Creating the wildlife ponds

There was great excitement when my husband and I, and our two sons drove down the old track towards the bungalow, which was to become our new home. It was virgin territory as far as we were concerned. I remember clearly being asked, "What vision do you have for this pile of weeds?", and replying, "a garden for wildlife". I was the keen, amateur gardener, you see, but we were all involved, one way or another, in the creation of the wildlife garden.

Cutting grass had always involved an element of misery for me, as I'd be sneezing afterwards, for days at a time. I'd never found grass very interesting to look at anyway, and pristine lawns with manicured edges seemed a waste of time and energy. They seemed to have an invisible sign saying, "keep off the grass". I'd always preferred the ones with daisies, much prettier by far. So I knew from the beginning we would have ponds instead of lawns, one at the front of the house and the other at the rear.