The Edington and District Gardening Club has been continuing with zoom meetings, the last one being on the 4th. March attended by 19 members.
The club is fortunate to have amongst the members Dr. Stephen Henning who was happy to enlighten us on Pond Life.
As local people know Edington has it’s own village pond which has recently been cleared of overgrown vegetation thus allowing wildlife to thrive. Anyone can have a wild life pond for themselves which can be made from an old sink or tub, it does not need to be big, just add gravel ,rocks and a slope to allow creatures to get in or out. Put in a few mini plants then animals will arrive by themselves. Please do not transfer any life or water from a neighbours pond as you may transfer disease as well.
Now is the time for frogs and toads to breed, you may have noticed frog spawn in a mass in your pond, if you see a string of spawn this is from a toad and any tadpoles that have feathery gills will develop into a newt. Toads have warty skin and walk whereas frogs hop. We learnt that it is good to have vegetation around your pond so any creatures can hide from predators, frogs and toads do not live in water all the time.
We must look forward to summer evenings when we can sit near a pond and watch for lots of invertebrates, dragon flies, may flies, pond skaters and water beetles of which there are 350 species and lots of bugs which in turn will attract birds and bats to you pond..
Thank you Stephen for encouraging us to not only have a pond but to open our eyes, to look and see the life around it.
The meeting ended at 8.40 with the news that the speaker for the meeting on the 1st. April has been changed. This will be held via zoom by Richard Cripps on basic vegetable growing and seed propagation.