Seasonal movers

1 SPRING: BUILD A POND

Frogs take readily to most garden ponds, however small, but bigger ponds are more likely to support toads. Both amphibians need shallow margins to help them get in and out of the pond, and frogs like warm shallows where their spawn develops more quickly. Frogs don’t do well in fish ponds because fish gobble up tadpoles. Include plenty of native pondweed to help the youngsters hide.

2 SUMMER & AUTUMN: PLANT SOME DAMP SHELTER

After the breeding season, frogs and toads spend several months hunting for insects, slugs and worms, while avoiding predators, the desiccating sun and your lawnmower blades. During the day they lie low in a damp, shady spot, such as a compost heap, log pile or stack of terracotta pots or bricks. Best of all, they love tussocks of grass in a semi-shady spot – but be careful when you cut the grass at the end of summer.

3 MAKE FROGGY FREEWAYS

As well as the right homes, most frogs and especially toads need to explore more than one garden to find enough food to support them, so a garden that’s enclosed by impenetrable fences is like a prison. All it needs is small holes cut into the base of fence panels to give them ‘froggy freeways’. Choose out-of-the-way places to make their escape routes, such as behind shrubs – ideal for them, and for you!

4 WINTER: GIVE THEM A SAFE HAVEN TO HIBERNATE

For frogs and toads, staying frost-free usually means burying themselves several inches underground. With their rather rubbery fingers they’re no diggers, but they can wriggle under a pile of compost or into cracks in the earth, and are very adept at squeezing into the tightest places. They might even head down abandoned mouse burrows or among tree roots. Be aware that some male frogs will hibernate in the mud at the bottom of ponds, relying on oxygen exchange through their skin in the near-freezing conditions, so mid-winter is not the time to clear out a pond.