Water, water everywhere
By By Gail Barton / horticulture columnist
Feb. 29, 2004
These and many similar comments have woven their way into the fabric of conversation this past week as our local creeks and rivers have behaved like rambunctious and unruly children.
As I write, the rain is gently falling. I've got a case of spring fever. The reason may be that this weekend I heard some of the first high-pitched calls of the spring peepers. I'm always excited to hear those first frog songs. In Mississippi, the spring peepers begin to sing when it is still winter, and to me they are a definite sign of spring.
I attribute the frog songs to the presence of a tiny garden pond near my house. About 12 years ago, my husband Richard hand-dug the pond. We lined it with a piece of heavy plastic pond liner. We bordered the pond with rocks to hide the plastic and installed a concrete spitting frog to keep the water moving.
The day that we filled it with water, we saw our first dragonflies in the garden. A few days later we began to hear frog calls that were different than those we had heard before. The calls were closer to the house than normal. One morning I ventured out with my cup of coffee to find strands of frog eggs floating in the water. I was amazed at how many eggs there were. There in the early morning light they glowed like strings of pearls.
After I found the frog eggs, I decided to pick up a book so I could understand what was going on in my pond a few feet away.
I learned that there are 28 species of frogs in the state of Mississippi and that the singers are always the males.
During spring usually after a rain the males go to a breeding pond and sing to attract a mate. When a female responds to the call, she lays eggs in the water. The male fertilizes them there.
With most species, the eggs hatch into tadpoles in one to three weeks. The tadpoles have gills, a mouth and a tail. After hatching, the tadpoles stick to weeds in the grass or water for about a week before they begin to swim. They feed on algae which is a major pest in ornamental ponds.
After about three months, most tadpoles absorb their tails and grow arms and legs. A few species like bullfrogs take as long as three years to complete the transformation. As they begin to look more like adults, the tadpoles begin to eat plants and dead bugs. Shortly after the tail is absorbed, they become terrestrial and leave the water. All species, even tree frogs, return to the water to mate.
I can identify a few frogs by their calls. I knew that we had spring peepers and leopard frogs around and in the pond but I had never heard a bullfrog. Being impatient, I mail ordered bullfrog tadpoles from a company that sold pond supplies. The next week I heard bullfrogs singing in the pond. If I had just waited a week or two, I could have saved some money!
The little pond has definitely been a part of our daily life. Its tricking water lulls us to sleep on any night warm enough to keep the windows open. During the frigid late winter months, it brings the spring peepers near and sets my spring fever in motion.
We've been enjoying our little pond in all kinds of weather with almost no maintenance or expense for more than 12 years now. I can't say the same about any other area of my garden.
Considering that it barely takes up 50 square feet of garden space, the pond is extremely high in entertainment value.
Gail Barton is the coordinator of the Horticulture Technology Program at Meridian Community College.
