OUR ENGLISH COUNTRY GARDEN IS BUZZING

 salvia atrocyanea with ubiquitous common carder bee - they LOVE it

Inspired by the need to help bees and butterflies and then encouraged by this years Dorset Wildlife Trust campaign to get Dorset buzzing, we set out three years ago to create a gravel garden that would enhance the attraction of our little patch of wildlife heaven. What follows is the story of our ‘work in progress’ -

    ‘CREATING A GRAVEL GARDEN FOR THE BUZZERS’

We started by visiting inspiring gardens such as Beth Chatto’s where she dug up her car park to create a stunning gravel garden, then reading books and seeking advice from our delightful Knoll Gardens near Wimborne.

as tall as our cottage, the bamboo thicket on the right is the chosen spot for our creation - lots of hard work ahead!

The site we chose picked itself, for it is the sunniest area in our wooded two acres. Trouble was, this large patch was a forest of invasive bamboo, so tall and thick that giant pandas raised young in it!

cutting the bamboo provided a lifetime of kitchen garden poles and allowed us to admire our lovely oak tree behind

If you’re wondering what the scaffold is there for, we were building ‘Hugh’s Folly’ at the time, a picture window that looks out over our frog marsh and as it faces east, allows us to bask in the sunrise of winter dawns. It’s beautiful but cost twice as much as estimated and took twice as long to build, hence the term ‘folly’!

a timber framed 'folly' maybe, but warming in a winter sunrise overlooking our frog marsh is a delight

in the summer it's a very wild garden - just as we like it

winter pollarding and pruning - and progress clearing the gravel garden area on the right

Clearing the bamboo jungle was the first priority and after a couple of years of sawing and digging bamboo and snowberry roots, along with a jungle of bramble and ivy, we had the beginnings of a workable site. 

bottom left is our chosen spot, sunny in the summer but we'd hardly started even clearing it

But other priorities got in the way and all the roots started a riot of growth once again and removing them was getting ever more difficult.

blink and the jungle returns - bamboo and snowberry growth is relentless

There was also the smelly matter of an old toilet soak-away buried under all this growth, left over from the days when there was a privy outside our ancient cottage. 

a glass plate pic of our old cottage built on sunny heathland before the top story was added in 1910

The three thatched cob dwellings are shown on maps dating 1747, set in a heathland habitat and when we first moved here thirty eight years ago, the area behind the house was still heathland and had a population of stonechats and linnets. The extraordinary speed of the oak and birch growth behind the cottage since living here still surpises us every week.

the cottage has changed a bit over the years but look at the growth of the oaks and birch behind the cottage - awesome

After many weeks we had cleared the site but still had the problem of deeply buried tree and bamboo roots and had to remove them without damaging the roots of our majestic oak tree.

what a beautiful tree - 100+ years old and growing fast - the gravel garden will be on the left

the fibreglass skin I'd added to the wood survived under the compost heap

Buried underneath the jungle of roots was a compost heap for grass snakes and slow-worms, covered by my old boat that in my early twenties enabled me to row around the Norfolk Broads, looking for birds and fish.

making a start between the stream and main pond

Then we had to remove the soak-away and tree roots and it seemed the only way to achieve this was with a mini digger. Enter fiddle player Steve Brown who plays in Irish bands at ceilis but by his own admission is even more skilled and artistic with the blade of a digger.

it's a big area and needs all the roots and ivy stripping off - a digger made it possible

Steve making excellent progress

piles to fill many barrow loads - good excersise

dismantling the woodland privy soak-away and filling the hole with roots and soil

roots all dug out and cleared and almost ready for covering - didn't he do well!

several layers of tarram left for two growing seasons would kill any growth below - we hoped!

In just a few hours he had everything dug up and the site levelled, so all I had to do was barrow the mountains of bamboo root away and we were ready for the next stage.

 a lovely tidy job created by Steve and now we could make a start creating our dream garden for buzzers

after nearly two years it's almost ready for removal, then the hard work of tons of soil, gravel and planting can commence

The advice was to cover the area with an impervious membrane for two growing seasons in order to kill anything still hidden below, so after laying five layers we waited patiently until dragging it off a couple of months ago. It was so encouraging to see that it worked and hardly anything had survived the dry darkness we’d created.

we were advised by Knoll Gardens to create raised areas of soil and gravel so the plants were free draining

Because the area lies between a stream and a large pond, friend David and I laid 23 tons of soil in hills to ensure the plant’s roots were above any damp soil. Then came the expensive purchase of bank-balance breaking numbers of plants loved by bees and buzzers. Planting could now commence.

barrows of delight for bees and butterflies

We purchased seemingly endless numbers of lavender, hebe, salvia, aster, nepeta, echinacea, rudbeckia, lobelia, gaura and several others, [blimey, I sound like an expert] and it was so exciting to see all the wildlife buzzing in to take advantage, sometimes flying onto the plants before I’d even put them down, let alone planted them.

paths through the area will become less formal as the plants grow

 we mulched the new plants with 2" of 10mm gravel to keep them moist but weed free - dream on!

aster nectar for hoverflies that arrived within minutes and we have a years planting still to go - exciting times

The bees have come in squadrons and we’ve hardly started, so once I’ve secured another mortgage from the bank so we can afford to buy the spring and summer delights, by next autumn the area should be pure joy. Then comes the fun of learning to identify all the insects that we’ve attracted to this lovely little corner of sunny Dorset.

silver-washed fritillaries love hebes

The Dorset Wildlife Trust’s campaign to encourage members to plant for invertebrates ‘Get Dorset Buzzing’ has been an impressive success. They hoped to win support from about 1,000 and have now attracted upwards of 4,000 so well done to them all because it’s great for bees and for all those other pollinators that are so essential for our own long-term survival.

In the meantime, we’ll just keep digging for England. Flowers, colour, bees and butterflies in our gardens. What’s there not to like!

PURE GOLD

                                                 
                                                  

 

Once upon a time there was a large gloopy hole in the ground and our club turned the mud into gold – crucian gold.

Those who bother to read our excellent newsletters will know that with the help of the EA, the Angling Trust and the Angling Development Fund, along with much extraordinary hard work from a core of volunteers, we now have a beautiful lake that is full of tench and tricky crucians, all of which are growing on at an impressive rate.

an EA tench fom Culverton which has grown very rapidly and become FAT!

the larger lake provides a welcome home to lots of carp to 20lbs

Both of the WDAC lakes at Edmondsham are full of fish and for those who think the cormorants and otters have eaten them all, you’re wrong. Only yesterday evening I counted 28 good carp and saw a shoal of big bream sunning themselves so where are you all? These are beautiful lakes to fish and as peaceful as they come, so I hope to share the waterside with you all soon.

friend Chris with a beautiful common caught stalking along the edge

a delighted Phil with a good un - what a fighter

Yesterday the club had the good fortune to be walked through some significant habitat improvements by our committee member Phil Turnbull, a freshwater scientist who worked for the Dorset Wildlife Trust and who sadly is now leaving the area to take up a post with the West Country Rivers Trust. But he came up with lots of ideas to enhance the lakes for fish and wildlife, so we have exciting times ahead and lots of hard work.

another special from the EA's Culverton Fish Farm - such a delightful creature and growing so fast

In the meantime I shall continue to try to winkle out a crucian or two from our new lake and the fact that they are difficult adds to the enjoyment. Having caught four now, I’d suggest you fish as close to the bank as possible with a tiny float and small hook, using either bits of sweetcorn or a 4mm banded pellet.

a top section of pole with the tiny float close to the edge - or you need a short rod

not long before this is a two pounder - maybe

 

tench don't come any cuter than this and proof that the lake is already producing ideal breeding conditions

Use maggots and you’ll be catching tench all day, though that isn’t such a trial is it! We’ve caught at least 50 tench in a session several times and though many are cute little baby ones, there are more than enough ‘proper ones’ to keep you on the edge of your seat. Good fishing by any standards and there’s lots of wildlife to enjoy as well.

 four pounds of elastic stretching muscle

our star club secretary Stu with a good un

I love it because it’s such a delight to be there, a perfect world of peace and tranquillity, until you hook one of the four pound tench and then you have a real battle on your hands … and if you get even luckier, you’ll fill your eyes with bars of gold – crucian gold.

few fish come close to matching the beauty of a pure strain crucian

For further info please visit our website _ www.wimborneanddistrictanglingclub.co.uk

PASSPORT TO PARADISE

Travelling the world to film wildlife is a privilege but for ultimate fulfilment there’s no place like home when you are a wildlife friendly gardener.

My wife Sue and I are the grateful guardians of two acres of what was once largely derelict grass and dense woodland but when we first viewed it we could see the potential to create our own haven for wildlife. The cottage is 18^th century cob and on arrival thirty-six years ago we noticed two ditches around the property that had running water in them.

the main pond is 'puddled' with clay Capability Brown style

spade work to create frog and newt habitat - it jumps with them in spring

Within weeks we had thinned excess trees and diverted the water to create a stream that flowed through the

five ponds we dug with spades and a JCB. Each year we have created more wetland habitat and can’t stress enough how magical it is to add water to your garden. It doesn’t have to be big, just wet.

what a lovely surprise it is when little egrets drop in to fish

Only the other day I’d cleared a small marshy area and within hours two little egrets arrived, no doubt looking for our numerous frogs, newts and tadpoles. As all wildlife enthusiasts know, create habitat and the animals will soon take advantage.

With this in mind we decided to start a wild flower meadow and so the lawn in front of the cottage was left uncut one spring. An amazing transformation took place as within weeks a host of flowers emerged from the grass, including three southern-marsh orchids.

no mowing - no seed - just a miracle of nature

We haven’t sprinkled seed but the variety of flowers keep on coming and the orchid head count is now in the hundreds, including pyramid and a few spotted. The bees, butterflies and grasshoppers love it and for us, it’s simple colourful summer joy.

pretty as a picture

brimstone beauty

lots of flowers are good for all insects, not least the colourful peacock butterfly

commas are a common treat on our patch and lichens a big bonus

the impressively sized silver-washed fritillaries visit every year

Sue has planted masses of insect friendly flowers, our woodland too, so the place hums with butterflies and bees. She’s a great fan of hover flies and solitary bees so we have a couple of insect homes for them, along with bird and bat boxes and old wood stacks to create beetle and bug banks.

one of several beetle-banks - very good interest rates too

frequent and exotic visitors - mandarin ducks - and our pheasant is called 'Prince Wilhelm The Second' - don't ask why

We feed the birds too of course and have some ‘interesting’ visitors at times, mandarin are regulars with three broods of mallard ducklings most years, the garden resembling Slimbridge.

two of these ducklings survived the hazards of foxes this year to become free flying

we usually have up to three pairs producing big broods

just some of the male escorts - ain't wetlands wonderful

We’ve left ‘no go’ areas with lots of scrubby bits and so every summer we revel in the song of blackcaps along with chiffchaff, song thrush and the beautiful warbling of the blackbird, serenading me as I write.

the great tit is one of our commonest residents

The latest bird count in and above the garden is one hundred and seven species so we know it’s a privilege to share this patch with so much wildlife. Water is the key, particularly as I love fish, for they are wildlife too.

rudd and golden orfe - all scoffed by the 'playful' otter last autumn

What’s more, fish provide food for herons and our ultimate garden visitor, otters. We receive a raiding party most years and though it’s a real treat to see them, it’s distressing when they eat our wildlife in the middle of the night. We used to have breeding moorhens but not since the otters discovered us. They are killers so are a mixed blessing.

our 'friendly' otter enjoying a midnight feast

minnows breed so well in the streams that we always have plenty of survivors

kingfishers are a frequent summer visitor - what a privilege

The streams provide a place for our minnows to spawn, food for kingfishers, magpies and even blackbirds. Yes, they do eat fish! Running water is great for bird-washing, stock doves, grey wagtails, buzzards and sparrow hawks being some of the more exciting bathers.

stock doves are a delight and several pairs nest close by

emperor dragonflies find our ponds ideal for egg-laying

The ponds are alive with dragons and damsels and on one memorable day last summer we were sat admiring a golden-ringed dragonfly close to our tea drinking spot when a hobby swooped down and snatched it with a loud crack. Simply amazing!

this golden-ringed dragon provided supper for a hobby

As if our own patch isn’t enough, the Dorset Wildlife Trust became our nearest neighbour when they bought the surrounding woodland as part of the exciting Great Heath Project. In our view that took us one step closer to heaven and being part of the growing army of keen gardeners who create so much for wildlife is the ultimate reward.

you can never have too many wisterias - the bees love 'em

In order to encourage everyone to create wildlife friendly gardens, the DWT give advice and award plaques to those who fulfil specific criteria and we wanted to become a part of this crusade. We were even encouraged to enter their wildlife friendly competition and Sue was surprised but delighted when we won the award for large gardens. Seeing all those happy, smiling folk at the Gardening Awards Ceremony last year just proved to us how much good that hard digging does for us all. So if you’ve ever wondered where paradise is, simply step outside into your wildlife friendly garden and get digging ... and planting.

It's always suggested that planting trees isn't for us but for our grand-children and it's simply not true. We planted many of the trees in this picture and look at the size of them, especially the glorious beeches across the pond, only thirty years old and BIG.

the glorious colours of autumn are always enjoyed, especially the acers

 

no, we didn't plant the ancient oaks but we did dig the marsh