Pond Ponderings – Pond Beginnings
06/06/2024
By Sherri Eckworth
A dream come true…
This was very much my husband’s dream – Grahame had wanted a wildlife pond for so long and we were about to fill in a fishpond we’d inherited. So, November 2023 seemed like the right time to get ‘his’ pond underway.
With a bit of help from a man with a digger, the space was dug in no time. I’d bought Grahame a book called How To Create A Wildlife Pond by Kate Bradbury and he had a ton of ideas of his own. It was a huge shock to see the lawn disappearing but as it came together, I could start to visualise it.
Over the next few months, it was extremely wet (it still is!), bleak and cold. But whatever the weather, he was out there, layering pebbles and gravel, planting and sinking beautiful greenery, piling branches and bog planting around the edge. His highlight was creating a ‘dragonfly and kingfisher branch’ which extends right out over the pond. Not long after, we saw water boatmen, pond skaters, a whirligig beetle (who knew?) and bees by the bucket load.
So fast forward to the 13th May, we were sitting by the pond and we saw our very first dragonfly! It actually landed on the very branch created for it – a truly special moment (a Broad-bodied Chaser no less). Since then, we’ve seen a dragonfly nymph and our first frog!
The wildlife pond may well have been my husband’s dream, but I’m 100% with him now. It’s a beautiful, calm space full of welcoming places for so many types of wildlife. A space to sit and sort the issues of the day, an area I write in, where the words flow like ripples across the surface of the page.
Now, if there are any kingfishers out there that fancy a visit?…