Pond Life, Frances Dismore. September's meeting

 

We were very grateful to Frances Dismore, one of our own members, for stepping in at the last minute and presenting us with a fantastic talk about wildlife and in particular pond life.  

Frances’ talk covered both making a pond in our own gardens, even if just a tiny one in a upturned dustbin lid, and also making a freshwater habitat in the Tottenham Marshes.  Frances told us that if you create the right environment where the wildlife can live, breed and feed they will come.  One example was that water voles had repopulated the Tottenham marshes.  In her own garden she realized that mason bees need mud to make their nests.  A bog garden is useful for this.  Frances also told us that amphibians are an ‘indicator species’.  They are like the canaries in the mine they tell us about the health of the environment.  Unfortunately toads have declined by 75%.

Frances gave us tips on how to create our own wildlife garden.  Ideally if possible the pond should be 70 inches at the deepest end, sloping up to the other end.  If you have room, also create a bog garden at one side.  Dragon flies like perches at 45 degrees, so you can put a log at an angle.  To help naturally prevent duck weed use barley straw (used for pet bedding) tied up with string but leaving long bits sticking out.  If you want to plant yellow flag iris (they are very attractive) plant them in a bucket sunk into the ground next to the pond so that it can’t stray and take over your pond.  The same applies to purple loosestrife .  Frances’ top tip was to decide what wildlife you want to attract and then work backwards identifying what the wildlife want to live on and create the right environment to attract what you would like to see.