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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
Clare Bailey said: Higgy, I sincerely wish I lived closer to you. I'm not remotely green fingered but I imagine doing gardening with you would be highly entertaining! You don't want to move to Suffolk, do you?
Higgy, I sincerely wish I lived closer to you. I'm not remotely green fingered but I imagine doing gardening with you would be highly entertaining! You don't want to move to Suffolk, do you?
Ha ha, that made me smile Clare & I'm sure that it would be fun but I'm afraid you will have to move to North Somerset then I'll buy you a spade as a moving in present!!...
I'm sure we'd soon have you greenfingered.....
And probably with green hair!!....
Tanks for making me smile as I've just come back in from a very wet and soggy garden and am now cooking lunch! (only bangers and mash with mixed vegetables today as I was outside longer than planned!! I got told off LOL)
Unknown said: I'm not remotely green fingered but I imagine doing gardening with you would be highly entertaining! I agree with Clare, pity I'm too far North as I would join you at Higgy's for some gardening fun ! To be honest, this garden keeps me pretty busy, it's a bit like the Forth Bridge with always something left to do and don't mention Autumn lol although we do keep a lot of leaves for compost and the wildlife, we still have to take some of the sheddings of 51 mature (100ft+) trees away to the local tip area ...........260 bags so far and still counting - no wonder I have a dodgy tennis elbow lol but got to say it is good being outside around the garden and nature in general :) good for the soul as the saying goes. [/quote] Oh what I could do with 260 bags of shreddings!!!... Thanks also Hazy but I reckon with all those trees if I lived closer I'd be round your house half the time helping with all those trees! (especially if there is a strong cup of tea thrown into the deal?!?) Tennis elbow is how my injuries started then it turned into dodgy knees, hips, back..... Things we do for wildlife eh? but it's worth as my Reed Bunting pair has grown to three this morning and I could hear some others nearby so I'm really hoping for 8 or 9 like we had on the feeders last year, that will make me very happy!... Best Higgy
I'm not remotely green fingered but I imagine doing gardening with you would be highly entertaining!
[/quote]
Oh what I could do with 260 bags of shreddings!!!...
Thanks also Hazy but I reckon with all those trees if I lived closer I'd be round your house half the time helping with all those trees! (especially if there is a strong cup of tea thrown into the deal?!?)
Tennis elbow is how my injuries started then it turned into dodgy knees, hips, back.....
Things we do for wildlife eh? but it's worth as my Reed Bunting pair has grown to three this morning and I could hear some others nearby so I'm really hoping for 8 or 9 like we had on the feeders last year, that will make me very happy!...
Sounds wonderful Higgy seeing Reed Buntings, they are such lovely birds; I only see them out on my walk near Northwich but have now found where they tuck themselves down to roost into ground holes in the long grass and their favourite area :) Re: tennis elbow, I think once you have that injury it never really goes away and if you do too much it gives you reminders ! Sorry you've joined Mike with the dodgy knee brigade; he is now the proud owner of an Australian titanium knee LOL So far, the hips are holding out but its only a matter of time ! As you say, the efforts we go to for wildlife but as we all know, the rewards back are incalculable :)
As for cup of tea: anytime you are passing through Cheshire ! might even throw in some scones too for you !
_________________________________________________________________________
Regards, Hazel
Thanks Hazy, I'll keep that cup of tea in mind in case I'm ever Cheshire way!
Well not much to report on the garden project front other than the odd email for free rocks but I'm not having a great response at the moment for some reason.
So to keep the thread ticking over this is what I've managed to amass to date...
A sorry looking pile of building rocks but at least it's a start and all free!...
So that's about it as I have 'nowt' else to report!!
Off to do the ironing now....
Well its a start Higgy so hope you get a few more responses from your emails. Although we bought one of the RHS gardens, they ran out of the 9 tons of sandstone rocks and had to order another 10 tons from Yorkshire. I hate to think how many tons of rocks, sand, top soil there is in this feature lol At least we agreed fixed price so didn't have to pay any extra. Good luck with getting the rocks, wish we had some spare for you but they are all used and cemented in lol
LOL I think you can keep your rocks in that case Hazy!!
An interesting development and one I will highlight on here for other 'would be recyclers'...
I joined my local 'Freecycle' group last week and have already secured, 3 bags of cement and nearly a whole dumpy bag of building sand completely free!! So if you want to build with recycled and reclaimed materials for free sign up to your local 'Freecycle' group and get started!!
Also guaranteed this week was another supply of rocks although the weather forecast doesn't look too good again this weekend for collecting them!
Evening Higgy, that Freecycle group is such a great idea to minimise what goes into Landfill when people want to clear out items, I hadn't heard of it before so thanks for posting up the information for folks.
Good luck with getting some more supplies for your pond area.... I can't wait for that project of yours to begin and get the updates and pics of progress !! I love new garden projects and Mike and I will definitely be building a mini-stumpery in one corner of our garden this springtime, only problem is I start with one small plan and idea and then my brain goes on overdrive and the project gets bigger lol I've already got 15 huge slices of Oak trunk to work with :) and I've been checking the garden centres for different ferns ...........and then I will include some wildlife planting ......and then I will try incorporate some sort of water reservoir for the birds and wildlife and then .............. well, you now how things get out of hand LOL !!!!
Ha ha, I know exactly what you mean and my brain is always in overdrive thinking about what and how I'm going to do things!
Stumperies are great as suggested in an earlier post and I love ferns! If you want wildlife planting in there also, you could put in some primrose, Pulmonaria and anemone which are all good for pollinators and like a bit of shade.
You will have to post this project up as I'm getting interested already, especially with those Oak rounds, sounds amazing!
I have a supply of logs for a similar project that are just stacked in the field at the moment and you have now got me thinking of how I incorporate them in this project!!...
(Next door neighbours tree!!) - Maybe another free supply of materials for this project if I can figure out how to include them!!?...
Lol Higgy, once we start the stumpery I will post up pics as we go along; it won't be anything too grand or massive although we do have very large slices of Oak to incorporate and I do fancy a wooden barrel or similar containing water for the birds and other wildlife. Thanks for the idea of Pulmonaria and Anemone, I had already got Primroses on my list and Tete-a-tete bulbs for springtime which look lovely and don't mind shady areas around trees, maybe some dwarf red tulips and Muscari which we already have elsewhere. I'm so eager to start I want Spring to come Lol Just counted the Oak trunk slices and we have 17 of them which weigh a ton !
Hooray!!!great to be back!:-)
Not much to report as the weather has been extremely wet and the garden to sodden to do any work!
I have now secured all the building materials required to build the feature wall but will just have to wait until it all gets drier!