Boundary
Cottage Open Day: Sunday 15th July
Gardening for wildlife is one of those trendy phrases that
have cropped up in the media over the last decade. Although my garden is by no
means organic, my no dig method of gardening, combined with naturalistic
planting, means that the garden at Boundary Cottage is rich with wildlife.
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| Great Crested Newt |
The thing that we were most excited about, was discovering
that we have Great Crested Newts in many of our ponds. We knew that they had
been observed in the area, and the big field pond next door certainly had a
breeding population, but finding them in our own garden was brilliant.
For those of you who may be coming to the Open Day next
weekend, if you take the time to gaze into the water, you may just be lucky
enough to spot one, although they are quite elusive. The adults will usually be
leaving the water in July and August and live on land until they hibernate in
September/October. My garden, with its piles of logs and pots and pavers near
the greenhouse, provides a good habitat for newts to hibernate.
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| Two of the Boundary Cottage ponds |
Those ponds look like the ideal habitat for GCN. Have any ecologists surveyed in your area?
ReplyDeleteIn the spring last year, professional ecologists did a full environmental survey specifically for Great Crested Newts as part of a planning application in the area. They confirmed what most of us in the area already knew - Crested Newts AND water voles!
DeleteWhat MOST of us in the area knew! East Riding of Yorkshire Council refused to believe the proof until it was wafted under their noses in an open hand - in the form of the BIGGEST Great Crested, real live newt ever seen!
DeleteGosh, that is fabulous. You are so lucky.
ReplyDeleteThose ponds look so healthy. Not even a vestige of blanket weed! Not surprised newts love it - I'm envious!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks to both of you for the nice remarks. I will be doing a number of blogs about my ponds including getting clear water ( it includes just waiting and getting lucky)
ReplyDeleteAn open day? Open to the general public? I'd better check my diary.
ReplyDeleteLooking at the Yellow Book, you are not that far from us - just the other side of the Derwent. We also have water voles here. The old farmers call them water rats!
ReplyDeleteSo do our farmers . Harry next door no longer has a plastic lined pond, the voles have made their nests in the sides!
DeleteHe does have a wonderful excavated natural pond though.
At the bottom of our gardens the water table is very high.
Hi
ReplyDeleteI envy you your ponds. Are they natural or do you have liners in them? All this pissing rain is no doubt good for you but frankly I'm needing a garden that is immune to extreme wet and dry. I like gardens that only grow if you irrigate them - i.e. desert gardens!
Mark in Scarborough
I will be revealing my keen interest in hardy cacti (true cacti as well as succulents) soon.
ReplyDeleteMy ponds are lined.
I got here via YWT on Facebook - had no idea that there were GCN in that area! Wonderful, you are incredibly fortunate! And I agree - the Council only care about wildlife when it suits them to do so!
ReplyDeleteI also found this via YWT and that fabulous sparrowhawk photograph! This garden sounds like paradise for wildlife.
DeleteHi Jason , East Riding did their best NOT to find crested newts
DeleteThat wouldn't be the first time, believe me!
ReplyDelete