an ode to toads
no, they won't give you warts!
"The toad has indeed no superior as a destroyer of noxious insects, and he possesses no bad habits and is entirely inoffensive himself, every owner of a garden should treat him with utmost hospitality." - Celia Thaxter
Hi! Hello! I didn’t anticipate missing two weeks in a row, but a gauntlet of family visits, day trips, birthday celebrations, end-of-year school obligations, garden duties, chicken doula-ing (it’s a long story, see below in the “loving” section"), and a spontaneous midweek work trip to NYC to see Martha Stewart at an event (!!!) meant that I’ve been burning the candle at both ends and something had to give. I took Amtrak to New York and technically could have worked on the train, but then I would have missed out on eight (four hours each way) glorious hours of reading Onyx Storm and then cracking into The Assassin’s Blade. How could I turn that rare opportunity down?!
Also, my old laptop is on its last legs and can barely handle opening up one single webpage, let alone my usual 40+ tabs that make perfect sense to my squiggly brain but that absolutely horrify my husband when I ask him to be my tech support.
But I’m back and ready to chat about something (hopefully!) near and dear to every gardener’s heart —the humble toad! And if you have neutral —or worse, negative —feelings about toads, I beg you to continue reading because I will make a toad lover out of you yet! Like that Mulan song, except replace “make a man out of you” with “make a toad lover out of you.”
Did you know that all toads are frogs, but not all frogs are toads? Frog typically refers to species that are aquatic or semi-aquatic and have smooth, moist skin, while the term toad generally refers to species that are terrestrial with dry, warty skins. You know, like this:
So scientifically speaking (thank you, Carl Linnaeus), there's no taxonomic distinction between frogs and toads—they're all classified as frogs. Whether you refer to them as "frogs" or use their scientific order name, "Anura," you'll be correct either way.
Not included in the above lists: both are incredibly cute and beneficial, and the presence (or lack thereof) of both reflects the overall condition of a natural area.
Do you see frogs and toads in an area? That’s very, very good!
Don’t see them? Bad news. Red alert!
While toads might not seem like the sexiest creatures on Earth, experts warn that the decline of frogs and toads can be an early sign of broader ecological issues and waiting to address these declines risks irreparable damage to the world's ecosystems.
So imagine my delight when I saw not one, not two, not three, but four toads while out in the garden last weekend!
While researching for this post, I came across the concept of “toad abodes” and I guess I’ve been unknowingly cultivating a thriving toad oasis in my garden. I have split logs lining the edges of all of the garden beds, a big pile of rocks to use to weigh down frost cloth and insect netting, and a large wooden potting table in the middle of the garden, which provides great cover and shade for them.
These are some of the examples of toad abodes that the Houston Arboretum gives:
I know what I’m doing this weekend! I mean, in addition to transplanting 50+ tomato plants and direct-seeding all of my hot weather plants. This could also be a fun project to involve my kids in — and for even more ways to garden with kids, check out this post:
growing up in the garden
"Why try to explain miracles to your kids when you can just have them plant a garden." — Robert Brault
According to Farmer’s Almanac, frogs and toads are “total carnivores, eating grasshoppers, beetles, cutworms, flies, slugs, and all kinds of insects. They will not eat your plants!” That’s a rare gardening win-win right there. Alamanac also tells us that:
A toad’s skin quickly absorbs chemicals like pesticides, fertilizers, and other pollutants, making it the “canary in the coal mine” for judging the health of an ecosystem. If you have an abundant toad population in your garden, it means you have a clean environment.
As if you needed any more reason to shun pesticides and chemical fertilizers! The American toad is estimated to eat upwards of 200 insects each night, so if you’re an organic gardener or someone trying to wean yourself off chemical pesticides, then you’re going to want to roll out the red carpet for these amphibians. According to The Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening, in just three months, a toad can eat upwards of 10,000 insects, 16% of which are cutworms. And if weather is moderate, toads in your garden may remain active from March to mid-November —meaning you have built-in pest control for the entire growing season.
How to Attract Toads to Your Garden:
Make a Little Pond —we have a koi pond that was here when we moved in, but it’s on the other side of the property from the vegetable garden. It doesn’t have to be anything large, but since toads also lay eggs in water and start out as tadpoles, they need a water source nearby to survive.
Provide Shelter — Create some toad abodes (examples above) or little unkempt natural pockets of your garden with plenty of cover that make you think, “if I were a toad, I’d totally hang out here.” Also try to avoid disturbing piles of leaves or debris—they’re prime daytime shelters.
Avoid Insecticides, Fungicides, Herbicides, and Pesticides — Toads absorb chemicals through their skin, which can be fatal. This incredibly bleak article from MongaBay highlights just how detrimental agrochemicals are to all life stages of amphibians.
Keep a Damp Environment — Toads absorb moisture through their skin, so ensuring you have some pockets of damp, hospitable space in the garden will make our warty friends happy and healthy.
Avoid Frequent Tilling — Toads burrow into soil to stay cool and safe during the day or hibernate in winter. So aside from not being great for your overall soil health, mechanical tilling can wreak havoc on toads, too.
Turn Off Outdoor Lights at Night —Artificial lights disrupt toad feeding behaviors and natural rhythms. Darkness also attracts nocturnal insects, which toads gobble right up. And lest we forget, turning off those outdoor lights at night is also crucial for migrating birds.
May your garden be a productive, thriving oasis of flowers, vegetables, and toads this growing season!
Until next (pizza) Friday,
Amy
LOLs of the Week
New on the Blog
These baked sausage patties are in heavy rotation in our house currently — they reheat in under a minute and are quick and easy to have alongside some scrambled eggs, which I make most days for the family. They’re a nice combo of sweet and savory, with the addition of a smidge of maple syrup to appease my two kids.
Reading
The Assassin’s Blade by Sarah J. Maas
The Good Life: Helen and Scott Nearing's Sixty Years of Self-Sufficient Living by Scott Nearing and Helen Nearing
Toxic Childhood: How The Modern World Is Damaging Our Children And What We Can Do About It by Sue Palmer
Martha Stewart’s Gardening Handbook by Martha Stewart
Listening
Growing
Wahoo! I tend to consider May 20 as our official last frost date in Central Massachusetts, but a local nursery owner advised me to never put tomatoes in the ground before Memorial Day, and boy am I glad I listened to him. Last week was whacky weather even by New England standards —so much so that I interrupted my hardening off schedule because we had daytime temps of 37º. Not freezing, but certainly not the kind of temperatures that would make my tomato seedlings happy or thriving. Since I was going out of town for a few days, I opted to keep them inside and started hardening them off again last Sunday.
This weekend, I’ll be tucking all of those tomato plants into the garden, along with direct sowing:
beans
corn
cucumber
watermelons
pumpkins
sunflowers
summer squash
winter squash
I’ll share the precise varieties for all of those once they’re in, because right now I only have concepts of a plan (IYKYK).
We’ve been enjoying handfuls of radishes every couple days, which my daughter enthusiastically harvests, washes, and eats with hummus. She calls them “pink chips” and if that isn’t an endorsement for why you should garden with kids, then I don’t know what is! She wouldn’t bat an eyelash at radishes from the store, but having helped plant them, water them, and now harvest them, she’s truly enjoying the fruits of her labor. She just turned 5, so if you’re still in the thick of the toddler years, finding them enthusiastic but less than helpful in the garden, just give it time.
The lettuces and kales have taken off wonderfully, having enjoyed the chillier than normal May temperatures, so we’ve been picking those via the cut-and-come-again method —simply pull off a few leaves from the outside of each plant, instead of harvesting the entire head of lettuce all in one go. That way, it will continue to grow and you can eat from the plant many, many times!
Making
asparagus cottage cheese egg bites
sausage and onion frittata for weekday breakfasts
DIY oreo cookies with leftover buttercream frosting from my daughter’s birthday cake (it was a classic Pinterest fail, so please enjoy the inspiration photo and the final result below)
rainbow frosted cupcakes for my daughter to bring to school on her birthday (these were a Pinterest success story, though!)
these baked sausage patties that I just published on the blog.
Loving
My new bike. When we lived in Santa Monica, my bike was stolen from our backyard in December 2019. It’s a little ironic, considering I bike commuted daily in New York City, left my bike locked up in some sketchy places, and never had so much as an attempt to steal it there. I guess I grew complacent, but also I was sadly naive about how rampant bike theft was in LA. Since I was pregnant with our daughter at the time, then postpartum, then moved across the country, then pregnant with #2, yadda yadda yadda, it never felt like the right time to replace it until recently. I did some research, consulted with a few bike friends, and attended a bike consignment sale a couple weekends ago hoping to snag one there! Alas, I got there when they opened and I guess people lined up hours earlier because 80% of the bikes were gone as soon as I walked in. But I was a woman on a mission, so I drove over to Landry’s Bicycles that afternoon. They’re a local Massachusetts shop, and employee-owned which I love! I had two bikes in mind, test rode them, and picked my favorite (the best color and thankfully, cheaper priced one). We’ve already been out for one family ride so far, and after not having ridden a bike for 5 years, I forgot how much I missed riding. Much less stressful riding on the rail trail than LA and NYC riding, that’s for sure. I ended up going for a Specialized Sirrus X 2.0 in gloss electric green and she’s one good looking ride.
Chick Watch 2.0. You may recall that we had a broody hen sitting on a clutch of eggs a few weeks ago, which I thought would hatch out on Mother’s Day. Turns out with the chaos of kids, dog, cats, chickens, and life, my husband accidentally collected the marked eggs under her one night and I didn’t realize until it was too late. But she’s a persistently broody hen, and just started immediately sitting on a new clutch so I’ve been letting nature run its course this time. Two others have joined her broody party (it’s contagious!) so goodness knows what’s going to happen. Anybody want any baby chicks? Hit me up if you’re in Massachusetts! I’ll know more this weekend hopefully.
Link Roundup
Toads are the garden’s heroes. Here’s how to help them thrive. [Washington Post]
The Bittersweet Beginnings of Vanilla Cultivation Can Be Traced Back to the Far-Flung Isle of Réunion [Smithsonian Magazine]
Our Favorite Gardens: We’re revisiting the best outdoor landscapes T’s covered, from a cactus nursery in Morocco to a wildflower meadow in England. [New York Times Style Magazine]
How the humble chestnut traced the rise and fall of the Roman Empire [BBC]
With Barbra Streisand and Oprah as clients, this gardener has a simple goal: perfection [Los Angeles Times]
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A day I see a frog or toad is automatically a good day.
I love toads. Soon as I saw the picture I could feel the cool belly when you hold them. So adorable like grumpy old men.
Love your posts so informative and made me laugh. Like King Charles with your thifting haul! 😂 totally me and actually an old crone. Haha Nice reprieve from the day to day chaos.