I love toads (you should too)

I love toads. In the 12 years I've been at my current garden I've only seen a couple until this season. The wet spring caused a proliferation of tiny toads the size of a little fingernail crawling everywhere. I wrote about it then and now they have grown to the about an inch long, I don't see as many, but run into them about once a week when out in the garden.

They can be tough to see, they are well camouflaged.

The little guys are given away when they panic and start hopping.

I figured that Mother Nature was doing her balancing act, giving us lots of toads to eat the slugs that infest the wet summer garden.

One of the benefits of being an organic gardener is letting the good things eat the bad things and letting nature police itself. In my garden it works. The slugs eat the plants, the toads eat the slugs, the snakes eat the toads and life in the garden is good (unless you're the one getting eaten).

Toads can live 10 years or more and are great predators eating slugs, beetles, earthworms and up to 1000 insects a day.  

They are mainly nocturnal, but can be seen during any part of the day.

I put toad houses up through the garden, many are just cracked flower pots the toad can hide under during the heat of the day.

Encourage toads into the garden, they're another helper for gardeners battling the bugs.