Hello Again! Advice needed on wildlife garden.

[Gaina]

Hello All . It's been a loooong time since I popped my head in here but I'm back. Hope everyone has been well.

Now, to the garden question....

My Dad is building a raised bed for me in the following dimensions

80 cm wide x 120 cm long
approx 12" deep.

It will be placed in a sunny position (west facing) sheltered from the wind but will get the sun in the afternoon. I live in Somerset so the soil in my area is clay-heavy. I would like to make this a 'bog/wetland garden' to attract newts and dragonflies but I am not sure which plants to get and if I want a small water feature. What's the the smallest water feature I can get that will encourage dragonflies and damselflies to breed?

If however, the positioning of this garden is not conducive to moisture-loving creatures I'd love some advice on what I can plant to attract other critters.

Gaina x

[tom00_uk]

by being raised it will dry out faster, unless lined

does it have to be raised?

you need a range of emergent vegetation to make the water attractive for them as the nymph will climb up and out of the water and emerge as an adult upon shedding, as well as having supply of prey items,

[Gaina]

I think I might have mislead you a bit with the 'raised bed' bit. It's wooden construction that's on the ground but comes up about a foot. The soil will be in contact with the ground but the top of the bed is about a foot off the ground so I can reach it from my wheelchair .

We're still discussing where to put the bed. It will probably now end up in a more shaded corner of the garden. I'll take some photo's tomorrow when it's In-situ so you can see what it looks like and I'll make a note of what time the sun hits it and how much.

[paddy]

Although difficult without being there, you could sub-divide it. One half could be dug out a little deeper (to about 18" with a shallower 'shelf' round the edge and a shelving 'beach' on one side so anything that falls in could escape). This could have a butyl liner installed (looped over the wooden surround and pinned on the base of the outside of the wood, with turf run up to wood edge to protect the liner) and you could plant some flag iris, bottumus umbillicus or similar, plus some oxgenators, some frog bit and perhaps a miniature lily. The other half could be lined with builder's polythene, pierced with a fork every 12" or so, then have the soil replaced. This would be moisture-retentive, and enable the planting of some native bog plants (ragged robin, cuckoo flower, loosestrife - perhaps some monarda to attract bees).
Again, tricky without seeing it, and how much work does your dad want to do?

[Gaina]

Originally Posted by paddy

Although difficult without being there, you could sub-divide it. One half could be dug out a little deeper (to about 18" with a shallower 'shelf' round the edge and a shelving 'beach' on one side so anything that falls in could escape). This could have a butyl liner installed (looped over the wooden surround and pinned on the base of the outside of the wood, with turf run up to wood edge to protect the liner) and you could plant some flag iris, bottumus umbillicus or similar, plus some oxgenators, some frog bit and perhaps a miniature lily. The other half could be lined with builder's polythene, pierced with a fork every 12" or so, then have the soil replaced. This would be moisture-retentive, and enable the planting of some native bog plants (ragged robin, cuckoo flower, loosestrife - perhaps some monarda to attract bees).
Again, tricky without seeing it, and how much work does your dad want to do?

Oh, trust me it's out of bounds to Dad!! Everything I love he considers a weed (if it flowers) or a pest (if it hops or crawls) so I'm in charge . He's very much from the 'control and conquer' school of gardening whereas I garden for wildlife .

We found a packet of wild flowers and some nasturtiums so we just scattered those and that coupled with the fact birds sitting on the telephone wire about that patch are inclined to poop undigested seeds into it, I think we should get some very interesting results .

[King Edward]

If you really want to attract newts and dragonflies, I'd skip the bog garden and aim for a small pond, using as much of the space as is you can. I wouldn't have thought you'd need to go as deep as 18" in such a small pond - perhaps half about 12" and the other half sloping gently from say 6" to 0". Probably best to put the deeper area at one side so you have more room on the other side to make a more gentle slope up. Put perhaps 1" of play sand on the bottom, fill with rain water (ideally) and make sure that you don't have soil falling in from the top (as far as you can avoid it). Good plants would be Hornwort, Water Starwort, Flowering rush, Frogbit, Water forget-me-not and Watercress. Around it, I'd just sow some ordinary flowers/herbaceous perennials, whaterver you prefer.

[Gaina]

Originally Posted by King Edward

If you really want to attract newts and dragonflies, I'd skip the bog garden and aim for a small pond, using as much of the space as is you can. I wouldn't have thought you'd need to go as deep as 18" in such a small pond - perhaps half about 12" and the other half sloping gently from say 6" to 0". Probably best to put the deeper area at one side so you have more room on the other side to make a more gentle slope up. Put perhaps 1" of play sand on the bottom, fill with rain water (ideally) and make sure that you don't have soil falling in from the top (as far as you can avoid it). Good plants would be Hornwort, Water Starwort, Flowering rush, Frogbit, Water forget-me-not and Watercress. Around it, I'd just sow some ordinary flowers/herbaceous perennials, whaterver you prefer.

Thank you for the advice . We've got seeds in just now and I'm going to wait and see what flourishes before I decide how to develop it further as it holds moisture more efficiently that I had anticipated .