h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Stick a pond in the garden. Even a buried washing up bowl will do. The frogs will eventually arrive in droves.

They have several benefits: supposedly lucky; they eat slugs (Woo Hoo!); and they provide endless entertainment for the dog.

PS. make sure there are plenty of plants for the frogs to hide in - they'll repay you by eating any of the plants natural predators. Unless you have goats in your garden...

do goats eat snails?

I was thinking of getting some men in to build a pond in my garden, and just letting wildlife live there. A washing up bowl sounds much cheaper.
I already have frogs in my garden as a neighbour has a pond, but I am the one with a wildly rampant plantlife garden, so they live with me.
The dog loves them, but he is too thick to catch them. Although he did once bring a hedgehog in.

Our dog doesn't actually catch them. Just enjoys watching them. She gives them a prod mind you, if they stop doing entertaining things...

Don't think Goats do eat snails ;^)
May be a good (and fuel efficient) alternative to a lawnmower though...

Dogs might be ok with frogs but my neighbours cat gets throught them like popcorn. We have quite a few and have built up plants all the way to the pond to give them a fighting chance. We hardly ever get to see them cos they dive for the bottom like mad at the slightest sound, thinking the sadistic Siamese has got another urge to see what they look like on the inside.

Yeah. Cats are evil buggers. I used to have a cat who had a thing for goldfish. The neighbours weren't too impressed I can tell you!.

Luckily my dog keeps the local cats away, they run through the bottom of the garden sometimes, but never stop.

The frogs in my garden are smaller then the slugs and are more likly to be eaten themselves!!!

OH! LEAVE THE CATS ALONE!!!

So what do you do when you live in a desert (Phoenix, Arizona)? I have a pool in my back yard and even when we neglect it for months and don't chlorinate it no frogs come. It's because there is nowhere for them to come from. In Arizona we've damed up all the rivers that used to criss-cross this desert, and so wildlife -- especially water oriented wildlife -- is moving further and further away. Even in Flagstaff, where I go to school, surrounded by pine trees, mountains, and snow in the winter, I don't see frogs unless I go looking for them. Any ideas for how to get the pests out of my mother's garden?

If they are pests in your mum's garden, go and get them and put them in your pond.
Sorted.

So you want me to pick up every last aphid, little white gnat, and various other insects from my mom's garden, and dump them all in the swimming pool?

I thought you meant the frogs. I was meaning frogspawn.

I'd start by building a pond, pretty deep one cos of the evaporation.. then nick some frog spawn and whack it in yer pond. They ain't gonna go near your pool if its got chlorine in it; and try and start a subversive debate on why human needs are placed those above the natural environment despite the lack of sustainability of such plans and get all your rivers un-dammed. Guerrilla gardeners of the world unite and take over..