This summer’s record-breaking rainfall has had at least one benefit – The Eaglesfield Park Lilly Pond is thriving. The wild flower meadow around the pond, planted by volunteers earlier in the year, has grown tall and the Lilly plants in the pond seem to be well established, though no sign of flowers (yet).
The Friends of Eaglesfield Park are planning to hold a regular tidy up and pond dipping session at the pond on the last Sunday of the month, staring on the 29th July. Madeleine from the Friends e-mailed me the poster and details:
Following on from the official opening of the restored pond we received a lot of comments from people indicating they would like to become involved in the future development of the pond and surrounding wildflower meadow. We will obviously be talking to the appropriate Council Departments regarding continued maintenance of the area, but to begin the process and to maintain the interest of local residents and park visitors we would like to propose regular “tidy up and pond dipping sessions” on the last Sunday of the month between 11.00 am and 1.00 pm (weather permitting!).
Due to the wet weather in Spring, we were unable to seed about a third of the meadow area and we will catch up with this at a later date. The remainder of the meadow that was seeded has had varying degrees of success and will need to have invasive “weeds” reduced. The pond may well require “blanket weed” management and, of course, generally I am sure we will always have to combat litter and debris. We would also like to ensure that pond dipping activities are accessible to as many children (and adults) as possible and look forward to receiving suggestions as to how this could be achieved.
We hope that by meeting regularly we hope to ensure more people will be able to enjoy this wonderful new focal point within the park, and that it will also provide an opportunity to meet other park visitors and to receive their comments and suggestions.
Hopefully the weather will be dry and sunny on the 29th, unlike the recent heavy rain – captured in the latest photograph for the Flickr set showing the changing pond.
