Ferns and Grasses!

Well we have a limited budget and I wanted to get some amazing plants ... how to do this? Well ask the right people and they come in and do you favours for a good cause.

The world famous authority on grasses Neil Lucas at Knoll Gardens in Dorset is sending us his best grasses and Eupatoriums for the Wilderness. I can't wait to see them on site and for the lovely pink umbels to light up and anchor the pond with their soft pink hue. The grasses are going to add texture and height and a haze through which the pond will glisten.

And I had no end of trouble trying to source some Polystichum aculeatums (evergreen native hardy shield fern) as they were all sold out and my tight budget was now non-existant after being fairly invoiced by Knoll. But Mark Straver at Crocus did us a magnificent deal and I have been able to almost buy everything on my list for the wilderness. The ferns were picked up by me and are now having a little holiday in my back garden. WooHOO!!!!

See you next Wednesday!

www.redscapedesign.co.uk

Pond Planting and Volunteers!

Jake setting his teeny newts free!

Children from Rainforest Class

Bats Class throwing oxygenators into the pond

Hello to all my 5 regular readers!

So the pond has been planted up with the below:

Key:

Butomus umbellatus x 20

Caltha palustris x 20

Iris pseudoacorus x 30

Myriophyllum spicatum x 25

Potomogeton crispa x 25

Veronica beccabunga x 20

Myosotis scirpiodes x 20

Aponogeton distachyos x 6

Callitriche palustris x 25

Ceratophyllum demersum x 25

These took some getting. We had a few false starts trying to get these as there were some miscommunications to do with invoicing for them.

Anyway eventually they were all paid for and delivered ready for our next big volunteer day on the 3rd of March. However the volunteers did not come! Oh NO I hear you say!!

I think it was too close to half term and people had just forgotten. But the plants were there and the water was cold so I called in my lovely husband to come and help me (and get in the water whilst I directed from the dry and warmer side)

The children came in to help us by throwing in/delicately planting the oxygenators into the pond (as you can see above).

Jake came into school with a tub of baby smooth newts that had been found and needed rehousing and he let them swim off into the Wilderness pond. He was brilliant at this and let them jump off his hands into the water.

It was a very successful day and much was achieved. Please put the next planting day, Wednesday March 23rd, in your diary!

www.redscapedesign.co.uk