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An Essex Wildlife Garden Update!

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GemmaJF View Drop Down
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Joined: 25 Jan 2003
Location: Essex
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote GemmaJF Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Aug 2017 at 6:08pm
I think the last I posted of the wildlife garden was the construction of the clay pond. It looked a bit like a building site so an update now nature is back in charge Smile

The pond renovation was documented here:


The wildlife garden as it is today:


Clay pond nicely topped up after heavy rain. The only introduced plants that were successful were the yellow flag iris and pond lily. Just as well they are my two favourites. Both are contained in planters so they do not take over completely. As you can see we have plenty of ivy leaved and ordinary duckweed, not much we can do being next to an arable field regarding nutrients getting in there but it does not seem to bother the smooth newts and frogs:



Purple Loosestrife is now mostly gone to seed, each year it self seeds and gets a little more established and attracts plenty of bees. New Tit box was put up last autumn and attracted interest straight away, two successful broods this year:




Hawthorn hedge now I think in its third year. Still keeping it fairly formal but the plan is to let it go a bit wilder on our side when it matures to provide berries for the birds:





This was a recent addition a pile of blackthorn logs. We had some blackthorn that nobody took responsibility for at the front of the property. It had got ridiculously leggy and top heavy so was getting blown over in the wind. After much negotiation with the village council (involving debating that a plant that is actually classed a shrub is not subject to the blanket TPOs locally)  it was agreed I could rejuvenate the blackthorn back to a formal hedge (with benefits for wildlife Wink). This provided me with new mini logs!




The adjacent bug hotel has largely been ignored by bugs. I have some hope that as the hedge establishes it might get used more. One of those, oh well I gave it a go but it was not really anywhere near as successful at attracting bugs as this.. ...good old fashioned compost heap (read as grass snake egg incubator/slow worm habit):





Now looking quite degraded, one of the five willow log piles, I want to add fresh logs in the next year or so. This is the absolute vision of what I think of when I think 'reptile habitat':




And the proof it really is reptile habitat, one of this years new-born lizards on Onduline, just the other side of the log pile shown above:



Was it worth the toil and effort of the clay pond that took several years to actually do? Of course! Big smile


Edited by GemmaJF - 10 Aug 2017 at 6:30pm
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