Ahh Frilly what breed of dog is that? V. V. CUTE!
something I learned.
toy poodle
I bred them for 4 years.
very sweet little things
Oh, darling!! My baby Sherlock was just a puppy - didn't realize what water was, I think - and walked right into the deep side of the pond! I jumped in (thank god it was summer), got him out - and he has never gone near the pond again - that was about four years ago -- Dax
Here's my big old baby romping in the spring -
And yes, I'm an EIPS member, but not active, I'm afraid - just too much to do. I just took a pic of the pond today. You can see how wide the opening was before these frigid temps. On the far side, the two depressions are actually the other two heaters, and they are thawed through to the water. Glad to see with the warmer temps, the hole is widening again.
And you're right, I can just hear the electricity monitor spinning!! But after trying to save a few bucks last year and losing so many fish -- ah, what's money?
Here's the pic --
Frilly - he's a sweetie.
Dax - love your puppy. Looks like he is going for a stroll.
My kitties haven't been in the pond, but then they don't go outside. I did have a cat when I was little and she used to go down to the river swimming. She would come back full of leaves and just stinking!.
I love animals!
And you asked for it Snapple --
Here's that bottom pond and stream last summer - ahh -- how long will this weather go on? I hope I haven't lost alot of plants!
And then turn around and look north to the upper stream and falls --
I so wish we were there now ---
Dax
Gorgeous!!!
Thanks! Anyway I can help with your water garden next spring - just let me know!
And thanks to you, too, Carolyn -- Isn't he darling, and he really does tramp all around the paths, and keeps off the beds (pretty much). I love this one of him on the bridge, looking down into the stream -- but NOT going there!
Dax, is your pup a Basset? He looks so huggable! (Obviously, I love short legged dogs!)
We're going to put off the big pond project until 2010 to allow more time for ideas and seeing what others around here have done. I want to visit your pond in the spring/summer though - it looks gorgeous! We don't have the room or slope for a stream just the pond part.
Are you still working on that hillside that needs plants or am I thinking of someone else? I'm going to dig up at least a dozen echinacea plants to put in the lotus pond, if you want them let me know.
Thanks Dax! Your gardens, pond and stream just never cease to amaze me.
Dax: Thanks for the photo's-lovely! Can your fish swim upstream at all? Post more soon. It's nice to see something fresh and new! How many more days until Spring? My pond heaters are popping circuits . . .
Tooo many days til spring!
Shhh, Don't tell ic, but I'm taking bets that the "pond" gets started in 2009. A couple of trips to local koi ponds and she'll be running that backhoe after dark if she has to, to get the thing in. Any takers?
Snap, I think you have it right. She still has several months to plan and dream before spring really gets here. Plenty of time. :^)
Post a couple more shots of your gorgeous stuff tetley. That'll get her engine running faster.
kathy....it's 67 days until my average pond start up date. I'm trying like heck to make the most of these blankety blank "indoor days" so the time goes faster and outside stuff can be my priority.
I understand, snapple. I have been torrorizing my houseplants. I want so badly to get outside that I am rooting cuttings and repotting and anything else I can think to do. Pray for them 'cause I am going to kill them with so much attention. I caught myself watering them for the second time in one day.
LOL kathy, LOL. I've been staring at some Amaryllis, watching some crosses I tried set seed. And I've been scrounging the big box stores looking for mark down Amaryllis bulbs. Found some nice ones for 2.99 at HD yesterday. They were in pretty good shape too, surprisingly.
My stuff is not so georgeos right now with everything being frozen and withered. About the only green stuff to be seen is the string algea on the sides of the pond. It is definately a challenge to go up the hill and through the woods to check and make sure the heater is still working. The last few days my hands, toes and nose have been froze and the fish are just as happy as can be. It is kind of pretty in the morning though with the mist coming up off the water.
That trek sounds suspiciously like Little Red Riding Hood. You know. Over the river and through the woods..... Sheesh I have only to trudge about 75' straight out the patio door and even that's rough, since it was -15 when I got up this morning.
and it is -4 here this morning.
I am betting that Elizabeth puts in her pond this year too......
Elizabeth, you have to figure if you put your pond in this year, it will cost less than if you put it in later years. Every year, the prices seem to go up with anything assoicated with ponding. One other thing - I'll be fertilizing my waterlilies sometime in April, I'd love to trade some of my waterlily divisions for some of your hosta divisions. I saw that you have quite a collection of hostas and you were talking about moving them to put your pond in. None of my waterlilies are marked in the pond and I get flowers from May/June until they peter out in September/October. My color range is from white to the Black Princess, which is the deep red one that is on the far right in the picture.
Carolyn
I take my pump out in the fall and cover the pond all but a small area for air until the leaves are all down the uncover and put a stock heater in it. You are lucky if a stock heater lasts three yrs. You always have to clean the element with viniger in the spring. In the spring I take a rain barrel and the small pond that I took out and drain my pond to clean it. I then put back all the water and fish and if it needs more water I get the hose and top it off. I didn't know but twice I left the hose in when I turned it off and it syphned the water right back out. I don't do that anymore. Frilly try not to beat on the ice too much to make a hole because the loud sound in the water will kill fish, Best to take a hot pan of water and try to melt a place to start. Just my 2 cents. BEV
Boy! You sure miss alot when you leave for awhile - to get caught up --
Yep - I think the pond could easily be done this year -- let's get together, Beth (it's nice being close to each other) - I'd love to see your place and where you're thinking of putting it. I figured out ways to save money along the way or I couldn't have done such a large set-up, that's for sure. And I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm surprised how relatively little time is required once it gets going to keep it nice. And you get to enjoy it every day!
As you can see, I have some iris, marsh marigolds, rushes, sweet flag, water lilies, and MORE plants that I could get you started with.
And I have a couple extra pumps (amazing how you can accumulate them over time, right?), that, if one suited you, I would give up for a trade with some of your plants!
Oh, and did I mention the extra goldfish I have? If I can get them through the winter, I would be happy to give some to you -- just to get started.
How can you resist, Elizabeth?
Sherlock's a bassett, and I'm like you - love those short-legged cuties. Just something completely darling about them --
My big project these days IS the Woodland garden you asked about, and I would LOVE those echinacea - It's coming along, but I still have four beds to go.
Love seeing everyone's longings for spring. This has been the toughest winter we've had in my memory (and it's pretty long!) --we broke the all-time low for Cedar Rapids yesterday -28. I live online in Nursery web sites -- and try to hold back!! I said I wouldn't buy so much this year - I can't afford it and don't need it!! But ---- I fell off the wagon just a couple times! Help!
Here's a pic of the fish last summer and you can see some of the plants around the edges -- it wouldn't take much at all to get started this year -------
Dax
You guys are something else! How did you all get to scheming all this in the less than 24 hours that I have not checked Dave's Garden!!!!
If nothing else, finances are going to push it one more year off. So far my unofficial estimates for everything is going to be about twelve grand. Unless we have a fundraiser, I'm just going to have to save that up. No way I can do it in just a few months...
Carolyn, I'll see what I can split. Most of my hostas were new in my garden in 2008 although I have tons and tons of ventricosa and 'Royal Standard.' Do you want hostas for filler or a focal point? I think either 'Pineapple Upside Down Cake' or 'Guacamole' are big enough to cut off a division, but we'll have to see when the ground thaws. I would love a dark colored waterlily, I don't care what name, as long as it is easy to grow! I ordered those five lotuses yesterday and today measured the size of the liner pond we're going to move outside...and yup, you guessed it, it is going to be a tight squeeze.
We're going to throw out the guest bed in our guest bedroom so we can keep tropicals in there in the winter - how is that for obsessed. We never have guests anyway, my husband's parents are only an hour's drive and my parents never come to visit. I've been in this house over two years now and they've never visited. So, last night I told Andy "I want to get rid of that" and he actually completely agreed. That is good...because there are a half dozen colocasia that I want to order from Brent & Becky's Bulbs!!!
Glad I had in my order yesterday for the lotus from Bonnie's Plants because she emailed me and said several are now sold out, so it is good that I ordered early.
Becky, definitely let me know when you want to come down on a weekend. We're home almost every weekend - you're the busy one with the kiddos : ) I have a bunch of unnamed daylilies that I want to give away too, all nice but I have a bunch of named ones I bought last year that I want to move to the spots where the unnamed ones are. The unnamed ones would look great in a woodland garden, I think they are all pinks and yellows. Nothing "shocking", soft colors. Quite a few divisions of hosta 'aureomarigata' or something like it that needs to go, it was in an area by where the pond is going to go in. I know what you mean about falling off the wagon, though, this is a hard winter.
Elizabeth
Buy an air matress. I mean the cheap kind. You do not want house guests to be too comfortable anyway. Overwintering plants is sooo much more important. You made a good decision. Houseguest won't die on an air matress but plants will die outside in winter. You finally have you priorities right.
You guys are all crazy. I haven't been online for a day and couldn't get over the epic novel that this tread has become. BTW Sanpple: I have $10.00 that your right about IC and her pond. When she figures out that with the liner and the pump and the other necessary essentials she could probably get away with about $6000.00. It may not have rocks, or boulders or plants but it would have water and fish and I think she will come around to that thinking. Poor little Poppie deserves a much bigger and better home. And new finny friends. . . LOL!
Dax: Love your pond pictures. Do you have a sandy bottom in your pond? It looks like sand in it to the right in your last picture-or is that clay?
Linda
MM I see your ten dollars and raise you two. HeeHee
If we keep this up that "fundraising party" for IC's pond will be moving right along!
I'll double down!
We went up to Cedar Rapids today to buy the 300 gallon rubbermaid and got it back safely, though it was a bit white knuckling. Andy took some hillarious pictures that I'll have to upload in their own thread tomorrow. It was a balmy 26 degrees. We got it home, into the basement and then went to the hardware store to buy plumbing supplies so I will have a ball valve on the bottom drain. It is going to be so cool!!! Tomorrow Poppy will move to his new home, from the 270 gallon liner with shelves (that accumulate a lot of waste) to the straight sided 300 gallon rubbermaid.
More good news - for the third day in a row, my ammonia levels are the same - not quite zero but close - without water changes. I think my biological filtration might just be starting to work!
Well, it took a long time for that to start working-is your filter a "union" filter with his hand out (oh, I forgot you don't live in Chicago . . . that would be our unions and our Governor. . .)!
$12,000? No way!! I'm with you, Linda - my entire set-up cost about $6,000, and I'm sure you can do it for even less, Beth. I can hardly wait to sit down with you and Andy -- we'll get together in early spring, for sure!
Looks like you have lots of us offering fish and plants, and don't you want to give Poppy a beautiful home with friends ASAP?
Mothermole - yes, the bottom is a combination of pebbles and sand. I have old carpeting on the bottom, OVER the lining so I can work in there and it holds the sand in place. My bottom pond is designed as a wildlife habitat pond, so I have a beach for entry, as well as dry sand for dry baths, etc. The streams are very shallow in order for the animals to have easy access for drinking and bathing, too.
This pic shows the beach, etc. --
Dax
Dax I really like that-thanks for the extra picture. Does the sand cause any health problems for your koi? Everyone here recommends I take all my pebbles off the bottom of the pond for health reasons (I had a lot of fish deaths this summer). I wondered if that affected you or not with the sand. BTW: I don't have a bottom drain.
L
No, I've never had a problem -- I don't have a bottom drain either. It's interesting -- the reason for my pond is first and foremost as a habitat for the local fish, animals, etc., and of course the sand and pebbles are more natural. The base of the old carpeting does keep the sand stable, and cuts down any particles floating in the water. So I put in a few koi, but only ones that were small (only cost $5.99) - about 3 inches long. They have grown to about 8-9 inches, but I don't give them any special treatment or food. My biggest problem was when I lost a bunch of fish because we lost electricity for almost a week last year, and the pond froze over. The pond is 18' in diameter, and ranges from the walk-in beach to 3 and half feet. The fish range the entire area, but stay mostly in the deep section. Here you can see the bottom below the fish. The place that they are over, and you can see the bottom, is 3 feet deep. I do have a bio-filter, and use UV filters which kill bacteria and algae. ?? Dax
Well, that figure does include the privacy fencing we're going to put up, which will be about $2k. I found a company that has really nice bamboo privacy screening, www.calibamboo.com - we're going to get the posts locally and install that ourselves. That is an absolute must because of where we live, smack in the middle of the city, lots of foot traffic in front of our house and I do want the pond to be as inaccessable as possible from the street.
Becki, I can't wait to show you the planned area. It is a few feet off from our driveway so getting machinery in there should be no problem. We had to go to Menards again today because the plumbing stuff we bought yesterday for Poppy's new basement home did not fit the bottom plug of the 300 gallon Rubbermaid. I always forget that my husband's favorite toy as a kid were his lego's. We started looking at different parts and saw what a four inch pipe really looks like. There is no way we'll need that for this project!!! I think three inch pipes and drains will be more than sufficient. Ten foot lengths were like $9 so it will probably be a lot less expensive than I thought for the piping and fittings. I'm also not convinced that I need a UV for the first year, I can make the filter pit large enough to add components. I know my first pond doesn't need to be the be all, end all, especially in the first year.
Oh, another new big expense that I just found out about today - my brother is engaged! He's been going out with his now-fiancee for just under five years and proposed to her today. I'm assuming that they are going to be looking at a 2011 wedding date, but it is going to be a big expensive NYC wedding and I'm sure that as the big sister I'll be asked to contribute. I'm pretty excited for him, though!
Elizabeth
Elizabeth -
Weddings are fun - especially in big cities, like NYC. My youngest brother got married not too long ago in Boston (the whole family is slowly ending up there)- the wedding was wonderful!
We do not have a bottom drain either and really have not had any problems. We do clean the pond with a vacuum when we shut down in the Fall and then again when we start up in the Spring. We are in there during those times with the waterlilies and that type of thing anyway, so not having a bottom drain really has not been a problem for us.
As I mentioned, I cannot guarantee what colors the waterlilies would be. My pots are lifted each Spring for fertilization and then lifted again in the Fall to cut back the remaining lily pads before everything is shut down. Each time the pots are lifted they are put back in no specific order - so, whatever I divide is yours.
Carolyn
ic - UV, UV, UV, UV!!!! An absolute must.
Yep, Snapple - I remember my first two years - they said the pond would "balance" - well, mine never did - I was constantly cleaning the pond, and could never see the bottom. It was you, Snapple, who helped me make the decision to put them in (I have two), and the water was clear, and algae free within two days.
Also, although it does kill beneficial bacteria, it kills ALOT more harmful ones. I have never had problems with the fish's epidermus.
Beth - I have a 2" flexible PVC pipe, approx. 75' long, from the bottom pond to the top. I run a 4,800 GPH pump to recycle the water from the bottom to the top, with a rise of about 20'. It produces a very nice flow -- anyway, the 3" should be, as you said, MORE than enough. Here is the water coming out at the top pond - the can on the left shows the pipe at the top and the flow rate. The falls has a separate pump --
Yes, I can see where the fence will be one of the major expenses, and absolutely needed -- can't help there -- Dax
Dax, I have always loved your pond the way you have the steps in it. Thanks for the pic!
I would never even consider a pond without the UV. Mine was a nightmare before I got the UV in it. Felt like I tried every recommendation known to man for the pea soup water and nothing worked. It will kill free floating bacteria as it passes under the light but what most people do not realize is that much of your beneficial bacteria colonizes on sufaces such as the sides and bottom of the pond and on pots. There is no way for the UV to harm them there.
UV! The best purchase I've ever made through the years....what a lifesaver!
:)
I definitely want to add a UV, just not sure I will need it for the first year of operation. It will really depend on what time of year the pond gets started up. If it is September this year, that is a big difference from May next year. I know the UV bulbs need to be replaced every 1-2 years so I would rather put off the expense of a UV if I would only use it for one month before shutting down the pond for the winter : )
My pond will be in considerable shade, too.
Look at this Redwood and tell me it will not look amazing near the pond: http://www.songsparrow.com/2009/plantdetails.cfm?ID=489&type=WOODY,&pagetype=plantdetails
That is what I thought, too. I ordered one last night...along with a bunch of other things. This winter is really hitting my pocketbook hard! Although...I think I'm still holding back a lot more than I did last year, so that is improvement, right???