The wildlife pond

 

I really love our little wildlife pond and bog garden at the allotment. It was new last year and I loved finding plants which would grow in those wet and boggy conditions. It was a whole new area of gardening which I had little knowledge of, so I learnt quite a bit.  As the new plants started to grow, the wildlife came along to live there and by midsummer it was looking great.

Over the winter it has looked a bit sad and dreary. The heavy rain flooded the area and the pond filled up with silt. Earlier this year we had a few sessions of removing as much of the silt as we could. In the bog garden the weeds started to grow and I didn't want to disturb the ground too much by digging them out as I couldn't remember where I had planted some of the plants. So I left them until the new plant growth appeared.

Weeks ago we heard frog activity in the next door allotment pond and wondered if we would get any frogs. And yes, a few days later we spotted frog spawn and a few little frogs in our pond. Later there were lots of tadpoles, but we have only seen two recently.

Here come the frogs

The pond plants are now growing, the marsh marigold flowered for weeks and was a lovely patch of bright yellow which brightened the place up. It's finished flowering now so I cut it back to allow room for the other plants to grow. In the bog garden the plants are coming back to life. Every time we go to the allotment they seem to have grown another few inches.

lovley blue iris

Most of the hostas which I planted at the edge of the pond are showing no signs of coming back though, I think they may have got drowned when the pond overflowed in the winter rains. They may like damp conditions, but perhaps not so damp! However last week I was really excited to see that one of them is now coming back, no sign of the others though.

Last year when I put the plants in I thought I would see how they looked and grew and then assess it again this year. There is a grass which I have found to be a bit invasive so I have been digging it out but instead of getting rid of it completely I put some of it into pots to contain the roots. There are two pots which I have placed on the rocks around the pond. My sister-in-law gave me some little candleabra primula plants last year which she had grown from seed. I planted these out this week. I've always admired the displays when I've seen them growing by the streamside at RHS Harlow Carr and by the lake at Rosemoor, so I was keen to have some in my own damp garden area. They're on a much smaller scale of course, but they are still a delight to see. One of our local garden centres has just started selling pond plants, which pleased me, and of course I couldn't resist buying a plant-- a little geum rivale.

candleabra primula

We find the pond fascinating and spend a lot of time insect and tadpole spotting. There's a lot of movement in the silt at the bottom too, like tiny little wriggling worms.

        

A new addition to the area is a pile of rotting logs, for insects and frogs to hide in. I also made a small animal house with the help of the  little girl from the plot above us who likes to come and chat to me and we often do jobs together. This is a little box with a hole in it, which we filled with leaves and twigs and covered with more twigs. Hedgehogs or toads will be welcome to make their home there.  Whoever claims it first. Finally as we so enjoy looking at the pond we put an old bench by the side, so when we take a break from our gardening we can sit and enjoy watching the pond life.

Passing by

I always stick to the same path on my morning walk, it's just long enough for me to have some healthy exercise and then get back home to start my jobs for the day. But as I walk along I'm often tempted to go off in other directions as I pass by places which look interesting, other paths which seem to be inviting me to walk along.

I love the stile at the top of the hill--I know where it goes--we've walked along there before.  It goes over the fields to the scout camp where there are beautiful views.  But that's for another day.

Down through the park and I pass by the woods.  It's always muddy there and I'm reminded of when our daughters were young and they used to play on the big rotting tree trunk.  It's rotted down completely now to feed the earth with its remains.

Further along a haze of blue catches my eye--a clump of bluebells beyond the trees enticing me in.

Then past another entrance to the woods is the wild garlic, a mass of white flowers, the subtle garlic smell will linger long after the flowers have gone over.

I continue along  and take in the pink confetti like blossom fallen from the flowering trees lining the path. It will be blown away in an instance with the first strong breeze.

Down the lane to the farm, I stand at the gate looking over the fields for a while then back home with thoughts of places to go, paths to follow on another day when there's more time.

A different sort of garden place

Last week we had a lovely morning out with lunch at Stydd Gardens, Ribchester. We first attempted to visit the gardens a year ago but turned down the wrong lane so of course we couldn't find it. This year with better directions we finally found it.

It's  an unusual garden place. I thought it was going to be a garden centre and although there is a plant centre there are lots of other things too. It's full of rustic, vintage gardenalia, some of which are for sale.. There's a garden to look around which is divided up into different areas, with a pond and fountain, a dove cote, pergola, lawns and borders. There wasn't much going on in the borders, it's a bit early in the year yet, and it needed a bit of a tidy up, but I expect that soon there will be lots of colour. The one plant which caught my eye was a big clump of white honesty. I have purple honesty in my garden which I love, but this was beautiful. It's now on my plant wish list, I will have to find some seeds.

The garden is  well designed and as we walked around we admired the way it was decorated with old garden paraphernalia. This theme continued as we left the garden and walked around the rest of the place.

 

 There were old stone troughs and sinks planted up with alpines, massive ones. Big old metal containers and statues, all very artistically arranged.

 There were also little shops housed in wooden units which were like trendy garden sheds. But the place which I found really amazing was the cafe in the big greenhouse.You could be forgiven for thinking it was just an indoor plant area because the place was full of plants in pots of all sizes.

Lovely old rustic pots with scented geraniums, big galvanised tubs with trees, benches with old tools, garden ornaments, and even a little frog pond.

 

The cafe tables were nestling amongst all the plants and statues. Some of the tables and chairs were fairly rustic and vintage too. I liked the fact that a lot of the tables and chairs didn't match, it all added to the rustic charm.  I thought we might go again in the summer when there are more flowers out and it's warm enough to sit outside for lunch or coffee.