The hard work has been continuing in the garden since my last post, and I am now seriously ready to put my feet up for a while...or until the Autumn//Winter bedding plants and bulbs arrive anyway. I tackled the wildlife ponds, some of which had become very overgrown, and ended up completely rearranging this area at the back of the garden.
I'm not sure the frogs were impressed, they were definitely giving me the evil eye at one point and this gang of three looked set to pounce!
I'm not sure the frogs were impressed, they were definitely giving me the evil eye at one point and this gang of three looked set to pounce!
I'm happy to say they've settled back in nicely after the changes and I counted eight in there this morning. Not bad for a pond made from a plant pot! Anyway, onto the plants. Once I'd spent a couple of hours clearing the area, I reset the slates around the pond and added a Lythrum Salicaria to the back of the area. I'd not come across this plant before, but its purple spires are very pretty and it enjoys moist soil so should be right at home here.
I left the Campanula and Carex in place, as well as Hedgy the Hog, who is looking a little worse for wear now but has been in the garden for years and I can't bear to part with him. He looks rather good once the Campanula starts to grow over him and you just see his face peeking out.
I've been a huge Heuchera fan since I started adding them to my garden a couple of years ago, and there were a few that were not being shown off very well so I moved those to the pond area and added a new one too. This is Strawberry Swirl, and it has the prettiest dainty pink flowers and ruffled leaves.
Ginger Peach is nestled among Key Lime Pie, with some Ajuga Black Scallop at the back to break things up.
Heucherella Sweet Tea has been hidden under a mound of other plants for a while, but is starting to look better now I've moved it. Heuchera Paris next to it only has one leaf as I've ravaged it for cuttings, which are coming along nicely in the coldframe. I'm sure it will bounce back soon.
And Lime Marmalade is the last and such a gorgeous green. It really brightens up the area.
There will be splashes of colour with various bulbs and bedding plants going in soon, although I'm really happy with it just now.
The other two wildlife pond areas just needed a bit of tidying up. The Carex and Hardy Geranium had really taken over in the woodland ponds, so I dug up quite a lot of it which was no mean feat I can tell you. The roots for both might be fairly shallow, but they're thick and really take some digging, if I fell on my backside once I fell a dozen times, it's lucky I'm shielded from all the neighbours there! There's not much to see in these ponds at the moment other than frogs, as the pond plants such as Marsh Marigold and Bog Iris are really the stars of the show and have now finished flowering for the year. At least you can see the water though.
The front of border wildlife pond (there is water in there somewhere!) has been quite spectacular with masses of Pickerel Hyacinths during July which are just starting to die off now. I didn't have to do too much here except trim back the Lamium and dig up some Hardy Geranium that had spread too far. I also rearranged this whole border in front of the shed, hence the many bare spaces. They won't stay bare for long though!
I hope you enjoyed the little ponds update. I'm off for a lemongrass latte and a rest now :-) .
