Bill Wade, Post-Gazette Kathy and Greg Short's lush backyard garden in Squirrel Hill is home to many toads. Click photo for larger image. Photo Journal: Great Gardens Contest Winners - 2004

Once you've seen Kathy and Greg Short's garden, you'll want to keep coming back.

Especially if you're a toad.

It's not that their garden is overly damp and dark. In fact, all-day sun in most areas has helped them grow beautiful trees, shrubs and perennials that overflow their narrow urban lot in Squirrel Hill. But the couple's ponds and mini-bog are apparently a love pad for toads. They come from all around the neighborhood to breed in the spring.

"It's kinda eerie," says Kathy. "When the temperature and humidity are just right, you hear them at night, coming from everywhere."

This time of year, all their tadpole progeny are beginning to leave the water and strike out on their own.

"We're not cutting the grass right now," Kathy said last week. "They're all over the place -- about the size of your fingernail, like little fat spiders."

Some will stay on, staking out favorite places, speaking up when a visitor stops talking long enough to listen. But it's hard to stop talking, to stop asking questions, when visiting the Shorts' garden, which tied for third place in the nonprofessional category of the second annual Great Gardens contest.

Nothing but a few large trees in the back was here when the couple moved to Murrayhill Avenue 25 years ago. They started first on the house, which had been split into three apartments, then began on the yard.

On the steep slope around their front steps, the couple has planted a diverse framework of small trees and shrubs, including hydrangea, azalea, birch and holly. They pride themselves on the range of bulbs and perennials, which include hellebores, toadlilies and many different kinds of daffodils.

"I always want to have something blooming," Kathy said.

But their finest work is in the back, where hundreds of plants rise in tiers cut into the 40-by- 100-foot lot. Greg built the walls and steps that take visitors from the patio, which holds potted palms and a grapefruit tree, up through the gardens.

The crowded beds leave room for only enough grass to walk on. One bed is devoted to herbs, another to vegetables, where tomatoes and kale grow together. The rest are populated by hostas -- eight kinds -- along with spicebush, bellflowers, passionflowers, pansies, phlox and many more perennials. Red salvia and a few other annuals or tender perennials are thrown in for color.

"I like yellows and reds together," Kathy says.

In spots, the garden is so lush it looks tropical, almost junglelike. That's intentional.

"We love the jungle," says Kathy, noting that they have visited Costa Rica several times.

Adding to the tropical feeling are dozens of orchids hanging from or resting upon a pergola that Greg built. The exotic plants spend winters in the house's attic, now lit by three skylights. Since the couple began growing orchids 20 years ago, each has discovered favorites: He likes Dendrobinums; she prefers Paphiopedilums, Phalaenopsis and Cattleyas.

Surrounding the small bog -- which biologically filters the water running between the two ponds -- are pitcher plants and other bog natives that look perfectly at home with the lily pads, irises and waterlilies, including the beautiful white 'Splendida.' Huge koi and dozens of goldfish inhabit the ponds.

From deep inside a patch of lilies comes the ratcheting croak of a frog -- or is it a toad?

"We do have a frog, and salamanders and snakes," Kathy says proudly.

But the toads are family favorites. As their two children were growing up, they devoted many science experiments to the life cycles, love lives and other fascinating facts about these lumpy little creatures.

"I think we're responsible for most of the toads in the neighborhood," Kathy says, laughing.