I've looked for pine needles just to mulch the pine trees while they are small, but can't find them around here. We were using pine bark till it floated when we got a lot of rain. I tried cypress and liked it. Now we buy the dyed cypress - brown. The red is too much for me. I'd rather look like dirt.
The muscle in my shoulder is killing me. I finally get caught up after being off for days and I over work a muscle. Don't that beat all? Well, I need to get some supper anyway. Later!
Jeri's Oasis
I use to use cypress and really liked it until I realized that they cut down the cypress trees to make it. We don't have near enough of those here in La. That's when I switched to the pine mulch. I wonder why they don't have it there. I found that the smaller pine bark chips do stay in better than the large pine bark. I've even seen some use 2-3" of the smaller bark chips and sprinkle the larger just around some on the top.
I'm not sure the dyed bark is cypress. It was pretty cheap. I wish I could find pine needles, but the trees are getting along without them. I'm still finding small pieces of the pine bark in the yard. Some were thrown out when The lawnmower got too close. I find I'm really liking the look of mulch! Some shady beds get chickweed so bad that Preen doesn't last. I'm hoping this will smother it.
You put down a lot!! I'm just going to top with more mulch. We bought about over 40 medium sized bags of the brown dyed stuff and they made a thin cover. We need to do the same again for a couple of years.
I messed up seriously 10 years ago. I put down landscapers cloth on all my beds. The topsoil underneath turned to clay. The weeds still came and now the mulch decomposes on top of the cloth and doesn't mix with the soil underneath. When I rework and area I pull as much of the stuff up but there is still a lot. 10 large beds.
Wow! I just found out myself that the weeds grow thru it. Grasses specifically! We put it down under the grapes and topped with cypress. No more weeding! Wrong. Now it's harder to pull.
I love your tea house. Is that part of the tour, serving tea?
Can your koi get into the 25' pond?
That's where the koi are at. I even have some in the upper pool that apparently when thru the filter system because I never put them there.
That is so neat! How big can they get?
I have 1 that is about 18" but they easily reach 32". Most of mine are about 10-12". The babies start out around 1".
I didn't know if they could get huge if they had the room to grow or not. Almost 3' would be really something. I can't get over how bright the goldfish are. You really have a nice assortment of sizes. Do they eat anything out of the pond or depend on you?
I feed them because I enjoy it and so does everybody else. My stuff is pretty hardy and they really don't mess with it much. Now if you have a smaller environment the koi would stay smaller.
I say let them grow! The large ones are really expensive. You could almost go into business.
I don't know if I could sell them. I know each one of them and I'm not good with parting with any of them.
My daddy use to have beagle hunting dogs and he said I ruined everyone of them by making them my pets. Then I would cry for a week each time he sold one.
Jeri
Aawww. That's so sad.
I had a feeling you would say you couldn't let any fish go. I can see how you would be attached to all of them.
Have you got any ideas for a new attraction for the next tour? It would be hard to top the waterfall.
I talked with Brian Williams from Brian's Botanicals and he has a nice lotus and 2 different petasites that would be nice. I have one lotus already but I've never had any petasites. I'm getting excited. I know I have to have angelonia, I fell in love with them last year and I've ordered about 10 plumerias to put in pots at the back patio area.
I think I know what petasites are, and I adore lotus. Plumerias are what leis are made of, I think. But I haven't heard of angelonia. Sounds beautiful.
Dh just got home so I'll talk tomorrow!
Here you go: http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/2274/index.html
They are like miniture snapdragon bushes, about 2-2 1/2 ', no noticeable fragrance, but really pop with hot weather. I had the solid purple and the white with purple throat. They were geogeous.
Well Jeri, I just found this thread with your pond etc
I'm in the process of building something similar but was talked into doing everything out of concrete to get depth and steep walls. The herons here love fish and I needto go deep and offer lots of hiding places. The racoons would simply walk in on a shallow pond.
Anyway, here's a shot or two off my work in pogress.
and the ponds leading up to the bio filters. There will be an additional waterfall in the main pond.
fredrump
That looks very pretty. I hear you about the heron. We have egrets. They dine on my fish. Be sure and check the water ph before adding fish. I love the stream, how long is it? The queen palms look healthy.
Jeri
The stream is really more of a series of shallow ponds about 40 feet long. I read about Koi eating all their eggs and I really wanted add to my population from a basic stock. My intent was to find some eggs and move them into the shallow pools, cover these with netting and let the little ones get to where they can join their parents in the big pond. Here's another shot of the unfinished "path". You can see two of the three mini ponds as they flow into the bottom main pond.
That is a neat idea. I've heard that you can sink a cotton mop head in the pond and the fish lay the eggs on the mop head and then you can remove it to another area. LMK how this works. I just let my fish eat the eggs.
Jeri
This is how the raw upper fall now looks
I've been trying since the 18th to catch up!
''Snapdragon Bush'' sounds beautiful. Snaps are my favorite!
Fredrump, that's going to be beautiful!!
The mop idea is very interesting!
Hi Billyporter,
What have you been up to that you're playing catch up? Been missing your post.
I had never even heard of the angelonia until last year but was very impressed with their performance. I'll definately have them again.
Jeri
Dh was on vacation last week. We had the Grandson for a day, dental appointments the next. We ran To Menards to get boards for the plant stand he's going to build me and we ran back to DD's. The rest of the time I've been catching up on housework and making soups from scratch!
Whew! It's been a whirlwind! He's on nights this week and has vacation again next week. That's about how it'sa going to go till April 2nd. He will be retired then. Sadly, I'll have to start sharing the computer!
I see a lot of things I'd like to grow only to find out they aren't hardy. :((
Actually the angelonia is an annual here. I did do some cuttings but I lost most of them when I was out of town for a week back in Dec.
What are your lowest temps? I never thought so much about zones till I joined Dave's.
This year it's gotten to 25 for 3 nights before Christmas which was real unusual. We normally don't have winter until Feb. Then 2 may 3 weeks of that and then spring.
I didn't realize it got so cold. It's 14* and the wind is howling right now. I don't think this is even the arctic blast yet. That's going to be nasty. It's been fairly nice so far.
Last night was our fourth coldest night at 27 but tonight its like 33 and later this week we get up to 63 during the day.
I can't wait for Spring!!! I have a lot of plants coming, beds to enlarge, edging to put in and mulch to lay!
I can't wait either. We've got several RU in the MSF going on and I hope to make a couple of those.
I'd like to drop a few pounds first. It won't be the itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini weight, more like the boxer shorts and big tank top. :))
I don't even wear shorts anymore but it's because I'm too cold natured and old.
Laughing! I've sadly inheirited my Grandma's veins. I don't wear shorts to town no matter how hot it is.
I thought it was funny when I was pregnant that my legs would swell. Now that I have all the broken veins I don't think it's funny.
At least a tan will cover some of mine. I do wear suscreen, so it takes longer. I just started with the faded splotchy winter skin.
I thought the mop idea was pretty neat for fish. My SIL seemed to have a lot of babies hatch. I wonder how many got eaten? She was hoping to at least get to keep the babies and ended up getting to keep all of those the lady ''lent'' her. She just has a two tier pond. It's not very big, but deep enough to keep the fish in all winter.
One koi lays like 10,000 eggs and in the wild maybe 6 will grow up.
Wow! So she really had plenty for the size of her pond.
My grandaddy use to say that nature would balance itself out if we had enought patience to leave it alone.