Marginal Pond Plant Grow Bags

A big thank you to the Colchester Local Group of the Essex Wildlife Trust. Last Monday (when the sun shone!) we spent a lovely day making ‘grow bags’ for native marginal pond plants. These are for one of the ghost ponds in the Outback so we can compare the development of this pond against the two others which will be allowed to develop pond side marginals naturally.

We used coir netting from Coir Products, cut into 2m lengths, folded it over and tied up two sides.
These were stuffed with straw and the third side was sown up.
We then added soil from the farm and sowed with a marginal pond mix from Moles Seeds.
They are now in my flower farm nursery area protected from the rabbits, to germinate and grow on.

The idea is that once germinated, and the young plants are 5 inches high or so we will move them and use wooden pegs to secure them on the sides of a pond. I have chosen the pond with the steepest sides to prevent soil erosion. The roots will go through to the soil below and the whole structure will compost down over a couple of years. I can’t wait to see how they develop.

Thank you again to everyone who helped especially Tracey who organised it and the group also helped me pay for the materials we used. Peter arrived with a bat box which is truly magnificent and as soon as this rain has stopped, we will be putting it up!