I often sit out on my balcony to have my morning coffee, and water the few pots that I have. I realised it had been a few days since I’d watered any of my plants, with Bill’s daisies looking very limp. I have a basil plant too, which if you’ve ever grown basil you will know that it needs to be kept slightly on the dry side, though still watered frequently enough so that it doesn’t dry out completely. Too wet and it will die, too dry and it will die. Bloody fickle plant, but tasty when added fresh to a pizza!
I have my basil plant sitting in a large mug (part of a set) that my mother had bought me as a house-warming gift when I moved into my previous house in the UK. As I had already bought myself new mugs in my preferred colour, these mugs were relegated to pot-plant duty. They do a good job too. Anyway, usually I would reuse the excess water sitting at the bottom of the cup from the previous plant watering, except this time when I lifted the basil pot out of its cup I got a bit of a surprise…
Meet my new lodgers and balcony buddies,
You may notice I use the plural here. On closer inspection I noticed three worm-like creatures wiggling about excitedly in the water beneath the larger (though still quite tiny) frog. Young tadpoles I assumed. Now, I was a little perplexed as I couldn’t quite understand how Mrs. Frog had managed to find her way up to our first floor balcony. I don’t know much about frogs you see, but I am able to recognise a challenge when I see one, even for a frog. Not to mention how busy she had been in just a few days! She certainly wasn’t there when I checked just days previous.
Enthused yet scratching my head, I sent Bill a phone message with a picture of the frog/s and within less than a minute I received a full brief explaining that it was a Cope’s Gray Tree Frog, native to Maryland. Still scratching my head somewhat, as our nearest tree is in fact a very large cherry growing just in front of the apartment block, and the nearest bow, though close in human terms, is still a good 2-3 meters away from the balcony. Very interesting images began to fill my head as I imagined all sorts of daredevilish-type antics involving said frog and springy branches, catapults and things. My imagination sometimes gets the better of me.
Apparently they are extremely good climbers. It figures, especially as she is a tree frog…
My dilemma however, being that I would like to maintain the life of the little frog and her progeny, few as they are, is how I maintain the water level in the cup. You see, Bill and I are due to be going away for a couple of weeks as of Monday, and although it isn’t meant to be blisteringly hot anymore over the coming weeks, there is still going to be a fair amount of evaporation that will occur, even if the cup is filled as high as possible. I just don’t want to upset their little habitat. I don’t want to accidentally misplace one of the tiny froglets. I may have already, though inadvertently committed frogocide the last time I emptied the cup of its contents…oops!
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Enjoy the weekend!
M.
Diary of a Person Being Human 
How delightful! I’ve never seen a frog on our property.
As for care, I suggest you contact a local pet shop for advise.
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Thanks, Ark. I had frogs in my previous garden too, though they were much larger, and they lived in the strawberry patch.
You’re probably right, contacting a pet shop for advice is probably the best thing to do.
I checked in them yesterday and the little nippers are growing fast!
Although I think it’ll be a while before they begin looking like their mum.
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Or if you can’t get any joy from them maybe one of those gradual plant waterer things you get for when you go on hols?
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Ooh, that could be a better idea. Thanks, Ark!
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Well …. hop to it then!
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Ha!
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Aren’t they mosquito larvae in the water?
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I did think that at first, but they have since grown fatter and are looking more robustly tadpole-like. Who knows though, you could be right, in which case Mrs. Frog is in luck. Lunch.
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I was thinking that’s why she’s there.
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It’s a good point. I’m intrigued now. I shall have to check in the morning, see what they look like. I’d like to think they are tadpoles, although if they’re not, it’ll solve the problem of what to do while we’re away. 🙂
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You were right. I fished one of the little guys out and had a closer look. Definitely mosquito larvae, which is a relief as I don’t have to worry about them now. We provide good room service for frogs in our cup-motel. 🙂
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And she’s returning the favour!
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Yes! 🙂
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The old upside-down bottle full of water trick.
Fill bottle with water, make a wee hole or two in the lid, flip it to the inverted position (I love big words) (boom boom~!) and submerge lid into water, as in just below the surface.
You may get a bloop or two but nothing much else.
Now just stand there, and after a few hours of holding it in place the water will have evaporated a bit from your tank, and the bottle will bloop and a wee bit of water will go from bottle to tank, just enough to replace the evaporated stuff.
This can go on for as long as you wish until bottle finally runs out …
So if you find a way of securing an inverted holey bottle of water over your tank/cup/whatever, and adjust your bloop rates to suit — it will keep your wee charges soggy until you get home again.
Don’t forget the, the bigger the hole the less duration; but the bigger the bottle the longer it will last.
Good luck~!
(Furthermore, boom boom!)
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I knew you would be the right person to ask! Thanks muchly, Argie! 🙂
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