A great joy in life for me is watching tadpoles take shape into frogs.
Every year I can't resist keeping tadpoles. I usually set up a home for them that they will love and I will feed them and help them through until they are big enough to hop out of their home on their own and live life in my yard. Yessss!
I usually keep around a 1000 a year. Yep I'm for real. Come to think of it... that's probably why I have a lot of snakes in the area too. Hummm.... now that part is not so good. Snakes eat frogs and are attracted to areas that have a lot of frogs. I should share some snake photos with you too. Maybe I will do that in future posts.
What do my frogs eat?
They love brussel sprouts. Did I say they loveeeeeee brussel sprouts! LOL! They really do. They enjoy cabbage too. And.... they love the yellow blooms off my squash plants too. When I drop a big fat blossom in the water they circle it like sharks and start munching away. It is so fun to watch.
Here's a picture of my squash plants that I have growing in flower pots. I pick the blooms from these plants to feed the tadpoles. I do NOT put chemicals on my vegetable plants so there is nothing on the yellow blossoms that would hurt the baby tadpoles at all.
I know I will get questions about the squash plants so maybe I will do a post in the future about all squash and tomatoes in the pic. Just so you know... my tadpoles do not like the green tomato plants so I don't try and feed them those.
Now here's a sweet fact for you.
I don't put fertilizer on my squash plants. I use the circle of life so to speak. I water them with my tadpole water which is fantastic natural fertilizer for the plants.
The nice part about growing tadpoles into frogs is that since I patio garden every year, I have all I need for tadpole food without having to buy any food.
I could sit for hours watching my little frog family
Every day I get to enjoy the tadpoles I take full advantage of it. You see tadpoles in my area only lay eggs in the spring / summer so I only get to watch them 1/2 a year. So every morning I have them I take a cup of coffee and sit down and watch them eating their breakfast. I could sit for hours watching them swim and watching them grow their legs and then watching them learn to crawl up a limb or plant for the 1st time. It is so exciting.
Live Everyday like a Holiday
In closing... nature is a beautiful thing and sometimes life is so fast pace that we have to remember to slow down and see the beauty in nature. I hope this post is a reminder to you, to love nature and the love of critters such as frogs. It must be said...not all days bring snakes. ~wink
Live everyday like a holiday. Love, Pam
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