Geneva Area Pond Club's free meeting on May 18

This will be the first meeting to be held in Ann and Glen's home and garden in Thonex, so we'll be seeing their pond for the first time. We try to meet in a different venue each time to see the wide variety of ponds our club members have created. This pond is one of the few designed specifically to be for the local wildlife instead of the traditional goldfish or koi. It was built in August of 2006, so it's already been discovered by several frogs, dragonflies, ducks and other wild creatures. We'll observe many of them during the meeting.

The main topic of discussion at this event will be the many ways we can design our ponds to welcome back the animals that our homes and gardens displaced. Creatures requiring access to water, especially, are suffering as undeveloped areas succumb to development for residential and commercial construction. We can mitigate this destruction of the animals' natural habitats by adapting our ponds to attract these fascinating creatures into our gardens.

Ponds can be designed or modified specifically to welcome a wide variety of wildlife. Then we can watch frogs, toads, newts, salamanders, dragonflies, butterflies, damselflies, mayflies, songbirds and many other creatures as they visit or live in or around our ponds. If you add more oxygenating plants underwater, emergent plants in the water, and bog plants at the edges of your pond, they'll provide lots of hiding places, nesting sites, and natural food for the wildlife. If you modify a portion of the pond's border to be a gently sloping beach, amphibious creatures can easily enter and leave the water. If you keep a birdfeeder full of seeds, put food out for hedgehogs, and add appropriate plants to attract butterflies to your garden, you'll feel much closer to nature.

These details will be elaborated on during the formal part of this meeting, along with any other pond-related subjects that come up. As usual, the informal snack-and-chat portion of the meeting is bound to bring up every other subject under the sun. Pond club meetings are casual affairs, because the events are social as well as educational. Visitors are always welcome, so bring along any interested friends and neighbors.

Full details of this meeting are on the club's web site at http://ponds.meetup.c.... To learn how to get to its location, click on the blue link marked with the hosts' names. That brings up a Google road map that you can zoom in and out of, or re-center to get your bearings. Click on 'Get directions,' type in your own address, then click to get step-by-step travel directions from your home to Ann and Glen's home. The map and directions can be printed to guide you on your drive to the May 18 meeting.

The web site's 'Calendar' section at http://ponds.meetup.c... lists all the other free meetings already on our schedule. You can click on an event's title to read its full details, then indicate if you can attend by submitting your RSVP on that page. Just click Yes, Maybe, or No, add a note in the 'Comments' box, and click 'Submit.'

If none of the dates or locations of upcoming events are convenient for you to attend, we can schedule a meeting on your preferred date in your own home or garden. The club always meets on the first and third Sundays of every month. To reserve an ideal date for a meeting chez vous, write to club leaders Suzanne and Peter at PeterSuzanne2@hotmail.com, or call them at 0041 22 362 03 60. They always help hosts before and during the meeting.

Only club members may host a meeting, but everyone interested in ponds can instantly become a member for free right on the web site. Just click the red link marked 'Sign up,' type in your name and other details, then enjoy all the benefits of membership. Only members can vote on pending club-management questions in the web site's 'Polls' section at http://ponds.meetup.c.... Only members can have photos of their ponds or meetings posted in the 'Photos' section at http://ponds.meetup.c.... Only members can post questions or answers in the 'Messages' section at http://ponds.meetup.c....

Members and non-members alike can explore all the other sections of our extensive web site for advice on designing and maintaining ponds in the Geneva area. But first submit your RSVP for the May 18 meeting in Thonex, and any other events you can attend. We hope to meet there many of the new members who joined the club this winter.