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As the garden lies relatively dormant right
now, it’s worth reflecting on some of the natural help we could get to reduce our
dependence on sprays, especially for insect and snail control. Too much emphasis is placed
on ‘friendly sprays’ by many gardeners, when we have so many other options. The
couple I mention this week are winter dormant, but then so are most of our garden
predators too! One of our oldest forms of insect
control is the frog and its tadpole progeny, who have insatiable insect appetites, not to
mention more than a roving eye for slugs, snails, slaters, centipedes and even mice and
best of all, they feed at night.
All you need do to encourage a "Bull Frog" or two
is create a pond and allow a supply of Adelaide’s chlorinated water to settle for a
few days before adding your tadpoles. SA is the only state in Australia where you can
still legally collect tadpoles from a creek (excluding National Parks here of course).
Remember tad poling as a kid in Brownhill Creek? Well the lower reaches are a Conservation
Park these days, but the upper parts are full of tadpoles in spring and there are of
course lots of other waterways in our foothills.
Just make sure your pond is not under your bedroom windows,
because the summer melody of "Bull Frogs" answering their mate(s) with that
stereo ‘cluncking’ is more than most folk bargain for, but remember the enormous
quantities of mosquito larvae they eat as well as all the other nocturnal insects, as well
as Arachnida (Spiders), Molluscs (Snails & Slugs), Crustacea (Landhoppers &
Slaters) and Uniramia (Centipedes and Millipedes) that inhabit your garden.
If you aim to keep frogs of any sort outside, you will need
to keep stock your pool with the tiny native fish that don’t eat tadpoles! Carp of
all persuasions eat tadpoles and each other too. A flood lamp near the water to attract
tiny insects and moths to the pool surface at night. This is most valuable, both for your
garden and the frogs.
Other rather benign creatures for similar control of
insects and slugs and snails are lizards and skinks. The slow old sleepy lizard and the
faster and sleeker "Blue-tongue" lizard are wonderful allies and lucky is the
gardener with a garden large enough to have a resident "Blue-tongue". You could
virtually put the snail bait away forever! All they need is a pile of rocks under which to
hide and sun bake on a mild spring day. Even the tiny "Geckos" will soon find a
friendly garden if you have a cat-free zone. |
