Green Frog in the Lettuce
He invaded my greenhouse. I hope he doesn’t starve!
This fall I’m doing an experiment with all season lettuce. The variety I’m using is called Merveille des Quatre Saison. This is an heirloom French variety that can apparently be grown year round in most climates. For the non-French speakers among you, the name translates to Four Season Wonder.
This lettuce can weather an occasional below freezing cold snap. As I live in an 8b climate zone I figure it might do well, along with kale, as an overwinter crop in my greenhouse.
I started the seeds in mid August and planted the starts in the greenhouse bed in early September. I’ve already harvested a few heads even through they are bit immature. They look so tempting it is hard to be patient until they are fully grown! I may have to plant some more seeds before it gets too cold for them to germinate.
Yesterday, when I harvested one of the heads, a green frog jumped out of the head and back into the growing bed. He then disappeared into the remaining lettuce.
I was hoping to get a picture but I couldn’t find him again so I had to use an Unsplash photo. He is well camouflaged being the same colour as the lettuce. You can see how easily he could get lost in the lettuce:
I tried to find him again today but with no luck. I can see why he might like the greenhouse in the summer. I keep the vents open most of the time so there is lots of opportunity for flies and insects to come in for him to feast on. However, with colder weather coming on, I’m closing up the vents.
If he doesn’t escape from the greenhouse soon I worry that it will stay too warm for him and he will forget to hibernate and starve with the lack of insects. I guess I will just have to keep looking for him and put him out if I find him again.
This particular frog’s scientific name is Rana clamitans. However, we call him Freddy. Freddy the Frog.
According to the Invasive Species Council of B.C., this is an invasive species. They may outcompete native frogs. Apparently they are particularly good at displacing Rana pretiosa, an endangered species in B.C.
It’s always a challenge deciding what to do about invasive species. When I moved onto this property in 2020 it was widely infested with Scotch Broom, an invasive plant that was introduced to the area as an ornamental plant in the 1800s. Since then it had run amok.
I spent many hours that first year cutting and uprooting the broom plants. This had some interesting side effects. Along with exercise for me, which I always need, it helped many of the small trees on the property. Since the broom was no longer competing for water or nutrients the trees have grown tremendously; some almost two feet in one year!
However, with Freddy I can’t see killing him, even if he is an invasive critter. He eats insects in my garden, and even slugs if they are small enough.
As any gardener will tell you, slugs are the bane of any gardener’s existence. They will destroy a lot of young plants before they have a chance to get big. Particularly my lettuce.
So Freddy gets to live. That is, if I can find him in the greenhouse and help him escape what may be a food desert for him this winter. Unless there are baby slugs for him to eat. I seem to recall having seen some of those earlier this year. Maybe he is smarter than he looks and knows exactly where his next meal is coming from?
The Freddy the Frog story continues here:
Do you have any creatures in your life with which you have reached a mutually satisfactory accommodation? I would love to read about them. If you write about them, please tag me in the article.
Thank you for reading my article. If you found it interesting, here is another of my recent pieces that talks about the wildlife on and around my country home.
Here are some articles by writers who inspire me to write. If you enjoyed my article, perhaps you will also enjoy theirs:
Josephine Crispin writes beautifully about our interconnectedness with nature. If we treat nature well, nature treats us well.
Reciprocity Works In Nature
But only after we master the ABC of how to effect reciprocation
medium.com
Dr. Fatima Imam shares her love of water in all its forms. In this time of droughts or floods appreciation and respect of water is extremely important.
If you enjoyed these articles, please remember to let the authors know. We who sit alone and write can always use the encouragement.
Finally, I wish to thank the following people whose words I have read this past week. Some wrote stories. Some provided their comments. All gave me interesting things to think about. I am grateful to all of you for making my days brighter with your words!
And I encourage others to read their stories.
Karthik Rajan, David Price, Kat Wexford, Yousuf Rafi, Patricia Haddock, Jeremy Andrews, Janin Lyndovsky, Jim Parton, Dr. Preeti Singh, Marta Henriques, Dr. Fatima Imam, Saipanhayden, Yana Bostongirl, Jenny Lane, The Autlaw, Donnette Anglin, Casey Stanley, Michele Maize (The Sober Vegan Yogi), Victoria Gregg, William J Spirdione, Carol Labuzzetta, Joyce Nielsen, Nick MacIneskar, Patrick OConnell, Jessica Wildfire, Teresa Roberts, Gillian Sisley, Martin von Mars, Margie Willis, Charlotte Kingsbury- Fink, Elle Tey, Mukundarajan V N, Michael Hunter MD, Gunnar De Winter, B/O Trading Blog, Mulan, Jackie Schuld, Scott Ninneman, Victoria Z., Arts Crown
Thank you all for sharing your words and spending your time with me.
I wish you well!
