Planting a small island

The pond planting task with Stroud Valleys Project at Fromebridge is coming to an end this week. A huge number of people turned out this morning to help with the final push, and I was pleased to see four people from three other groups I’m involved with around the Cotswolds.

It was a baking hot day, so sun screen and floppy hat required from the start, as well as regular water breaks. I decided to focus on planting around one of the islands with Suzi.

The water level was still relatively low, but care was needed to cross with baskets of vegetation.

But once over, it was relatively easy to push the plants into the soft sand just below the waterline. We just had to make regular trips back to the bank team to collect more plants.

There was delicious cake and flapjacks provided by Mike and Mary in the morning break, and we stopped for lunch around 1pm. After lunch, we took a stroll down to the smaller pond to check how the plants were doing that we first put in a couple of weeks back.

They looked amazingly healthy. All still in place, and growing quite a bit taller. This was very encouraging because it won’t be long before they sprout new leaves and really thicken up.

So last push when we return on Friday and then let nature take it’s course.