The pond had almost totally silted up as it had been constructed with the flow of water entering from upstream (and hence bringing in all the silt). I dug it out last summer and created an upstream dam using the dug out silt. The pond now fills by backflow from the downstream end, which I hope will mean less silting up.
Across the downstream entrance I have planted Yellow Iris which have now grown up and I hope will provide a filter mechanism to further reduce the silt getting into the pond.
The water level is now regulated by a downstream dam and sluice.
I managed to identify the Marsh Marigold (Kingcup) roots as I was digging out, and replanted them (actually no planting needed - just divided the root balls and put them back into the dug out pond). This has been successful with a great display of yellow colour this spring.
Sunday 10 May 2020
Cuckoo Flower count
Cuckoo flower count this year is 517. It is very nice to see another big increase.
The Cuckoo Flower (Lady's Smock) is concentrated in the wetter areas of the field - the distribution coincides almost exactly the places in which the rush is starting to grow. Neither of these plants has been introduced, this is just the natural evolution of the wildflower meadow as we return it to poorer soil by cutting in early summer.
There is also a change in the nature of the grass. In previous years there has been an obvious difference between the area that was ploughed and reseeded and the area that originally had finer grass and so was left intact. The seeded area has always had a greater growth of grass, probably due to the nutrients stirred up by the plough. This year there is no very much distinction between the areas, so I hope that this is the result of taking off the grass each year, which over 15 years has decreased the nutrient content of the sward.
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