Saturday, while we worked in the garden fertilizing, weeding and securing our unruly tomato plants, we met a new garden friend.  My husband met him first when he crawled underneath the tomato plants to clip off the discolored tomato sucker branches.    He rested his hand on the black plastic below one tomato plant and felt the cool cover beat against his palm.   Startled, he lifted one edge of the plastic and saw two eyes staring back at him. “We got a toad,” he announced.

My son and I rushed over to greet our critter friend.   He did not move at all while I photographed him.  His body looked moist and well fed.   He had the perfect toad hideout in our garden – a shelter with water from the drip system and plenty of insects.   We welcomed him to our garden plot, told him to bring friends, promised him we’d watch our step around the tomatoes, then covered him back up with the plastic. My son named him “Toady.”

Toads help rid the garden of pests, including insects, slugs and snails. They can eat over 10,000 insects in one summer! Have a feast in our garden, Toady!