Here is the pond this summer.
Your Pond Pictures, Please!!!!
And from another direction...
Plays and Kelli, nice looking! I am enjoying all these ponds, such different styles and all are great.
kelli---what are the strings for? cranes? we have cranes here pretty bad--
i dont mind them snagging my goldfish so much as them bringing other fish eggs with them?
Yes, the strings are to keep out herons. (It's heavy fishing line, actually.) It seems to work, as we haven't lost any more fish since we strung up the line. We never actually saw the culprit, but people have told us about great blue herons getting in their pond or a neighbor's pond.
Gosh, this is great, maybe we should lable this hidden ponds! I can't believe the growth you have there Weeds!
The reason you don't see mine is that it's being used as a lawnmower cover }-:
Still no regrading, pond plants still in big tubs, *sniff*, waiting their poor lives away...
SO, at least I can see everyone else's?
Please keep em coming!
Hi Vi, you just have to get yours going! I can't believe mine either, I just looked out one day and it was a jungle. Love this rain, glorius rain.
Can't wait to see how you do yours. Isn't it nice to see the great styles people have? I love it! Good thread.
Can you find the ponds?
Can you find the ponds? Another shot.
You know I am sitting here looking at all these pictures we posted and wondering why we even put ponds in??? LOL For the most part, none of them can be seen. They require a bit of work and maintenance most of the year and the fish have to be fed. In the end, they cannot even be seen. Hmmmm, I think maybe we should just have done one of those gravel pits with recirculating water. LOL Easier to put in, take up less room and we still get to hear the sound of the moving water. Nah, I vote we keep the ponds. :)
LOL, Badseed, I was just thinking this yesterday. I have two Black Magic Elephant ears. One in water, one in the ground. The one in water has surpassed the other in size and I think the red stems are 'redder' too. So even if we can't see the water........
Here's mine.
Not as big as a lot of the other beautiful ponds I've seen here. All of the others have me wanting to do more.
nitrosgal, that is beautiful! What is the plant on the left side? My pond is very small, hope I don't get the urge to put in another one.....
It's addictive Weeds - you'll start wanting another
water lily, then another....;~)
Hey there Lilypon! Don't tell me that, putting silly putty in my ears so I can't hear it.
I have started collecting your seeds...
Thanks Weeds! I hope the parcel gets to you soon! It
seems like cruel and unusual punishment for our mail
system to be so slow!
Nitro,WOW!
Lilypon, I know, still waiting.....patience is a virtue.
Nitro... I wish my ponds were finished off a nice as yours!!
Hey Sue, I second the opinion on the ears! The ones I have in the water are huge, the ones in the ground are big, but the ones in a big 'pot' are just kind of growing. Lesson learned and something to think about....
Okay and I have a question for whomever. I have been thinking about this hidden pond thing. Throwing all the extra plants in the pond cleaned my water right up! Sparkly and pretty. Let's say though next year, I forego the floaters. Would approximately 20 hardy lillies put out enough foliage to cover most of the water? I think they are smaller because of all the other plants. We also cannot even see the fish now. We have to 'part the water' to see them! Oh, I'll save you some reading. My pond is about 11x14.
Weeds Rootdoc and Lilypon
I think I will have to expand it even more. Love the waterfalls I've seen recently.
The plant on the left side of the pond is some kind of peony that my mother gave me a piece of several years ago.
Maybe some of you might know the name of it and can tell me. It has a single red flower in the early spring.
I want to try and get all my plants written down so maybe in the future I can make some trades.
Here's more of the garden that's right next to the pond.
Mary
Here's the right side of the garden.
You've done a lovely job, Nitosgal. I just recently
dug my pond in the middle of my vegetable garden-I've
got a lot of work to do to get it looking as nice as those
above!
Did you see the thread posted by Happenstance?? Oh my gosh!!!
Thanks Lilypon. It has taken quite a few years to get it this way and I'm still not done. I can feel my back crying out this is good enough.LOL It just doesn't realize a garden is never completed.
Here's mine again, from another direction.
Love it!!!!Jurassic looking!!
I am living in the wrong zone!! What are the names
of the plants that you have growing around it Kelli?
That is a great looking pond Kelli!
Heres some pics of one of my ponds. Its 1800gal. 4ft.deep
Waterfall, same pond
Another angle
I don't have any RECENT pictures, so in this one you can actually still see the pond. This is right after it was installed in 1998. I took care of the visual problem by putting in a mint and some Bacopa monnieri (this is a larval food of the White Peacock butterfly for you b'fly lovers) in it. They have pretty much taken over. I can't tell you how many trash cans full of this stuff I have pulled out of the pond, speaking of which, it's time to do the semi-annual "pond trashing" at the Rhead household... I found someone who wants the Bacopa--the butterfly guy at the local farmer's market. I get him to trade me caterpillars and/or chrysalides in exchange for big pots of it :>
So, here's the "barren" pond:
a_leon51 and ButterflyGardnr,
I love your ponds! You can actually see the water! Where did you get the rocks?
LOL!From the ground Weeds. I live in the desert so I went into the washes and pulled truck loads of Catalina river rock. Butterflygardnr I see you have the Aquascape Skimmer box, do you also use the biofalls? Do you have fish? Are you using pots for your plants or just putting them in the rocks?I don't use pots, stick a plant right under the rocks and I'm done.
Well heck! I found one rock in my yard...somebody must have left it there! Great looking lilypads. Is yours in full sun?
Leon: We had a professional come install our pond since it is such a focal point at the entrance to our home. We had them put in a biofalls and a skimmer and we wanted a little fountain or something in the middle (that bamboo piece has been replaced by a "spitting" frog). We also had a UV sterilizer installed, but I'm sure it has long since burned out and is now buried in plants that I don't care to dig up to replace the bulb. We also have 3 underwater lights. We wanted all the bells and whistles. As to the rocks, it 2 tons of river rock (we could have taken another ton easily!). We added a dozen feeder goldfish about a week after the pond was installed. They and/or their progeny are still living in the pond, though they are about 7 inches long instead of 3/4 inches long.
As for the plants, I chose to put mine in pots for the most part. It makes it a little easier to pull them out and clean the pond, something which I haven't really done in a while. Some plants have been tucked into the rocks at the water line. A great trick I saw at a water garden place was to dig holes where you want plants when you dig the pond (you have to use the flexible liner for this to work). When the pond is finished, you drop your plants in the little "pockets" and cover with some gravel. It looks very natural that way. I wish I'd known that trick...
Leon, you can barely see the biofalls in that picture now that I look at it again! It's on the left side. We had them angle it more towards the house so we can see it from the formal dining room and from the front door. See where the pond makes a little zig in, behind the blue flag iris on the left side? That's the falls. You can see a little touch of darkness from the water inside the falls.
Weeds, I have NO rocks in my yard. I had to BUY them all! All I have is lots of FL sand in our yard.
Weeds, yes they get sun all day. Very nice Butterfly. I also have the Aquascape system in my ponds. I learned about digging pockets for plants just a year ago so I've done that in one of the ponds I did over the summer. I use a muc-vac to clean out my ponds. and I only clean them out once a year right before spring. I'm always giving pieces of my plants away so its easier for me not to pot them. Butterfly, I could see you raising the biofall so that you have a nice 5ft. waterfall. That would really set the front of the house off. and the sound!
C'mon over, leon! You're more than welcome to raise the biofalls. I see you're in Zone 9b, but I had to do some hunting to see that you're in AZ, nowhere near FL. That's a bit of a treck... I am not about to monkey with those falls. Not in a million, zillion years! I could just see the liner ripping, the fish flopping around gasping for air, my plants wilting in the FL sun... I already forked out $110 to fix my pump (a hoseclamp rusted out) and waterfalls (the silicone seal between the liner and biofalls rotted out). I couldn't figure out how to fix either one. I might've had a shot at fixing the pump had I put it together in the first place. I wouldn't want to know what it might cost to fix a ripped liner!