Must Protect The Pond!

We are having some work done on our house.  Right by my precious pond. So, time to protect it!  In the past, after work was done, I found things in it that likely did not blow or fall in (e.g. cigarette butts), so this time I want, at least, the visual signal of "no trespass" or "leave it alone!"  It will look ugly for a couple of weeks, but, it will hopefully protect the plants, water and stone walls.

Happy gardening!

Pond Update

This is the prettiest part of my yard (despite the ugly shed door).  My pond has really matured. Installed 4 years ago, the plants are thriving, and frogs and birds have made it their home.  I planted the pond shelves and beds around it to have changing color schemes: pink, purple and white in spring: white and red in late spring: yellow, red and orange in summer and fall.
Happy gardening!

Guess Who came To Dinner? An Uninvited Guest

When I had my pond built, I did a lot of reading about garden ponds. One thing reassured me was that my pond was probably too small to attract large bird predators, namely the Great Blue Heron. After all, the pond is only about 5 feet wide and 14 feet long, add a few feet for the gravel filter/waterfall. So, good, I would not need to invest in an anti-heron device (aka a plastic heron statue that makes other herons believe "this pond is taken!") or worry about my frogs being eaten. Shortly after my pond was built, like the next day, a frog found his or her way in, and we have had chirping frogs ever since.
A very large frog successfully overwintered in the pond this year. I was at the point of bestowing some affectionate name on him, when I came home with visiting nephews and niece in tow, to find this above uninvited guest, with the remains of froggie in his beak. The heron has been in the neighborhood, casing the pond for over a week, but this is the first we've seen him at the pond (probably because my dog Bob scares him off or chases him away).
Next stop: the garden center for a plastic, anti-heron device! That is, if I want frogs in my pond (a heron can clean out a pond in a few short visits).
He is a pretty impressive specimen of wildlife and was a pleasure to see so close, 'cept for the sorrowful remains of froggie. It's a bird-eat-frog world out there!
Happy gardening!

I got the gift of a water garden last year for my 50th birthday and I am having a great deal of fun with it. The designer told me that the best way to keep the pond clear of string pond weed was to have a gravel filter. Well, the filter has been helpful, but I read that all water gardens will eventually suffer from pond weed until the garden stabilizes, and that is indeed the case with mine. I did not like the look of green water (pond weed plus the bottom green scum) and I did not enjoy seeing the liner when I looked into the pond (see the first photo). So I bought pond dye, called Deep Water in black, and added it half strength (I wanted to see what it would do before I added it full strength)(middle two photos). Deep Water is a vegetable-based dye that is advertised as being harmless to wildlife, pets, etc. I think the black dye is nicer looking than the blue, which looks more artificial to me. I do like the fact that the dye obscures the liner (last photo), but I am still undecided. I noticed that it has already faded somewhat, only 10 days after adding it. It will fade over time, so if I decide I don't like it, I just need to wait.
Happy Gardening!

Winter Friday Lagniappe

So far, the waterfall is keeping an open-water area in my pond- don't want it to freeze solid, because that may distort the sides of the pond. I have put some pots of boiling water on top of the ice to melt through and the pond heater (with above 45 degree shut off) is coming soon. But the ice is very pretty outside my kitchen window! And the birds are enjoying their water source!
Enjoy the snow! Happy gardening if you can!

Plunging in!

My pond.
I have taken the plunge...for my 50th birthday (last year) I asked for a pond or water garden with waterfall, though I wanted to arrange for it myself. I had started to dig the pond, oh, 8 or 9 years ago, but my then young son took it over for a bunker or fort to use in play. I guess that finally the weedy mess of an area got to me and 11 days ago, I had a pond installed. The top photo is the most recent incarnation, after I started adding some plants (water lettuce, water hyacinth, water palm, purple pickerel, star grass, lobelia cardinalis and l. syphilitica) but the other photos show the transformation. The first or second night a frog moved in and 10 days later we had tadpoles! The pond is about 14 ft long and 4 ft wide, almost 2 ft deep, and the waterfall adds about 4 feet in length.

There are several types of plants to have in a water garden. Floating plants help shade the garden and prevent algae growth (e.g. the water lettuce and hyacinth). Then there are marginals: these are the plants at the sides of the pond that are on a shelf higher than the full depth of the pond, at about 9 inches from the surface (these are the rest of the plants I mentioned by name above). But a pond also needs some oxygenating plants, which are not the beauty queens of the the pond, but hang below the surface and help keep the water clear. I need to find some oxygenators either at a garden center or on line. A few people have asked if I am going to have water lilies, but they need a still water situation, so, no, not in this pond. Same with fish, probably not, they need specific care, conditions and plants, plus they would eat the tadpoles!

This is opening up a whole new type of gardening for me and is a lot of fun. So, instead of looking longingly at the water plants on display at a garden center, I can have them in my garden! (And this will, hopefully, stop me from killing lobelia because I just can't find a wet enough spot for it in my flower beds!)

The pond is incomplete and obviously needs further landscaping. You know the old saying that, if you paint one room in your house, the rest of the house looks shabby? That is now true for my back yard. The pond is lovely (though needs retaining walls at the back and side and some more plantings), but the rest of the back yard looks bad in comparison (of course, I knew it was shabby, but did not care before). So, now I have plans for some large potted trees at the back, for a bog garden to the left and behind the waterfall, for a stone path in front of the pond. And we really need a new deck, and it should incorporate the pond view in its design, right?

I took the plunge all right!

Happy gardening!