A small pond with waterfalls will bring you lots of toads,frogs and birds.

Hi Lisa,

Thank you for your suggestion, but I already live near a body of water and don't have space to build a pond. I was hoping to find some alternate way of luring them out of the water into my yard.

Try putting up a bat house! LOL not for the frogs mind you. There are very small ponds that are pre made and will fit in a garden. It's the trickling of the water that attracts them.

I have had a toad house for years but I have yet to see a toad in it.

Frogs stay very near water, toads are more widespread since they do not need to stay near water except to have some to drink. If you've seen them at the edge of the yard, enticing them nearer shouldn't be hard. I used to get toads to stay in my yard by making little piles of rocks with crevices big enough for them to climb in. Occasionally I would find one under an unused pot (which I always leave upside-down when not in use so they don't hold any water.) I also had a huge bottom tray that I wasn't using for the pot it was supposed to be under, so I kept that filled with fresh water (change twice weekly to avoid breeding mosquitoes and algae.) I put it on the ground in the shade. Having lots of cool, moist, shady spots between and under large perennials and shrubs is attractive also.

NWF has info about this, and Garden Gate magazine. A google search of toad habitat garden leads to many other articles.

Great information purpleinopp! Thanks for posting the links!

Melissa

You can build a very small pond. Sink a half whiskey barrel liner in the ground. Camouflage the edge with rocks and toss in a Mosquito Dunk, that is all you need to attract frogs and toads.

I have toads living under an old metal shed and they come out at night to eat the bugs in my bird pen area. I run a soaker hose around the house foundation and that seems to be another attractant.
Also, when I was out in the garden harvesting tomatoes I had a good size leopard frog jump out of the weeds(a thick stand of Johnson grass and bindweed); he's hiding in the area by the drip irrigation since the creek along the back fence dried up.
Make sure they have someplace damp to hide. Around my yard there are crows, red-shoulder hawks and night herons that would love to make a meal out of the little amphibians.