Wildlife Area Transformation Part 2

You have been busy Great, lovely blog and very interesting to see your progress. It wont take long before all the insects etc will be buzzing around, just wait and see.

Just in from work and about to go and pot on some tumbling toms before I read this blog.

Looks great and coming along very nicely and you are already experiencing the joy of wildlife popping by to take a look!

Keep up the good work - even if the girls did it for you, you had the vision to get it started and before long, you will be joining them in extending that vision down the garden.

WELL DONE ALL!!

Great~another fantastic blog and photos showing the stages as it took shape!! How terrific was Jodie and your daughter~you could hire them out!!
Brick edging so unusual,but what a wonderful idea for pond edge lining, this will soon soften any hard edges and look natural~inspirational! Great,and clever recycling too! I really enjoyed this blog! :~))

Looks GREAT! Great, will done to your lovely girls..:o)

Floribunda. I love it, just love it. I totally agree Jodie and my daughter did me proud today. I love both of them. Jodies coming back tomorrow. I will give her sunday lunch and we'll all have a bottle of wine then she says she's gonna do the back of the garden- how lucky am I.???? I will have to get injured more often ha ha ha I'll have to buy Jodie some more batteries lol She has so much energy. Phew she wears me out just watching her!!!

To hear the enthusiasm in your voice is so fantastic, Great, and it is true,so many times the young are put down,when it's only the few that cause mayhem. Jodie sounds amazing,and fires up your daughter too~how priceless is she?!! I love it when the youngsters get the gardening bug,they are our gardeners of tomorrow aren't they? And she is obviously getting a buzz out of this,your little human dynamo! :~))Lol
Will keep watching out for future blogs~as it is a joy to see how your Wildlife Garden is progressing,Great, and your special workforce who are helping to create a little bit of magic over there in the big City. Hope you back to fighting fit soon my friend :~))x

What a brilliant pair of girls ,Great.I can see why you are so proud of them.Your garden is coming on a treat,and looks really good.Well done,and enjoy your Sunday lunch tomorrow..don't fall in the pond after the wine ,will you ? you sound as though you have enough aches and pains,without adding to them Lol...Get well soon.x

wow its great,lucky finding the new bricks,see meant to be,and you have given me an idea how to hide the rim on my pond,hope you dont mind me copying off you,chris

looks fab, great. can't wait to see it as it develops. i do hope you get some visitors in your pond! puts my 'wildlife corner' to shame!

wow, Jodie sounds a real star. It looks lovely and you'll be surprised how quickly the wildlife will discover your pond.. Hope you feel better soon..

Ladybug - Chris, there are still some bricks in the skip my friend! ! Don't laugh but I couldn't reach some of the bricks as they were right in the middle of the skip. My non-gardening daughter caroline built me a wall, ha ha out of the bricks we had already collected so that I could lend over and get more bricks. A lady was driving passed and saw what I was doing, She must have been very puzzzled as she drove passed me 3 times!!!!!
Actually I remember seeing a piece of timber in there and as I put 2 of my fruit tress in the ground might just go and get it if it ever stops raining. It hasent stopped raining since the girls finished. Water butt full and over flowing

Bloomer I bet your happy that our water butts are full. I had to laugh about not falling in the pond after drinking wine...............yep, I've done that, was a good few years ago mind lol

Oddbillie - poor you working on a saturday. Hope you've got the day off today. I can't wait for all my plants to 'knit' together. One of my daughters wants a Buddha in this area to watch over the wildlife! (Have I spelt that right Bloomer? ha ha ha)-sorry private joke! Got some Christnmas roses on order for this area as well

Pauline...its lovely What a lovely daughter and friend you have to do this for you. I wont take long at all for the plants to grow and fill the area. Brilliant idea planting up the holes in the bricks that will soon fill out.

Im a bit worried now, my dad came this morning and said I could get 'done' as its illegal to take things out of a skip. But it was thrown out!! I didn't steal it he says I did. So now I'm worried!!! He looked serious, don't think he was winding me up. Maureen I not sure where in this area to put the honesty seeds. Can you advise me please as I have never grown them before.

Great, some people make a living from taking things from skips they regularly show it on Tv progs, so I would not worry, as you say they were thrown away, if you hadn't have taken them then a builder would have during the night !! If you have a couple of bricks spare lay them along the fence standing on their side and you will find creatures will take up residence in the holes, ladybirds,lace-wings etc, you may even get some mason bees moving in, and they are harmless. Try it and see!
ps. I would put honesty right up the end of the garden.

It looks great, the plants will fill out in no time at all.

looking really fab great you`v all done a good job - like the shape of the pond and oh yes it is illegil to take stuff from a skip but i`m sure no one will mind and the police will have much more pressing problems than your little escapade ! !

Glad your water butts are full,Pauline,and I'm sure Buddha (yes ,you did spell it right.lol.)will be happy wherever he is.Glad you have got some honesty seeds too,I love them.I have lots of seedlings coming up from last years plants,so have repotted a lot for my friend,who is going to be part of a big fund raising event for"Help the Hero's.,so will be able to sell them on her plant stall.I don't bother saving them any more,as they seed themselves,and I take off some stems when the seedheads are ripening,and dry them in bunches in the shed.They look lovely in a dried flower arrangement ,so a good all rounder.Glad you didn't fall in the pond either...,done other silly things,but not actually fallen in a pond!! :o)
Don't worry about "the skip police"..none of us will grass you up Lol.By the way,when you have planted your Honesty seeds,they do look a bit like nettles at first,well,to me anyway,so don't go pulling them up! ha ha

hi pauline its coming together and what a good idea with the bricks around the pond, should look good when plants grow, maybe a few stepping stones in wildlife area so you can get around it without standing on ground all the time, ive put some in my new area so im not flaterning my soil when planting and hoeing, sorry your having probs with shoulder and your poor toe to, take care ;o) x

Thanks Sandra my little pond is not as grand as yours lol But until I know what I'm doing will be good enough. Glad you like the bricks, Good idea about stepping stones. Did think of round circles of wood. When the men come to cut the trees in the street, I might ask them for some.

Grandmage, I can't keep up with you, you keep changing your avatar ha ha ha. Yes, i have some bricks left over. I will try out your idea and see what creatures take up residence. I'll let you know!! Thanks for the tip.

thats a good idea with wood stepping stones pauline and im sure they will let you have some, your pond will be lovely and you can always add to it later or change things, it will attract lots of wildlife to ;o))

Great, Im sorry you don't recognise me, I am only trying out things on here until I get to know my way round website !! It's great isn't it?? I like your new avatar too !!

Grandmage I only changed my avatar to keep up with you lol Have done a lot more work on the wildlife area today. In fact the whole garden has had a complete makeover. Looks pretty rough at the mo as Im awaiting my plants. So look out for my next blog

look forward to that pauline ;o)

Your friends enthusiasm and energy has really transformed your wildlife area, at this rate you`ll get all your garden sorted in record time. Our first ever pond was an old bath for tadpoles when my family were at junior school, that old bath has a lot to answer for,.........

Hey Great, you made me laugh about your avatar comment, ha ha. :o))

Better get the camera out Great...so you can document all the new visitors you will be getting soon!

I have 2 cameras at the ready Healerwitch. The battery keeps running out. I can't think why lol

:o))

Grandmage I think you've started a trend. Everyone seems to be changing their avatar!! i will have to look for a new picture to keep up with you all lol

what were you saying about avitars ?

It keeps us all on our toes !!

so do high windows if your nosey lol

Noseyp youv'e just changed yours, see it's catching !

im sorry grandmage im just a fashion victim and i dont like to stand out from the crowd normaly grandmage lol x x .

Love the church Nosey, Love the passion flower Grandmage or is it clematis? lol I'm still looking for a nice picture, don't want to be boring ha ha ha

are im just messing great im not religious i just loved the church . i layed on the curb in this little village to take this which inspired some strange looks from the locals lol.nothing new there then lol .it just jumped out at me and said photogragh me please lol . honest

I'll believe you Nosey!

its true honest x x

Hilarious Nosey P I bet the locals thought you had had one too many !! I am suprised you didnt go up the bell tower to take more !!
Great, my flower is a passion flower you were right, only I have hacked it down because it looked tatty and I am hoping now it will re-grow, (up my new fence) fingers crossed. You have to so patient in a garden, dont you?

ow trust me grandmage if i could of got in the bell tower then i would of done lol

Looking good Great! I bet the wildlife will appreciate the stones you've put up one end so that there is a shallow bit for the birds to drink and bath and for frogs etc to climb out. When I first planted the area around my pond it all looked a bit bare, so I pushed in nastertian seeds and they looked really nice while everything else was settling in.

Looking good and what a great help your daughters have been Sid is quite right and I often find it hard to believe our pond is only 2 years old .

Those holes in the bricks would lend themselves to quite a few plants we have Lysimachia - creeping jenny trailing over ours and happily sits in water too.

The golden variety Aurea is attractive.Many plants are available as dwarf including water lilies and rush inc zebra rush which has a lovely striped effect.

Water Hawthorn is quite small for a pond and has a lovely vanilla scent on warm summer evenings.

For oxygenators Hornwort ( Ceratopyllum ) is great for small ponds and just dropped in on weighted cutting.If you come across Hottonia ( Water Violet ) it is a flowering oxygenator which is lovely - on my wish list.

As is Flowering Rush ( Butomus ) grows quite tall but has the most lovely flower if I could find one ..water is a magnet for wildlife so sure you ll get much pleasure from it and occasionally the odd surprise visitor.

you will be amazed how quick it settles down

Sid thanks for the tip.
Bonkersbon thanks for all the advise. Now I have a plant list, so I know what I need to buy. I have transplanted some crepping jenny and put them into the holes along with some Lobelia, Was thinking about poached egg plant to - but not sure?. How many plants would you suggest I get for the size of my pond? The Flowering Rush sounds nice, will it be ok in a small ponds if its a big plant?
Thanks so much. I really love this site! x
I have to keep going back over my spellings The C on my keyboard has disided not to work aah!!

if you put 2 big a plant in a small pond it will take over completly .as its a nature pond its almost as importent what you have growing round the edge as the water will self populate anyway .

Whaat would you put round the edge of my pond Nosey?

i think you have had some great ideas on here already great even grass left to grow long next to it is good .you see one of the most vulnrable times for your averadge froglit or baby toad is between the pond and the cover plus they must stay damp bye nature . if the cover is in the pond they have no problem . the type of plant is realy what you like as they dont care what they hide under or crawl out on .i would definatly look out for some rocks and old logs etc for said wildlife to hide under when its out of the pond . id basicly make your pond area overgrown . most amphibians only go in water to breed which is a very small part of the year . somewear to overwinter and stay damp is far more importent realy .

yes, Ive sent my dad to the park to ask for some logs to make a log pile, as I do shift work. Got some grasses growing. Just need it all to fill out

dont worry it will grow quicker than you think

I put a couple of boulders around my pond and the frogs all huddle underneath them with their noses poking out x-)

thats just right sid but you would know being a dolphin lol

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!

lol