The Wildlife Garden Chapter 3. June 8th

I began to make the wild garden was soon as we moved into the house, about twenty-five years ago. My inspiration was “How to Make a Wildlife Garden” by Chris Baines. Since then I’ve lent the book to I know not whom, and it has not returned. Paying some heed to his advice I wanted one of the areas to be a naturalised pond. In those days I was young enough to dig, and paid for a top-of-the-range butyl liner. In order to give the liner something smooth to lie on I put down old carpet from a skip, and sheets of thick cardboard, from old boxes (staples removed).

There came the great day when I filled it with a hose. It sat there like a water-supply pond on a building site, and the next day it had a frog sitting in it. Well since then it has had a long time to get naturalised. To become more overgrown, a bit smaller, and leaky round the edges. But it is still the most exciting feature of the wild garden, and here it is:

The only pond-flower in bloom at the moment is Ranunculus flammula, the Lesser Spearwort, but there should be plenty more to report as the summer advances. I bought half a dozen varieties when I was setting up the pond and most of them still flourish. Round the edge quite a marsh has developed, and at the moment some very beautiful Rumex acetosa, Common Sorrel. One often sees it in photos looking pretty coarse but this collection is most elegant, and certainly earns its place.

 I may have said already that I do particularly like plants that have just turned up and stay because they like it. This is a photo I took yesterday, and I think everything you see in it is an uninvited wanderer – including the hawthorn.

With so much growth now going on there is a fair amount of cutting back and selection to do this week. Some dominant weeds of human companionship would possibly take the place over if they were not rationed. This afternoon I pulled out maybe a square metre of Urtica dioica, Common Nettle. There are one or two other plants that apt to take over if allowed. This is not a great estate with real pastures and cart tracks and ruined byres and hay-fields and lakes; it is an attempt to create a feel for them in a medium-sized town garden, and have places where I can sit in the sun and pretend to be in the country.

The hope is that a big variety of plants will support a big variety of invertebrates which will, in their turn, help support larger animals. I saw an Antocharis cardomines, Orange tip butterfly yesterday, but the most conspicuous large insect just now is the bumble-bee. I have not yet spotted a nest, though I often have in previous years. There is certainly more than one variety around, and the commonest seem to be Bombus terrestris, the buff-tailed bumblebees. If you want to follow this up with some genuine expertise there are two outstanding new books available by Dave Goulson: “A Buzz in the Meadow” and “A Sting in the Tail”. When it comes to identifying insects I’m pretty hopeless. I decided to use Latin names in this blog not because I am readily familiar with them but because looking them up as I go along might move my knowledge of natural history forward a little.

One sort of bee we definitely have in residence is Osmia, Mason bees. I’m not sure precisely which species. But I was given a lovely little insect house to hang on the wall and last year several of the holes were plugged with carefully made mud. Now, over a year later, most of the old plugs are broken and more plugs have appeared. I hope they show up on the photo I took today.

One hopes that the pond will be a real bonus for wild-life. I hope we shall find it so over the year, as it has been in the past. Just at the moment it houses some very large tadpoles; I don’t know what trigger will cause them to grow legs and emerge as little frogs. Is it temperature or some chemical in the water? On the surface are a score of pond-skaters. There is often a frog or two around, though we have not yet had the sort of very hot day that sees them bathe thankfully in the cool water. My plan is to do some intensive pond-dipping and research, and report my findings to you. But this week I’ve had a debilitating summer cold, so that will have to wait. I guess the leeches and flatworms won’t go away.

One thing I have done is make a pond-dipping net. It is not as good as the lovely one my mother made for me nearly 60 years ago, but it should be functional. Below the muslin net, on coat-hanger wire and a bit of bamboo, is fixed a small jam-jar. Sweep the net through the water and even quite tiny life ends up swimming in the glass jar for observation. That’s the idea, anyhow. Watch this space.