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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
Morning Higgy and Happy Easter ! It just goes to show build it and they will come as the saying goes, the pond and area is looking fabulous, can't believe how it is maturing so quickly and I see Mr Blackbird has already enjoyed his first bathing session lol they are real water babies, as are a lot of birds, don't be surprised if next winter season you get a couple of Redwings in there ! Very well done, its looking amazing.
_____________________________________
Regards, Hazel
Hi Higgy. The pond is looking fantastic, it's hard to believe that it wasn't even there around 6 weeks ago.!! It looks really natural and I think it's going to be something really special once it matures a bit. It's great to see the Blackbird using the pond and I don't suppose it will be too long before the Frogs and Toads find it(if they haven't already done so).You've done a fantastic job and it's been great to see it coming together one piece at a time, the only thing is...now I want one even more than I did before you started this thread.!!
Paul
My bird photos HERE
Well it's been quite some time since I was last here! I can assure you that a lot has happened since my last post back in mid April!
I thought that I should really update this thread for those of you who were following and now that we've had the first summer with the new pond.
I hope that seeing how quickly it has matured and nature has moved in will really inspire a few more to put a pond in their gardens as they really are wildlife magnets and so much joy to watch develop.
So here we go...
Here's the pond in May....
You can see from the picture above and below that during May we had some good growth from the wildflower area but no flowers at this time.
In June the pond exploded into life with the wildflowers finally starting to show themselves....
June was also great as we had so much wildlife coming to the pond which is amazing considering it was only built three months earlier. This wildlife included a greater variety of birds now comfortable to use the facilities like this Greenfinch...
June was also the time when we were literally over-run with Damselflies and this year we have already had Large Red, Common Blue, Blue-Tailed and Azure Damselflies laying eggs (ovipositing) in the pond , which is amazing!!...
July saw more Dragonflies putting in an appearance and since then we have had egg laying in the pond from Common Darter, Broad-bodied Chaser as well as Hawkers such as the Migrant Hawker....
As well as the dragon and damselflies I have also seen frogs and toads in the pond as well as numerous other aquatic insects and a grass snake!
I'll leave this post now and before it gets any bigger but I will come back on soon and show you what the pond looks like now!
Great update H & so good to see you back on here! Wonderful pics of wildflowers & wildlife, dragons & damsels captures just enviable! How's Choco, had any 'adventures' lately?
Morning Higgy, I've got to say the new pond area is stunning and looks like its been there for years. I agree that once you put in a pond or water area it really does attract the wildlife and your planting is superb, beautifully natural and teeming with insects and buglife. This project really is a credit to all the hard work you have put in Higgy and like we all now, projects like this are never finished as we keep moving things around or adding to it lol. Love the photos and the dragonflies/damsels are beauties; strangely enough I took almost an identical photo of a Migrant Hawker yesterday but haven't got round to putting them up yet, still in lazy mode lol. I only got back on the forum yesterday after a bit of a break but so glad i didn't miss this update :) more updates eagerly awaited !!! say hi to Choco.
Great to see the update, Higgy! It's amazing how quickly the wildlife moves in and it looks wonderful with the wildflowers in bloom. The photos are wonderful and the pond looks so well established. It's worth all your hard work.
Thanks All for the great comments as always!
I've said hello to Choco for you Hazel but unfortunately I don't think Choco will be with us for too much longer as he is an 'old boy' now! He is deaf, partially blind has arthritis in his hips (much like his owner!!) and is now starting to have 'waterworks' problems! Having said all this he still wants three walks a day, has a full appetite and sees old age as an excuse for being a complete monkey!! He loves us so much and seems happy with life so for the time being he's still plodding along but we have to be vigilant to him being in pain or unhappy - A sad time to come soon I'm afraid but we rescued him and have given him seven good and happy years.
Any way enough doom and as I write this he is asleep on my feet under the desk in his favourite place next to his master!
Back to the pond and we had the pleasure of a large female Southern Hawker ovipositing around the edges of the pond as below...
Interestingly The female spends a long time looking for the right spot to lay her eggs and seems to actively use the tip of her tail to test likely sites. these likely sites seem to be under a log or in a crevice of a rock but from this experience out of the pond and just above the margins.
I'm not exactly sure why she does this or what she is looking? May be temperature or moisture of the site or testing for likely predators, it would be nice to know why she does this and takes so long to select the right site?
What ever the reason this clearly demonstrates that it is important to include logs and rocks around the pond and pond edges. I suppose that these features will also act as home and foraging sites to amphibians and small mammals also. If you have a pond consider this and add these features in if you can and see if it makes a difference or not?
Here's a few other pictures of this beautiful DF to finish off this post....
Wow, Higgy - those are beautiful!
It's nice to see you, by the way - please give Choco a big cuddle from me.
Our herring gulls are red listed birds. Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.
Evening Higgy, so nice to see your latest post but sorry to hear Choco is ailing somewhat but nice to know he's plodding on - makes such a difference being in a caring friendly home as they are such loyal animals. Give him a pat and a tickle under the chin from me :)
Your photos are just beautiful as always Higgy and what a treat you gave us with a female Southern Hawker; I've only managed to photograph the male recently but do remember a year ago a male landing on one of the water lilies, it would be interesting to know more about them and the female's choice of place for their egg laying.
I was checking the stumpery area earlier and i think I need to tidy it up again as one fern which was meant to be smaller has completely taken over the front area ! lots of fallen leaves but it makes for good foraging and protection for the other creatures. We added a bug house and a butterfly house (both from Aldi) but this wasn't until couple of months ago so early days yet - maybe next year they may be used. Tree Bumblebees will use the nest boxes and we have 13 of those at the last count lol its good to have a wide range of areas and wildlife friendly places, doesn't matter how large or small a garden is, as a bug house doesn't take up much room or a small pile of logs. Thanks again for this lovely update Higgy and good to see you back :)
Hi H50, great update with some fabulous pics & it's lovely of you to pop in to keep us in the loop as I know how busy you are - definitely not enough hours are there? Take care & love to Choco, who is getting the best care going!