Inside the wildlife garden

 Early Friday morning I finally got into the wildlife garden in Ellington Park.  It has been an interesting wait, watching each new development.  Digging the pond, laying out paths, planting a hedge, the placing of the seats and bug  

hibernation boxes and the dogs.  

 There are several different dogs, the first one (see above) I had thought was made of wicker - it is iron, beautiful rusty iron and the breed of dog is on its collar.  There are a couple of stone dogs, a wooden one, one chasing a squirrel up a tree and two made from moss stuffed frames (see below).

 One of the many benches.  The Friends of Ellington Park have not made the mistake that other wildlife refuges have made - here there is plenty of seating essential for watching wildlife.

 The pond is already beginning to look very good.  I have often seen birds enjoying a drink and I was pleased to see lots of tadpoles swimming around this morning.

 Once off the slightly raised 'all weather' walkway the log edged grass paths meander about, past the dogs and the seats.

 

 As well as the bug cube and the other hideholes created for the creepycrawlies by one of the seats some pots of herbs have been planted - rosemary and lavendar should provide food for bees.

I cannot have been the only person who had struggled with the gates because by today there was a note on both gates explaining how to get through the child proof gates.
This squirrel was in the other side of the park.  He seemed almost determined to have his picture taken, remaining quiet close to the path letting me close enough to take lots of photos.

Ellington Park Wildlife Pond

Today is the opening of the WILDLIFE GARDEN in Ellington Park, Ramsgate.  I have been watching the hard work of the FRIENDS OF ELLINGTON PARK for quite a while.  The area has been fenced off while the pond has been marked out, dug, lined, filled and planted.  Logs have been placed around the sides of the pond to provide homes for some of the creatures.

 Several dogs are patrolling the garden.

 Along the path information boards are placed.  The gates are locked as I walk through the park early in the morning. Sensible as there has been some vandalism.

 friends of ellington park 
the FRIENDS OF ELLINGTON PARK are doing so much to make the park an exciting place to go. 

 I will have to make a visit later in the day to get a closer look at everything.

Plenty of seats of all types to relax on and enjoy the garden.

 The story tellers seat. 

 A guardian for the garden?

RESTORING OUR POND - re-construction

ready for planting

NOW THE POND is completely emptied and clean we can put it back together again.  Have so been looking forward to doing this, especially while kneeling in the mud trying to ignore the numbers of worms and grubs, worrying that I would break fingernails (I didn't) while sawing through chunks of root matted earth.

a blank canvas

 We made a trip to BEDGEBURY PINETUM  one of our favourite places, and this time took the Ashford route instead of the Maidstone one this was a very lucky decision.
http://www.bedgeburypinetum.org.uk/ 

making the bags of earth for the pond

The Ashford route took us through Rolvenden http://www.worldofwater.com/
and past the gates of WORLD OF WATER.  An added bonus was that they had just had a delivery of plants.  If only we had known what a good price they were.

placing of earth bags and back filling

We are still using hints suggested by the late Geoff Hamilton, what a great person he was.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-UmPgaBa_g 

We filled old tights with earth to stop the banks of the pond all slipping into the bottom and then back filled behind the bags.  Working our way all round the pond - it is only when the pond was completely empty the size was plain to see. 

planted and being refilled

As soon as pond was ready we planted the margins.  We used eleven 35litre bags of top soil.  It was important to us not to have any of the old plants (some of which were very invasive) which is why we purchased top soil from our local garden centre
We had saved some of the old pond water and used it when
  we refilled the pond, we also had a water butt filled with rainwater.  We only had to use a small amount of tap water.  Then we put in the oxygenater plant





Now that there is clear water instead of a reed bed the trees are being reflected.  Hopefully dragonflies and damselflies will be attracted to it this summer, as well as pond skaters, water boatmen and other wildlife.

This has always been an area of the garden we have worked with wildlife in mind.  So the log pile has been moved to a better place and stacked.  We are going to use bark chippings to blend everything together.  Even though the pond is about done there is still work to do.


Plants used for the pond are  trollius golden queen,  primula denticulata, blue water iris, typha minima (a bullrush type plant), mimulus cardinalis, lysichiton americanus, caltha palustris,ranunculus flammula,mentha pulegium, caltha palustris plena, lobelia cardinalis.   
We have planted seeds to fill the gaps for this year - mimulus and a poppy that likes damp soil.  Plants for ponds and boggy areas tend to be quite vigorous.