Nar Cottage’s wildlife pond still going strong 13 years after it was made
I went outside yesterday and thanks to our showery spells things have greened up. Aside from a number of still bare patches of lawn you would hardly know we’d had such a brutally hot summer and long damaging drought.
At the pond the darter dragonflies were zipping about above the magenta Purple Loosestrife as always and perching up on the water mint as if nothing had ever happened.
There are subtle signs of course. I noticed that the animal pathways to the pond's perimeter are a bit more defined and more heavily trodden than usual, suggesting greater use of it by our garden residents and perhaps visitors from the surrounding countryside.
It made me realise all over again just how vital a resource water is in every garden and just how many creatures our pond will have supported by acting as an oasis through our prolonged, exceptionally hot and dry summer weather. Just for a moment, that made me feel rather proud, both of our pond’s utility to its wildlife community and of what we have achieved in our time here wildlife gardening at Nar Cottage.
Nar Cottage pond acting as an oasis at the height of the drought (taken 19 August)