My no cane toads allowed pond is beginning to take upon itself the above ground sculptural structuring I had in mind.
Inspired by dead tree trunks sitting in a coastal swamp -- aka 'wetland' -- I've collected enough drift wood to clad most of the perimeter of my barrel in a wall of timbers. Once the pond vegetation consolidates I'll have a sort of carrot top effect cascading over the sides just as I'll have ramblers clambering up from the ground below.
The theory is that cane toads won't be able to climb the precipice nor should they be able to jump that high.
Touch (drift) wood...
I need more driftwood to complete the cladding but the explosion of timbers suggest a lot of other possibilities as I integrate quirky shapes into the upward surge of cellulose.
On board -- as much as my Herpetology can be trusted -- is a new family of tadpoles: Striped Marsh Frogs (Limnodynastes peronii).
The pots for the plants rest upon a mezzanine grill so that if the shallow top waters warm too much in the hot sun, there is the liquid depths to keep the living things cool. The driftwood timbers shade the sides of the pond and the water surface. By next Summer the frangipani I planted nearby should grow enough to facilitate temperate ambience.
The aesthetic advantage of a pond at waist height is that its waters are eminently viewable. The pond and its pondlife sort of 'comes to you'.
