Wildlife Pond

We moved into our bungalow over three months ago, we have been decorating and generally settling in . We have removed some of the weed resistant membranes from the flower beds in the back garden. There were some big old pot-bound plants which we moved into the flower beds. The ground is clay, with some pretty hefty tree roots in, we improved the soil with compost and mulched with bark chippings, The lawn is very uneven, with buttercups, clover and other weeds, the wood edging and regular mowing suffices for now. With pruning and weeding the shrubs are looking better, 3 pink hydrangeas are looking very pretty in flower. We love a water feature and want to attract some newts, other amphibians and insects, so last weekend we decided to order a wildlife pond liner. Made in Yorkshire and delivered promptly we just had to make a large hole in 4 inch thick concrete.

Pond Liner, with animal escape ramp.
The cracks didn’t make it any easier.
The concrete was reinforced with slabs, tarmac and even an old German gas barbecue.

It was pretty hard work, we kept saying that will be big enough, then coming to the conclusion we needed to get more concrete out.

With room for plants.

We now had to dig the hole, we separated the concrete chippings, from the heavy thick mud, the hole was big enough for the liner and check that it’s level too.

Happy with the pond liner’s position we started to fill it with water. The Aquatic plants had been delivered by the post lady.

We carefully back -filled around the liner, with sand and the clay.

Trying the water plant pots for best position and levels.
There are a mixture of plants, an oxygenator, a waterlily for the deep water, also marginals, the iris looks very sad, but I will give them all a try.
We mixed the clay, with peat and gravel to make a topsoil for the plants to provide some ground cover for any creatures.
We split an iris from elsewhere in the garden and placed other plants ready for making the holes.
We will put some gravel over the soil when the plants have settled, giving it a beachy feel. (Sea breezes)

Boy racer in the garden

A tired racing pigeon grabs some food.

On Monday 22nd June John noticed a pigeon on the house roof which Jane again spotted when it came down into the garden. It was a racing pigeon which looked a bit tired so we gave it some food.
We wondered about catching it but before we could, it flew into a hedge in next door’s garden.

He had a gold ring on the right leg GB19-F11253
We didn’t see him again, so hope he is now back where he belongs.

Update – 28th June.
He’s been back regularly and doesn’t seem to want to go home.