Focus on the Wildlife Pond
Whilst Storm Hannah battered the garden I donned woolly hat and escaped to the Potting Shed for an hour to pot-up some new plants I had taken delivery of.
What I thought had been a year and turned out to be 18 months ago, was my last refreshing of the Wildlife Pond. Since then this area has grown attracting much diversity to the garden.
Unfortunately, Algae has made its unwelcome entrance over the last month. As the surrounding trees regain their foliage and welcomed shade returns, I hope this is a short-term problem. In the meantime I have introduced a barley straw bale to the water, its job, according to the Inter-web, is to suppress the pea-soup appearance. However, this in itself is rather unsightly.
A careful clean-up of the surface has been undertaken avoiding the numerous tadpoles wriggling in sheer excitement at the pond margins.
New additions to plant-life include:
Dryopteris Wallichiana - favourite fern species
Geum rivale and G. 'Pink Frills' - love, love, love
Hottonia palustris (Water Violet - not actually purple but white)
Nymphoides peltata (Dwarf waterlily)
With the submerged plants I have followed the layering method again. It's like making a strange inedible dessert. Within aquatic baskets I have begun with a layering of pebbles, then some aquatic compost, followed by the plug-plant placement, more compost at the sides and the top, firmed in and, finished off with another layer of pebbles.
The items have been carefully lowered into the water and with a bit of luck this new selection will shine this year and provide more shelter, oxygenation and attract pollinators.
Looking at this area now, I can't quite believe this was an Anderson Air-Raid Shelter 5 years ago. How the garden has grown!
What I thought had been a year and turned out to be 18 months ago, was my last refreshing of the Wildlife Pond. Since then this area has grown attracting much diversity to the garden.
Unfortunately, Algae has made its unwelcome entrance over the last month. As the surrounding trees regain their foliage and welcomed shade returns, I hope this is a short-term problem. In the meantime I have introduced a barley straw bale to the water, its job, according to the Inter-web, is to suppress the pea-soup appearance. However, this in itself is rather unsightly.
A careful clean-up of the surface has been undertaken avoiding the numerous tadpoles wriggling in sheer excitement at the pond margins.
New additions to plant-life include:
Dryopteris Wallichiana - favourite fern species
Geum rivale and G. 'Pink Frills' - love, love, love
Hottonia palustris (Water Violet - not actually purple but white)
Nymphoides peltata (Dwarf waterlily)
With the submerged plants I have followed the layering method again. It's like making a strange inedible dessert. Within aquatic baskets I have begun with a layering of pebbles, then some aquatic compost, followed by the plug-plant placement, more compost at the sides and the top, firmed in and, finished off with another layer of pebbles.
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The items have been carefully lowered into the water and with a bit of luck this new selection will shine this year and provide more shelter, oxygenation and attract pollinators.
Looking at this area now, I can't quite believe this was an Anderson Air-Raid Shelter 5 years ago. How the garden has grown!
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