Cygnets

Due to our not being out and about we missed this year's big event on our local pond.  These cygnets must be a week old.  Nine is an impressive clutch!

Just to give an idea of context here's a wider view.

Arthropodeum - Bug Hotel

If you think I have been a bit quiet lately, one factor has been that I have been devoting rather a lot of time to a School Garden and in particular to this bug hotel project.  It is work in progress as I have a green roof to set on top and a pond to sink alongside it too.  It's fair to say that I have got the bug.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Any nagging doubts I might have had about making the garden more wildlife friendly have been removed at a stroke with the appearance of this creature in our garden.  It wouldn't be here if we hadn't installed a (very) modest pond.

The other feature (aside from not cutting the grass) is our wildflower flowerbed.  We sowed this last year and it displayed some limited success.  This year it, or at least one particular plant, is just about to burst into flower. Hopefully it will be the first of a flowering succession and not a brutish monoculture.

Wildflower Flowerbed

Reverse View

 It has already put on a foot of growth since these pictures were taken and the birdbath is fast disappearing from view. 

And where is the pond?  It's right here:

It is a lot less obtrusive than when first installed:

We have no regrets about turning our garden over to other living creatures.  It really is very rewarding!

p.s. Yes we do have a bug hotel too. The biggest challenge is changing gardening practices and then adding a variety of habitats.

One Man Went to Mow...?

Nature likes a bit of a mess, and on that basis we have regressed to a very natural garden.  The "wildflower meadow bed" is looking as bit raggedy and the leaves are littering what remains of the lawn. In the past I might have felt guilty about this scenario, but now I have that warm autumn glow of knowing that I am a habitat creator. 

Earlier in the season it could still pass as a formal garden of sorts:

Of course some of the wildflowers are biennial and won't flower until next year (foxgloves for one).  Others require a cold snap before they will even germinate (Yellow Rattle for one). So it would be unfair to judge the project so early on.

Reverse view now

Reverse view in summer (Scottish Summer that is)

Other environmental enhancements in recent years also mature year on year.

Pond Set Up

Pond with Bee Nesting Annex

Bug Hotel Newbuild

Bug Hotel Today

Here is a gallery of just some of the meadowflowers that flowered in the first year:

Selfheal

Oxeye Daisy - or is it Corn Chamomile?

Red Clover

?

Chicory 

Supernature?

Pondering

Last June I sunk a plastic half barrel into the ground

By July the water had cleared and I added a waterlily.  (Foolhardy perhaps as it wasn't a dwarf waterlily)

The neighbourhood rabbit ate the first few leaves, but now the pond looks like this:

There is a balance between the 6 plants (including the floating oxygenator)  which I suspect will be harder to maintain in future years. Still all would be forgiven if the lily were to produce a flower next year! 

Pondzi Scheme Set Up

News from the home garden.  

Last year we were enthused by the pond in a barrel idea.  We bought the largest plastic tub available and after letting it half fill with rainwater (not too difficult in a Scottish summer), we bought 5 plants from the online aquatic plant nursery.  Being unsure about water plants we couldn't agree on where the "pond" should be located, so it sat up in a corner of the garden - and duly filled to the brim with rainwater.
Roll onto spring (May) and 4 of the 5 plants have survived and started to grow on again. This encouraged us to find a permanent location for the pond suitably sunken so as to allow access for wildlife. And here it is:

I say 4 out of 5  survived because our free floating oxygenating "weed" seemed to have disappeared, but while decanting the water before relocation there it was still growing but enveloped in green blankets at the bottom. I removed the slimey blanket and returned the plants to the water.
The water is pretty murky as a result of the water decanting and refilling but it will settle down, and we have a supply of barley straw extract to treat it with if the slime starts to develop.

Getting a bit carried away with enthusiasm I've also bought a water lily plant which is sitting on the bottom - the rest of the plans are sitting on a shelf aside from the free floating oxygenator.  Now if  that likes the set up enough to grow on and even flower you will be the first to know!  Hope springs eternal, even allowing for the fact that a pond is not a spring!