The Painted Fish is registered with the Open Garden Scheme and are having their Open Garden weekend on Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th of September. Kylie Wheatley from Red Tent Events has rallied the local community and local businesses involved in sustainability and organised a street stall market called The Sustainability Fiesta.

So come along and see The Painted Fish’s wonderful frog ponds and gardens and soak up the atmosphere of an Eco Friendly ergo Frog Friendly Fiesta! Yours truly will be there with my very own stall, you can buy a cute frog heat bag or a frog-in-a-pond jelly for the kids and take home a Perth Zoo Frog Pond sheet to get you started on your own frog pond in your own backyard.

The Painted Fish Open Garden Scheme Sustainability Fiesta is being held in Hulbert Street, South Fremantle on Sat 5 & Sun 6 September and is open 10am til 4pm both days. See you there!

I stayed at The Painted Fish in Fremantle with some friends on the weekend. I can see I am going to have to orchestrate a dire need for more time away soon, just so I can get back there. Or maybe I should take my family and share it with them.

The Painted Fish is accomodation at South Beach in Fremantle, but with a difference. It is an Eco Village. Three wonderfully original dwellings snuggled on an ordinary suburban block, if you can call Fremantle ordinary. Personally, I see Fremantle as another world entirely. The three buildings are all separated beautifully by organic vegetable gardens, ponds, sculptures and ancient trees which gnarl they way to the heavens.

Sustainability is the concept that oversees the whole arrangement. From wonderful innovations with outdoor showers, to photo-voltaic cells powering the amenities, to passive heating and cooling systems, the designers have thought of it all. And they’re still applying more fabulous ideas all the time.

What has this got to do with frogs, you may ask? You should see their frogs! Apparently they have to give out ear plugs in spring and summer to guests so they can sleep at night! Shani, one of the operators of this fabulous retreat, told me she has at least 15 resident frogs which sun themselves on rocks around the ponds, and gets thousands of tadpoles each year. And the size of them! Fat, happy, little buddhas they are.

If you want to be inspired visit their web site at www.thepaintedfish.com.au. There are many great photos of the ponds and the grounds and some of their frogs as well.

They are also part of the Open Garden Scheme and will be having an open garden in September sometime. I will keep you posted.

Motorbike frogs are very competitive survivors.

One of their little tricks for eliminating the competition is to exude a chemical as they emerge from the water in the last stages of developing from tadpole to frog. This chemical has the effect of inhibiting the development of other tadpoles in the pond. The tadpoles don’t turn into frogs and therefore don’t compete for food with the lucky fellows who did.

It seems to me that this chemical builds up as more froglets emerge until the concentration is enough that it has the desired effect on all the remaining tadpoles. Pretty slick, huh!

Another nasty trick is associated with their hunting style. Motorbike frogs are motion hunters. They will eat only things that move and are of a suitable size. Unfortunately, this includes smaller frogs. Yikes! This is a very effective way of eliminating upcoming threats to the food source.

Motorbike frogs grow in proportion to the amount of food they eat and, so, the more they eat the bigger they get. It is very important to them, therefore, to protect their claim on the food in their environment. It’s a Frog eat Frog world!

Have you ever considered creating a frog pond as a community effort in a communal setting such as a school or social centre?

Rosalie Primary School has recently played host to a PEAC group headed by teacher Kirsteen McCrory who have made creating a frog pond a fabulous learning experience which also gives back to the school community.

The children involved in the project researched all aspects of healthy frog pond requirements and put together proposals and plans for their vision of a perfect frog environment. These proposals are on display in the Rosalie Primary School Library (Onslow Road, Shenton Park). They are marvellous sources of all things frog pond and include costings of materials required to finish the project.

They recieved funds from the Rosalie Primary School to purchase materials like pond liner, plants and fish, and then all mucked in to help dig, fill, plant and generally create a wonderful frog pond in the school grounds. It is complete with a bog for attracting Slender Tree Frogs, lots of logs and rocks for shelter, and plants to keep the water healthy.

Calinda from Woodvale Fish and Lily Farm was a fantastic mentor for this project. She provided expert advice on the right plants for a healthy water system, and lots of other useful information, as well as ultimately being very generous in donating goods when budgets ran low. You can visit their site at www.woodvalefishandlilyfarm.com

I’m hoping to have the clever kids from PEAC as guest bloggers soon, to give us their insight on creating a community frog pond. Please send your comments if you have had any experience in this type of endeavour. We would love more stories about communities coming together through frogs.

I recently got hold of a terrific frog fact sheet developed by Perth Zoo and Millennium Kids Inc with students from South Perth Primary School (2007). It is called 10 steps to creating a Frog-friendly garden.

It is full of good instructions for making easy frog ponds from baths and buckets and useful tips on location and design. It really encourages the use of natives in all things to do with your frog pond, from the water plants, to the plants surrounding your pond, to the fish you put in your pond.

I got my copy from the SERCUL exhibit at the Garden Show, but I’m sure you can get one from the Perth Zoo. If you come across one, grab it! It’s a very good information source.

The one thing I got from it that I wanted to comment on was the Native fish species that are quoted as being great for controlling mosquito populations, and are frog and tadpole friendly.

Native Fish Species

Western Pygmy Perch (Edelia vittata)
I have so far found it quite easy to source these fish. They do seem to be very popular at the moment. Most places sell them as soon as they get them but they are easy to find. A couple of good sources are Exotic Tropical Fish at Unit 5/1 Dellamarta Road, Wangara. Also try Water Garden World at 2 Erindale Road, Balcatta.

Western Minnow (Galaxis occidentalis)
I have not been able to find a reliable source of this fish. I’m not sure if the fish wholesalers actually stock them.

Swan River Goby (Pseudogobius olorum)
This fish is only occassionally available to the fish shops. They will try to get them in but the supply is not as constant as with the Western Pygmy Perch.

One thing I did learn from this quick bit of research was that the reason these fish are frog-friendly is because they are small or have small mouths and so aren’t physically able to eat the frog sqawn or small tadpoles.

You may be able to persuade your local pet shop to order you one of these species of fish to save you the leg work. Give it a go! My local, Subiaco Tropical Fish and Bird Store, were very willing to help. Let me know how you get on.

We went to Garden Week at Perry Lakes today and while we were wandering around my daughter spotted something dear to our hearts - A Frog Friendly Exhibit!

SERCUL, or South East Regional Centre for Urban Landcare have an exhibit at the show and they are trying to make people aware of the danger of too much phosphorus in our environment. They also have a lot of information about creating a frog friendly garden.

There is so much fabulous information in their site and I walked away with so many pamphlets packed with so much valuable advice on subjects like recycling, composting, attracting frogs to your yard, healthy gardening and frog facts.

You can check out their Website at www.sercul.org.au/pag.html.

Have a look at the Great Gardens Website while you’re at it at www.greatgardens.info or phone the hotline on 1300 369 833.

They run free Great Gardens Workshops and Great Food Gardens workshops as well which provide gardeners with practical river-friendly environmental practices to create beautiful, cost-efficient and sustainable gardens.

These free workshops provide information on how to become water-wise and fertilise-wise to keep our rivers healthy. Great Food Gardens workshops are fun and provide information on how to grow delicious fruit and vegetables.

You can register online for these wonderful events and they’re run at many locations, probably one near you.Let me know if you visit this exhibit or these websites. I’d like to know if you found them as fascinating as I did.

Your frogs will inhabit your whole yard. They are motion hunters and will roam the yard, and sometimes the neighbourhood, gobbling anything that moves. If it don’t move they’re not interested.

Because of this voracious appetite they grow quite quickly. I have a couple of frogs that emerged from the water in January or February as small as a five cent coin. Now in April they are unrecognisable as those browny grey little blobs. They are as big as my nine year old sons hand and are splendid green and gold.

The evidence that they inhabit my whole yard is their droppings, scat, poo if you will. I find it every where and quite delightedly so, as this is like a little calling card. My frog woz ‘ere! I find it on the side of the pool, on the hand rails of the pool, on the lips of my pot plants, on leaves in my passion fruit vine, and even on the arms of the plastic chairs around my outdoor table.

A frog poo is discernible by its shape and texture. It is cylindrical in shape with points on both ends. One points up and the other points down! Its texture is a bit uneven as you can see the shape of what the frog has eaten.

I became quite curious about what my frogs were finding to eat in my backyard and one day got up the courage to pull apart a poo and see what I could see. I found a dropping that I knew was a few days old. It had been baking in the sun on the side of my pool, so I knew it would be dessicated and I just carefully broke it appart. It was fascinating. I could see compound eyes, insect legs, wings. Wow! How abundant the wildlife must be out there that we just never see!

The next time I found a likely looking frog poo I picked it up to examine it and it crumbled in my hand. It was 90% sand with only a single set of compound eyes at the very end like some evolved boondie with eyes. I was very puzzled about the eating habits of this frog! Maybe his aim was just a bit off that day.

If you are fortunate enough to live near a lake or swamp or marshy area you will find it is a case of “build it and they will come”. For those of us poor shmucks who aren’t you may have to introduce frogs to your backyard.

There are laws about keeping frogs in captivity. For instance you need a license to keep them enclosed. So you don’t want to go kidnapping frogs from foreign lands as this is quite illegal. Also they, quite possibly, will simply take off. Frogs have a favourite territory and if you take them from it they will attempt to find their way back. Very sad if that territory was 300km away! Also, we definitely do not want to be spreading the Frog Fungus by transporting froggies all over the continent.

The best way to get frogs to set up camp in your backyard is to introduce them as tadpoles. Now this can be quite problematical. Where, in this day and age, do you source tadpoles from?

One way is to keep an eye out at your local primary school. Classroom teachers are amazing sources of tadpoles. I think things like lizards, mice and tadpoles gravitate towards them! Neighbours and friends are another source as they may already have operational frog systems.

An above board, no nonsense and fantastic source, though, is the WA Museum Frogwatch Tadpole Register. This is a service run by the staff at the Museum of WA. You can email them with your contact details and your suburb and they will connect you with people in your area who have a surplus of tadpoles in their ponds. Their email address is frogwatch@museum.wa.gov.au.

Have a look at their site for more information. Go to www.museum.wa.gov.au/frogwatch, click on Learn about frogs, click on Tadpole Exchange Programme and then click on the word more at the bottom of that paragraph. It tells you all about the programme and how to be a part of it. There is a link there that allows you to email directly!

They are planning to upgrade their system in the future so that you can register on line for the Tadpole Exchange Programme, but as yet you have to email them to apply.

Good luck taddie hunting. Let me know how you get on.

You should now have a great hole in the ground, lined in either black plastic, pond liner or fibreglass. The next step is to fill it. Just put the hose in and turn on the tap.

Now you have a hole with water in it! Very soon, if you don’t do something with it you will have a hole with water in it and about a billion mosquito larvae. No one wants this. So you’ll have to make some decisions.

FISH
The first consideration is fish. Tadpoles don’t usually eat wrigglers (mozzie larvae). They are mainly herbivores and will feed on algae to a certain extent and pond plants as well as other microscopic bits. An interesting bit of information is that taddies will eat their own refuse, including dead mates and other stuff floating on the bottom. So to combat your mozzie problem you will need fish of some sort.

Gold fish, comets and other pond fish look nice. A little warning though; hungry koi will eat tadpoles. I found this out when they desimated my introduced taddies. They will need a filter system to keep their water clean and oxygenated. Gambusias caught from the local swamp are good because they keep the mozzies at bay and will live in appalling conditions. But both of these will probably eat most of your frog spawn once you get to that stage.

Another alternative is a native Western Australian fresh water fish called a pygmy perch. You can get them from specialist fish stores, but they tend to be expensive (around $4 for a tiddler). I found that they simply disppeared from my pond at a rate of about half that I bought, and they weren’t that effective on the mozzies. I was assured that they would not eat frogspawn, but as yet this hasn’t been tested in my pond. Minnows are another native fish which will not eat frogspawn, but I’m not sure where to obtain these.

I have a mixture of my remaining pygmy perch and gambusias in one pond and koi and goldfish in the other pond. So for one of my ponds at least there is the issue of filtration.

FILTERS
The sound of running water is music in a backyard. Therefore a filter system of some sort for your pond is a great idea whether you think you need it or not. A small filter will not set you back too much. It will clean your water to keep it looking clear and appealing. You can also rig it to create a waterfall of sorts. I use an old bucket and pipe the water from the pump up into the bucket. The bucket is tilted toward the pond and as it fills the water overflows back into the pond. It has a very quaint effect, and the sound is really soothing. Some pumps also have little sprinklers you can set up to give the tinkling water sound.

A little tip I picked up from a guy at Watergarden World to calculate the cost of electricity for a year of running your filter 24 hours a day (recommended for koi and goldfish) is to multiply the wattage of your pump by 1.24. This will give a princely sum of about $30 for a 24W pump, ample for filtering a pond about the size specified as a minimum.

PLANTS
The next thing to consider is plants. Frogs will use these to shelter under, on and within while enjoying the water and they will use them as an anchor when laying their spawn. There are a seemingly endless variety of pond plants available, so have some fun with it. I have pond lillies. These are a good water oxygenating plant, good for the health of your pond. Also some umbrella grass and dwarf papyrus; these give my pond height. Water iris is another one. I can’t wait for it to bloom!

Most pond plants propagate themselves and can be easily divided when they out grow their pots. So if you have friends or neighbours with ponds you can help each other out there. Make sure you use pond soil to re-pot though as normal soil washes out too easily and mucks up your pond.

With your fish, filter and plants now installed you are really set. Just one last tip. Tadpoles are very sensitive to chlorine so don’t introduce them for about 7 days after you have filled your pond. Have fun with your frog pond!

Your average Motorbike frog is not a fussy individual. He will be happy with a bucket full of water if it means he may have the chance of attracting a willing partner.

Start by choosing a site. If you have some good plants growing already in your garden you may want to locate your pond in and around these. The frogs will be able to find refuge and food in a well established ecosystem.

Climbing plants are great for Motorbike frogs. They will dwell as much in the complex vine system of a passion fruit as they will in their watery den.

If you are starting from scratch there is so much scope for the imagination.Start by designing and digging the hole for your pond. If you are planning to line your hole with black plastic or pond liner, the sky is the limit.

You are the designer of your pond and can go with what ever shape you like. Try to make it at least 50cm deep and about 80cm long by about 40cm wide.

When you are happy with the dimensions of your hole, measure the length, width and depth and calculate the amount of liner you will need to purchase.

The length + two times the depth = the length of the liner and the width + two times the depth = the width of the liner. Add about 20cm for overhang and you should be right.Hardware stores like Bunnings have black plastic in pre-cut amounts.

If these sizes don’t suit you can get pond liner by the metre from stores like Water Garden World in Balcatta or Victoria Park. Pond liner is more expensive but is very supple and great quality.

Don’t get me wrong, though, black plastic is more than good enough. Hold your liner down with anything you can find.

Rocks, bricks, building rubble, if your family is anything like mine, you will have collected favourite rocks from all your holiday destinations.

So there you have it - your pond shell is ready for the next stage water and planting.