards 
• Gekkonidae geckos 
• Scincidae skinks 

The current threats to various lizard species include loss, fragmentation and degradation of habitat; high predation rates from introduced predators: and climate change affecting the reptiles' biology and nesting sites. 

What Lizards Are Need

Habitat

Understanding the various species' environmental needs and creating suitable habitats for them is critical for the success of a "lizard garden". Some lizards are sun-loving (heliothermic) while others tend to stay under cover, using the temperature of the environment rather than basking to control their body temperature (thigmothermic). This is one reason a variety of structural and thermal opportunities is ideal. 

Water

• Include a pond in your garden as somewhere to drink from, which will also encourage insects and frogs. 
• Use some sticks or rocks to act as a ramp to make it easy for any lizard that falls in to get out again.
• Provide a shallow bowl of water in a protected spot. 
• Keep the water supply regular and fresh and keep the bowl clean. 
• Having dense foliage and logs  nearby is ideal. 

Gardens

• Cover includes leaf mulch, hollow logs. bark, rocks and vegetation such as groundcovers or small shrubs where lizards can forage for food and retreat from predators.
• Leave leaf litter around your garden for small insects and their eggs.
• Mulch your plants - not only will this conserve moisture in your soil but it will provide lots of good hiding places for lizards and their prey. 
• Include some vines or creepers to cover your fences or walls. This will allow lizards to move around easily undercover. 
• Include areas of shade and heavy vegetation as well as areas with lots of sunlight and sparse plantings, as lizards love the variety and the sunbaking opportunities. 

Hidey Holes

• Like frogs, lizards need places to hide from predators, places to rest and places to nest and lay their eggs.
• Include PVC pipes or stacks of bricks as sheltering spots for lizards if you can't get fallen branches, logs or rocks. 
• Old tin or roofing is also great in the garden as somewhere for lizards to sun themselves or hide under. 
• A lot of lizard species create nests in moist soil under objects in the garden. 
• Leaving leaf litter around the garden, as well as providing coarse wood mulches around plants, can help encourage nests, as well as provide safe hiding places for the lizards if they are disturbed by predators. 

Food For Lizards

Lizard species vary from being almost entirely insectivorous to largely herbivorous.

Lizards, especially within the skink family, are extremely efficient controllers of garden pests, happily eating crickets, beetles spiders, grasshoppers, moths and cockroaches Other lizard species will devour worms, beetle larvae and centipedes. Bigger species of skinks, such as the blue-tongues and land mullets, love their fruits and vegies but will also be partial to a meal of snails. 

• Plant strawberry plants. Larger lizards like the blue-tongue just love strawberries.
• Of course, it doesn't have to be strawberries. You can also plant native berry-producing plants and or nectar-producing natives as these will attract insects for lizards to eat. 
• Composting sites such as bins and compost heaps will attract insects and snails for lizards to eat. 
• Avoid feeding lizards. They're great at finding their own food and should not become dependent on you for a feed. 
• This can quickly turn against the lizard if you go on a long holiday or move house. 

Safety

• Dogs, and especially cats, are also generally the enemies of lizards. 
• As well as the risk of direct predation, pets can force lizards to change their behaviour, such as abandoning favoured sunbaking and nesting sites. 
• Include rocks, big bits of bark and logs in your garden for lizards to sun themselves on and hide in and under. 
• Place your rocks and logs near some dense bushes or shelter so the lizard can quickly hide if a predator comes along. 
• If you feed your pets outdoors, lizards may be attracted to the pet food. In this situation they are vulnerable to attack from domestic pets or birds. 
• Use of pesticides, insecticides and other chemicals within gardens can have a detrimental impact on many lizard species and their food sources. 
• In the case of snail pellets, lizards can die if they eat snails that have ingested this poison.