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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
Ok here we go again after another sunny day in the garden today...
It was a little more of a slower pace today as I was planting and sowing seeds around the pond and in the greenhouse.
So here we are, this is where the day started, with a few packets of seed...
It was then outside and prepare the ground for sowing the wildflower seed...
The area by the new pond just needed raking over to loosen up the top of the soil....
To make up for the wildflower area that I have lost to the pond I am creating other smaller areas so that we still pack in a similar amount of space and plants.
This 'dead' space by the swing looked good as a starter....
As with most of my new wildflower areas I actually prefer to remove most of the turf to give the seed the best chance....
So once this area had been well raked to create a fine tilth it was back to the greenhouse to prepare the seed...
As you can see I have a 'working' green house LOL...
I prepare the wildflower seed for sowing by mixing sand and some grit into a bowl(s) and then I sprinkle in the different seed that I want to sow and give it all a good mix up....
Simply spread this mix evenly across your prepared area and then give it a light rake over and a good water to bed the seed in....
And that's it, simple!! Just have to wait to see what comes up in the summer now! I did my usual trick of sowing both perennial and annual wildflower seed so it will be interesting to see how it works!
Whilst out in the garden I noticed that there was a large number of our native 7-spot Ladybirds about which is good to see...
7-spot Ladybird - Coccinella 7-punctata
Also good numbers of these metallic green/blue beetles - Chrysomelidae Alticinae...
And a lot of these tiny flower bugs - Liocoris tripustulatus...
Back to the gardening, I also finished planting the marginal plants other than some Irises that I'm waiting to be delivered...
The marginals that I have gone with so far are -
Water-forget-me-not - Myosotis palustris
Veronica beccabunga - Brooklime
Water Buttercup Ranunculus - Greater Spearwort
White Marsh Marigold - Caltha palustris alba
Monkey musk - Mimulus guttatus
Water Figwort - Betony
Yellow Flag Iris
I am also adding at a later date, Flowering Rush, Water Hawthorn, Fringed Water Lily - Nymphoides peltata and another type of Iris.
These plants have been planted directly into the planting pockets that I created behind the rocks that I have added. In these pockets is a layer of clay mixed with small grit and this is a great medium for growing marginals in....
In the picture below you can see that the marginal plants are planted into the planting pockets made by filling the gap between rocks and pond edge with clay soil and grit. This also hides the edge of the pond and the plants have been chosen to scramble across the area to loose the pond edge completely....
Well I think that is about it, I'll just leave you with a few pictures to show features of the pond build a bit closer than shown before...
Edges of the pond will blend into surrounding landscape once plants the grow up...
A view from the bridge back towards the 'beach' area...
Close up of the 'beach' area, this gives wildlife and easy entry/exit to the pond...
Finally a bit of landscaping around the bog area behind the bridge, once finished and planted this should blur into the garden behind...
Hi Higgy. I think 'a few packets of seed’ may be a bit of an underestimate for the array shown on the table. The pond and surrounding area is looking great and it's good to see the plants starting to go in. I have to admit that the plants you have named are already lost in my somewhat inadequate memory for such things but I've got this thread bookmarked for future reference. Nice to see the wee beasties coming back out as well and once again I look forward to future updates here.
Paul
My bird photos HERE
Thanks Paul,
Now that the 'beasties' are putting in an appearance again I'm desperate to get the wild-flower area growing. It is however amazing to see that some plants are starting to push through so with this warm wet weather I'm hoping that it won't be too long before we have things for them to crawl about on!!
I managed to find someone in the village next to mine giving away water lily rhizome on my local 'Freecycle' website. I collected it on the way home from work tonight and it is already potted up and in the pond!!
The 'Freecycle' website is brilliant and you can do so much in your garden with materials and plants from it and all for free!! Well worth a look if you aren't already signed up to it...
H, I had a beebumble in the house today quite unlike the norm, was long & at least more than an inch long & had a plain brown body with a pointy end .. could it have been a Queen?? Was so involved with getting it to go outside safely that I never thought to take a picture, duh!!
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
Hi Wendy,
I had a carder bee in the garden at the weekend could it have been one of these?...
Quick update on the project is that planting has continued with the edition of some submerged plants including, Water Lily, Water Hawthorn and the small yellow flowered 'Fringed Water Lily' All of these are attractive to pollinators so fit nicely into this part of the garden. Also included in the margins of the pond are a few more Irises and some bog bean which again is a magnet for pollinators.
Around the pond I have planted some of the plugs of wildflowers that I have been growing and I'm hoping that this bit of rain will water them in for me.
I can't wait to get a bit more planted once the weather clear up again!
Hi Higgy. Good to hear that more progress is being made. I had a look at the Freecycle site for my area and there is lots of stuff on there. I'll have to have a more concentrated search through it all though when I get a bit of spare time. Great photo of the Bee by the way. A few years back I had a huge wasp land on the door of the shed. Someone had suggested a Wood Wasp but after looking at a few pictures of them even they didn't seem to come close to the size of the one I seen. Thinking back I would estimate it to have been at least 3-4 inches in length and I actually heard it flying before I seen it. Any ideas? It had a distinct 'wasp like' appearance with yellow and black markings.
Morning Higgy, just catching up again with this wonderful thread/photos after a busy week visiting nature reserves with our fellow forumite mate MC. I am very impressed with the wildflower selection and your very well stocked greenhouse and also the insects and bugs visiting, I also saw a 7 spot ladybird on my visit to RSPB Burton Mere. So lovely to see all the spring action with fauna and flora :) I am taking notes of all those seeds and flowers lol just need the energy to start again !
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Regards, Hazel
Lovely Bee pic H but not the one I had indoors ... googling images reinforces the ID of a Queen, so glad I managed to get her outside safely, didn't fancy a new hive in my lounge!!
Thank you all,
Paul, Your 'wasp' sounds like a hornet to me possibly. I had one fly in the car last year and it was about the size that you were saying so a possibility? No picture I'm afraid I was too busy evacuating the car!! LOL
Thanks Hazy, yes lots of ladybirds about in the garden so very encouraging. Once grown up a bit more I will photograph the plants for you.
Wendy, it was worth a go, it was you saying about the light brown coloured back that made me think of the carder bee...
No work in the garden this evening as planned as I ended up working a double shift (best part of 13hrs without a break!!)
Apologies that I haven't been on for a while but I've been a bit busy one way or another.
I'm just posting up a quick picture to demonstrate what the pond looks like now...
As you can see not a great deal has changed but a few plants are gradually being added and the whole surrounding area is now sown with wildflower seed.
There is already lots of wildlife in the pond including my two nesting pairs of Blackbirds that have both built nests in different hedges in the garden! They are all now regular 'users' of the new bathing facilities as you can see in the below pictures....