Saturday 20 October 2012

A Little Late Season Diversion

One of my favourite aspects of gardening is spotting the varied wildlife that makes its way onto the plot, whether my tiny backyard, my half allotment or the market garden. The 'goodies' and stars of this year include bees, ladybirds and their larvae, robins and fluffy baby robins, peacock butterflies, swallows, toads and frogs. The 'baddies' have amongst their forces rabbits, ants, onion-set-pulling birds and, of course, the never-ending hordes of slugs which are revelling in this wettest of wet weather.
 
Organic practices in growing and gardening emphasise the importance of encouraging and welcoming beneficial creatures into the garden and creating (or rather, not destroying) habitats to help maintain a natural balance and so create a healthy growing environment. It has always been my intention to create a wildlife pond in the market garden but it's been way down on the list for a long time now.
 
 During my preparation for winter polytunnel planting I've disturbed a number of tiny frogs when pulling up the grass along the back edges. There's a fine toad who lives under a sheet of material below one of the benches. There are also a number of slugs and snails in there - relatively easy to control as long as regular patrols are carried out! So this week I decided to amalgamate my desire for a pond with my requirements for natural pest control and made a mini pond inside the polytunnel. It's quite a small space, about 15m x 10m, so growing space takes priority. However, I found a spare corner, dug a hole about 60cm in diameter and 20 cm deep. The hole was lined with some spare polytunnel plastic, weighed down around the edges with bricks. I filled it with rainwater (freely available!), added full and half bricks for different levels in the pond and finally placed a useful plank for easy access or exits. Two oxygenating plants will be added next week, hornwort and European frogbit, or pennywort. The plants will also provide some shade and hiding places I hope.
 
 

I must have done a good job because the following morning, less than 24 hours, later my mini pond had its first resident! I don't know how to breed frogs but I'm hoping nature will take its course and I'll have frogspawn in the spring to make a froglet army to send out into the world of slug overlords.....! But to be honest I'll be more than happy to just have a little pond with a frog or two enjoying the watery environment. It's already my autumn/winter picnic spot of choice.