After 2 years of loosing my fish to a neighboring blue heron - Arrghh! We finally decided the only thing left to do was to net the whole pond. We used the decorative bridge we made to drape the net over and then made a metal frame with legs to attach the outside of the net. You can barely see the net, what do you think. I'm tickled pink, now all I have to do is wait for spring to bring out my plants and lilies, place the rocks, and finish up the waterfall feature. :-)
-DC
Looks great! The net is hardly visible at all! Good idea.
I'm in the middle of building frames with netting, not sure how they'll turn out just yet.
That is exactly what I ended up doing. Between the snakes and the herons, I was losing too many fish.
You can hardly see the netting and your bridge is awesome! Nice job on it.
Cute Pond and great idea. I bought a Blue heron decoy and make sure to have hiding spaces for the Koi. They like their Koi castle and it has a been a great place for my 13 Koi to hang out this winter.
Lots of water lillies when seasonaly possible. Those heron are scary. One tried to land recently in my pond..it was like a 747 landing in my yard!! Thanks goodness I was gardening at the time and could shoo him/her away. The wing span must have been 7-8 feet across.
Beahive -
I love your plant mixture you have around your pond. It's beautiful! Nice to see another ponder here in the Oregon area :-)
DC
Looks Great
DC.. it looks great.. you can't see it ..and the bridge being there was a natural support for the middle of such a large area.. and such an enclosed pond feature should make any insurance agent... of an inspector in a more urban/restrictive area very happy.. the bridge and the fishermen and the waterfalls ...takes the eye/thought away from there being netting all together..
Bea.. well great looking area...land and water.. I wish I had devoted more space to a water feature
... next time for sure. I've a question though..will you deco of the herron.. repell others.. or serve to make others come on down to see what that one is eating... perhaps a trist in the rushes.. or ..gee it must be a safe place if there's a herron buddy at the water already..
Like they use ducks to lure other ducks.. .
Gordon
Hey BeeHive,
Very beautiful pond area! oh, the decoys don't always work...we lots serval new (pricey) Koi last Spring to a huge
Blue Heron(!!) and we had a decoy out! Now the decoy is of a white Heron...(??) we have more White Herons in our area the Blue's usually, don't know if that makes a difference. But we did come up with a really great solution
(that didn't involve the use of firearms)...It's called "Scarecrow"(not the realthing) it's a motion activated sprinkler!
Works great!! Keeps any animal from going near pond! Costs a little much but it's worth it to save your fish. And it's great for larger ponds like BeeHives that would be hard to get a net over!! ( runs about 60 to 70.00) There available online I'm sure! Well, Happy Ponding. Terry
Terry, I have seen the scarecrow but I am afraid I would be
setting it off all the time as I spend a lot of time puttering in the back yard. I would be the one getting scared by the squirt of cold water. Burrr! Once the lilly's fill the pond surface, I should be OK with the Heron. It is these winter months that are so risky. The picture is of the local Heron after I scared him away. He landed on my neighbors roof. BIg House...big bird! Your Koi look very happy in your pond.
How large is your pond & your current fish?
Bea
gordonhawk. The fake heron from what I have been told is a male replica.Male herons are very territorial and others are not supposed to get in their space if fishing etc ... I hope this is true, but I did have that one try to land. Maybe he need glasses and did not see my fake one...I also have two duck decoys (mallards) floating around .Have not had trouble with any ducks or geese for that matter. They are always honking by.. high up in the sky.
Oh..Bea.... I was wondering .if they would act amore like duck decoys... and attract..
the one landing needed glasses.. or perhaps his sexual orientation considered .. or perhaps there are items in the scan that wern't included in the decoy' depection..
so the female herrons aren't flying by and.. interested.. and stopping in to the male decoy..
It' s all a bit strange..
I did see an interesting house in Gulfport, .. they had adeck near the water... it always had a few large white herrons on it..sometimes three or four... and that was while there were a couple of humas out with them...like pets.. Gordon
Yeah Bea, the Winter and early Spring months are the worst for us too, till the big Sycimore near the pond leaves out
the pond is far too open! And we too used to get "scarecrow'd" ourselves now and then, we just use it mostly when we're not going to be outside or at home at all. ( has an on/off switch) Be careful with that Heron(!!) you scared him
one day but they never forget a watering (feeding) hole! (morning and evening always seemed to be their favorite
visiting times here) Most of our problems seemed to be with one perticular crane re-visiting every few days!!
Well Bea, our pond is very oddley shaped, two almost oval pools linked by a small pass through or strait. The best we can figure is it's between 1000 and 1200 gallons. The fish love it, we;ve worked very hard to give it a very naturalized setting with the waterfall blending in with or coming out of the surrounding plantings.(like a rockey bubbling spring)
And there is a huge Angels Trumpet (Eq.Pink) growing and hanging over 3/4's of the pond, with a added bonus for the
Koi, they Love (LOVE) ot eat the Trumpet Blooms and fallen leaves(!!) Yes I know they are harmful to us but not to
the fish for some reason, they've been eating them for years when they fall, and actually fight for them, go figure...
Let's see the largest is "Gorby" and he must be about 18" then there are 4 in the 14" range a few smaller Koi too
and half a dozen 7" to 9" Comets or Goldfish, oh plus dozens of Swordtails and Mollies also, they keep the
Mosquito larve down. Here;s a picture of the waterfall and some of the Tropicals around it. Terry.
This pic's a little brighter... it's from last year, before the Koi ate that Waterlily! ( Big Koi Pretty!)(Big Koi Hungry!)
rosehip your pond is beautiful. So Tropical! Guess that is possible in Florida with your warm weather. Must look great when the angels trumpet is in bloom.Strange how it does not harm your Koi. My fish are around 6-7" so far. Purchased them as 2-3 inch babies. They are really fun to interact with. I will be doing a pond clean out in a few weeks and rounding them up will be fun. They do come to me at the edge of the pond but catching them will be a challenge I am sure. Slippery little buggers...
rose_hip.....Love your pond! I'm trying to get more shade around mine with tropicals, but they have to be in pots because the ponds are built in the middle of our decks. I think the Angel Trumpet vs Koi comment is interesting. I just ordered 2 to dangle over the back edge, but was concerned if any of the flowers fell in. I guess I don't have to be now!
Well Terry... a lovely naturalized setting indeed.. it looks stunning.. quite an accomplishment..
It seems to have been in good shape for the tour.. I'm quite impressed... Do the big fish spend the winter out in the ponds...there...
I've a small water feature which my more tropical area surrounds.. but I have to rethink the entire corner where it is this year... the next building went up another floor to allow a stairway access and it now shades the area quite compleatly.. so the tiny pond and tropicals move to a new configuration.. perhaps a bubbling brook.. running into a basin infront of the tropicals this year... as a pond in the middle of them gets just about no sun at all... and there goes the vitality of my water plants. not that they are very ambitious ...
do you mind if I clip part of your post about the brugs hanging over and leaves and flowers being eaten by the Koi... to the brug forum... there's a need to show that they can be pet friendly..
OH mandevilla...Tango Twril is with Wayside Gardens mail order this year.. although I'm sure it's quite tiny from them. in it's 2 1/2 " pot .( although as with all their pictures.. the picture they have of it blooming... is astonishing.. worth a visit on it's own) if you have difficulty getting it let me know and I'll find a big midsized one here for you..
continued great success there . Gordon
All the best.. Gordon
Hey Gordon, sure go ahead and clip away.(please!) The"fear of Brug's" that so many people have can be really
strong sometimes, and I feel for the most part unwarented. Wow do you know how many plants we grow in our gardens
or as house plants that are poisonus or harmful to us or our pets!! Well anyway, don't want to start a pro/con Brug or poisonus plant rant or argument here either back to pond stuff! Yeah Gordon, Things looked really great for the tour,
there was a great turn out! Yes the Koi do "winter" (lol) over outside here (hec this is Florida man) lol, no it doesn't
hardley ever get much below the mid to upper 30's here in St.Pete, but Koi will do very well for the most part in colder
weather too. The Bubbling Brook idea sounds great with all your tropicals mixed in. Oh, Tango Twirl, Wayside Gardens
Hmmmm, I;ll have to keep that in mind(!!) Thanks.
Hey Bea, slippery little buggers is right, and Fast too! I'm trying to catch some 5 to 6 inchers from our small above ground pond to move up to the big one and there not making it easy on my thats for sure!
Hey Mary, thanks, and yes Brug's and Koi can co-exist and that's great. Good luck with you pond and Brug's!
