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Hello All,
I hope that you all had a good Christmas and New Year? I'm back to work tomorrow following two weeks off so a bit depressed tonight!
Whilst we have been having this terrible weather I simply haven't been unable to get out in the garden as it is completely water logged! This has however given me the opportunity to think about what I need to add to the garden in 2014 for my beloved wildlife.
Following a lot of head scratching (partly due to Nits that my daughter brought home from infant school YUKK!) I decided that although we have several small bodies of water and water features and of course the (fish only) large Koi pond, I need to include a larger body of water dedicated to wildlife and native planting.
Having just viewed Hazy's impressive pond build I'm not sure how interesting mine will be as it will be on a small budget and completed by me on my Todd with dodgy hips and back!! LOL
Any way my decision to dig up the family lawn was met with a resounding "NO!" from Mrs H so I had to think of another plan to include a bigger pond without losing anything else from the garden. This actually proved quite difficult as the garden is now well developed and planted but fit this in I must!!
So donning wellies and with Choco at my side we squelched out to see how we could fit this impossible plan into my already crowded garden. After much deliberation and more head scratching (damn Nit shampoo doesn't work good job I haven't got much hair!!!) it was decided that I would have to lose about half of my wildflower area! Now this isn't an ideal solution but I've estimated that I can regain the same area if not more by planting wild flower strips in other parts of the garden (Don't tell Mrs H!!)
To try and explain the complete and utter jumble that is in now spinning around inside my head here's a few pictures and sketches of what I'm planning and what I hope will give you a better idea of what I'm trying to achieve!....
1. So firstly this picture shows you where in the garden the pond will be. As you look at it the right hand side of the wild flower area will be similar to the size and shape of the proposed pond. This is however a very old picture and the dry gravel river bed extends right across the garden now. The wild flower area oh the left will remain but here it is only partly de-turfed and is a little bigger now. (This area is in the bottom third of the whole plot)
2. Now you can see where it sits within the garden this picture gives a little better representation of the shape and size of the pond (right) and remaining wild flower area (left)
3. So what does the inside of my head look like?
Well I tend to get an idea and be able to see how it will look almost straight away, I then play around with it in my mind until it looks about right before going outside, getting stuck in and just letting it evolve! However for this purpose I have attempted to draw what is inside my head and what I envisage this to look like!
It's not very often that I put my thoughts down on paper so please do forgive my terrible drawing and obviously it's not all to scale but a fairly accurate representation of the idea I think....
(click on picture to enlarge)
I hope that this scribbled plan makes sense? Basically you can see the edition of the new pond is quite substantial but I feel fits quite nicely into this area with the wild flowers and then the wildlife area behind. You can see that the loss of wild flower planting is made up by further planting of wild flowers around the swing, the fronts and one side of the raised veg beds, along the raised bank in the wildlife area and the addition of more flowers along the bank of the dry gravel river bed. The two areas alongside the pond and next to the seating pod will be planted with extra tall pollinating perennials such as Purple Loosestrife and other native perennials that are good pollinating plants. The secret seating pod will actually be cut off from the rest of the garden and will become only accessible by a small bridge adding to it's secrecy and privacy.
One of the biggest problems with siting the pond here will be getting it to sit naturally into the rest of the garden. A big problem with this spot is that the lowest point of the garden is actually the dry gravel river bed feature and would normally be where the water sits in a natural landscape. This ditch is in fact an old drainage ditch (Known locally as a gripe) When this land was a field the water would naturally sit in the gripes so that the cattle could stand on higher and drier land! This ditch still floods if we get a lot of rain and there is a drainage pipe buried underneath meaning that I can't excavate it or include it in the pond!
To overcome this problem and to make sure that there is a logical relationship between the pond and the ditch I have decided to build an old stone 'damning' wall complete with old rusty iron sluice gate! This will give a natural partnership between the two features and a logical explanation to the pond being on slightly higher ground.
So again attempting to demonstrate what is in my head here's another scribble of what this feature should look like.....
As you can see the wall will be given an 'old' look with planting pockets built in for some native plants that you may find in old stone walls. This will be a feature not a working damn or sluice ( I ain't that good!! LOL) but I'm hoping that it will look OK once overgrown and weathered in.
Again to give you a visual representation of my plans, I hope that this feature will in time look how the 'old stone bridge' feature that I built at the other end of the dry gravel river bed a couple of years ago looks now (over grown and natural)...
Well that's my plans for 2014 and what is currently floating around in my mess of a head! I have posted this up as it will be a long process for me due to my current disabilities and I think quite a challenge. I'm hoping that by having it here it will give me the motivation to get it done and I do hope a few of you will find this an interesting project to follow as it evolves?
It will take quite some time to do and in the first instance a while before the garden is in a dry enough condition for me to start! I will try and post up what I'm doing even if just trying to 'blag' materials (remember I have very little budget for this!!!) to try and keep the interest going.
Let me know if you have any thoughts or ideas that might help me or enhance this project or just anything that I may have missed?...
Best
Higgy
Hi Higgy, yes, its also raining cats and dogs here so no time in the garden today :( everywhere is sodden anyway so it will be a week or two.........or three lol before we can start to look at any tidying and sorting. Glad you've got your materials to build the wall so good luck once you get a dry spell to start.
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Regards, Hazel
Well I actually managed to get outside today but alas it wasn't working on the new project as it's still too wet but I did manage to get some Pulmonaria planted!
Pulmonaria is a superb plant for early spring Bees and I've secured a few good deals on Ebay and Amazon so have now planted out about a dozen to add to my growing Spring Pollinator plants collection.
I also got in the greenhouse and sorted out a few things. I have trays and pots full of wildflower seedlings and little plants which all grew quicker than expected and now need coaxing through winter! The plan is that these wildflower plugs will get planted around the banks of the new pond so you could argue that I did do something on the project!!
Any way the weather has just turned here so no more gardening this weekend but I might go out to the coast to see if I can get some pictures tomorrow morning I reckon.
Sounds like a good productive day Higgy and you will have quite a collection of new plants to add the feature which will attract all the bees/butterflies and nectar loving creatures. Morning was fine here but turned very windy this afternoon with sporadic showers. Hope you get out on your coastal walk tomorrow and look forward to the pics :)
Apologies that I've not been on for a while but I had a couple of short deadlines on a couple of projects at work that required my time and stress! I also haven't really had much to report on the new project as it's been too wet to get outside. Even when not raining the ground has been sodden!
Anyway at long last today I actually managed to get outside and make a real start on the pond which feels like a real achievement in it's self!
Making the most of the dry warm day, I actually started by digging out some of the perennial wild flowers from the area that the pond will be set in and planted them in tubs so that they will be ready to plant back in when the pond is done.
I then cleared the area by chopping down the rough grass which I put carefully in a place that any bugs still in amongst it or in the hollow plant stems etc would be safe and can see out any cold weather we may still yet get.
As I was being extra careful just clearing this area actually took quite some time but other than one 'sleeping' caterpillar I don't think I did too much harm. Whilst doing this I was followed by a couple of Robins and this lovely chap and it's mates...
So once clear I was ready to start marking out the shape and size of the pond so that it nestles nicely into the surrounding ground. This again took some time to get just right and other than a few 'tweaks' I think I have it about right! I then dug out the shape so that I could better visualise what it will look like...
So that's the shape and size sorted, all I have to do now is dig it out!!
I have to say even after just doing this little bit My hips and back were a bit sore so I think this project will take longer than I would have hoped which is a bit frustrating but unavoidable with my current injuries.
That's as far as I have got so far but tomorrow I will collect the last of the stones for the dam wall.
I will update this again once I have started digging!!
Morning Higgy, so pleased to see that you have managed to get started on your wonderful project, thats a lot of work for one day so no wonder your back and hips suffered, hope you had a good nights rest and the aches and pains have eased. The shape of the pond and placement looks fantastic, it is going to be stunning once the work is complete but as you say, these things take time, especially if you are suffering injuries, but I look forward to seeing the progress when time and weather permits. The photo of the LTT is beautiful, I think he is checking out where the new spa resort will be so he can tell his mates and return to try out the new facilities lol Good luck with the next step. I'm eagerly awaiting delivery of 4 Rowan trees in 2 or three weeks time and then getting started on the stumpery and fern area :) Like you, I just need my dodgy tennis elbow to stop playing up :( Nothing will stop me though ! but it may take a bit longer than anticipated. At least I have Mike to do the heavy lifting or digging !! Looking forward to your next update :) good luck Higgy.
Thanks Hazy much appreciated.
The placement will mean that it will sit surrounded by the wild-flower area and with some further creative planting should hopefully look natural I hope!
Great to here that you still plan to do the stumpery and it will be good to see this as you go along also?
I collected the last of the rocks so if I get a time where I've had enough of digging I can start the dam wall.
I did actually play a lot of competitive tennis a few years ago and also suffered with tennis elbow for quite sometime so I know exactly how painful and restricting that can be! I remember not even being able to poor a cup of tea from the teapot!! Now that is a serious problem as I do love my tea!! LOL Unfortunately my hip problem will require a new joint at some point but as frustrating as it is I will get this project done!! :-)
Speak soon
I think gardening is a wonderful past time and so very creative, must get the interest from my late Dad who worked as a gardener ! I will probably get more Coreopsis this year as it had so many bees on it last season, along with other insect friendly plants. It will be great to get into a settled spell so we can get on with these projects. The stumpery should look nice with ferns and spring bulbs around it and I was hoping to get some sort of water reservoir in their too ! It won't be so grand as your pond but just another little addition to the garden and another focal point.
It's all the 'little editions' that give the interest when you put them altogether in a garden setting.
Coreopsis is good but my tip for a really good bee plant with lots of other interest is Veronicastrum as it is also adored by moths at night time, you must try it as it's superb!
If you do plant some make sure that you go out after dark with a torch and you may well get a sight like this...
These are mother of pearl moths and they are particularly attracted to this as are the daytime bees and pollinators...
Oh, thats so interesting Higgy, thanks for the tip on Veronicastrum and any other great ideas you may have for bee/insect friendly flowers. The Mother of Pearl moths are beautiful and I'll remember to have my torch at the ready lol
Perennials...
That's the one's that stood out as best for pollinators last year for me.
If you want something that is simply a wonder plant for Pollinators then you can't beat Ragwort but it is poisonous to livestock so it needs growing in controlled conditions. It's benefit to wildlife is breathtaking, it's such a shame that it causes such controversy!
Bi-annuals I would go for
Annuals for me would be...
There you go Hazy I hope that gives you some ideas?