October 10th

Project pond keeps us busy

As we head into autumn it’s good to have a new project to keep us busy. This year it’s a wildlife pond, something we’ve been talking about for years but now it’s coming to fruition. Our younger two (adult) children have been keen to get on with this for a while and finally one afternoon as boredom set in with their careers on hold, our son asked if he could dig a ‘test hole’. Two hours later, and having summoned his sister to help, we had a hole 5x3m – it’s sandy soil and proved easy to dig! We then got involved with fine tuning the shape, but what an afternoon’s work! We’ve ordered a pond liner which should arrive soon, so transformation from hole in the ground to pond can begin. Our son may have to be summoned home from university to help get it in!

I’m looking forward to choosing pond plants and planting it up and hope we can also incorporate a ‘damp garden’ at one side. With such dry soil in the borders it’ll be a treat to look for damp-loving plants. Over the last couple of weeks we’ve seen beautiful dragonflies flying around the garden; with a pond hopefully more will be attracted.

Although I’m thrilled that we’ve finally found the perfect pond site, there is a downside. This area was earmarked for a new flower bed to take some large autumn-flowering plants out of a border in the back garden. With some new plants already purchased to go in the back border I’m going to have to come up with a plan quickly! My best ideas tend to come when I’m out walking the dogs, so it looks as though they’ll be enjoying some long walks for a while!

My Highlight

Finding a slow worm in the fruit cage, it’s good they’re in the garden!