The Watergarden Bug

(Note: This happened in 1999 or 2000, so these are all old film photos from back then. i'm happy that i'm finally putting these "out there" - i kept misplacing the actual hard copies!)

No, not a water strider or mosquito - i mean the thing you get in your MIND that you HAVE to have a body of water in your yard! i got the bug as hubby and i were at the open house the Realtor was having at what WOULD become our current residence. The Realtor was pointing out what a large yard there was and telling us that there was plenty of room for a swimming pool. i thought to myself,***Pool? Heck, no! i want me a POND! With fish and plants and frogs and a waterfall and a stream and snails and stuff!"***

And so, in the spring following our moving in, i started digging. OK, i didn't go REAL crazy - just bought a 60 gallon (227 Liter) hard plastic preformed thing, but it was enough to start. i have heard that you should always go big at first, to prevent having to replace it with a bigger one later ('cause all us "ponders" always do!), but i disagree. i was glad i started - and made my mistakes - with a smaller pond (NOTE: i AM referring to watergardens - 'pond' is just less to type!). This one had no filtration system (except plants and fish ~ the rock "waterfall" was just for looks, too), and it was fine - even had more fish in the Fall than what i started with, if you know what i mean..;o)
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After a couple of years, we did want to expand, so we went to a local watergarden shop in our area that gave free classes on how to install ponds, and just about got frightened out of the whole idea! This place really went all out (and of course, wanted the class participants to purchase the supplies from THEM), and if we followed all of their advice it would have cost us a small fortune!

So i started researching the whole pond building thing myself and discovered that, while watergardens CAN be a lot of work and expense, they really don't have to be! More about THAT later...back to pond building...

Here's a photo (below) of our initial sod removal in the shape of the new pond - quite a size difference! The only thing i wish we'd done differently was to keep the front of the pond where it was and not dig another foot closer to the sunroom - it's a little tight there now.

...So here it is a couple of days into the digging (below)- note the chairs in the shade - we had, in our usual bad timing, picked the only week that YEAR that was in the mid 90's (F)...ALL week!

More confusing info you'll find is the "to shelf or not to shelf" debate. There are good reasons for both configurations, but i can tell you that i am glad we have shelves - first of all, i would have no idea how to get INTO the pond without a step of some sort - it gets extremely slippery in there within days. Second, the shelves are very convenient for marginal and bog plants - in fact, i wish we had made them shallower than they are.

And last but most important, we got tired of shoveling and trying to find places to put the soil!!! After building up the waterfall area, the whole margin of the pond, AND two planting hills behind it in the yard, we were fed up with the whole digging thing! We finally looked at each other, said "Screw it!", and called it done!

The stick is for checking the level of the sides, and that large bucket is actually the biological filter we had yet to install.

The rubber liner going in. TIPS- don't let this stuff lay on your grass - it'll be killed in a hurry (no, we didn't do that - we were warned ahead of time!). Also, we didn't put any cushion or underlayment underneath - didn't have many roots or rocks around, and it hasn't been an issue - but i would still recommend it, because now, any time we lose water, i immediately worry that it's a stick or root cutting thru the bottom of the liner! So just for your peace of mind, put underlayment if you can. i know there are liners that have the underlayment already attached - wow, i cringe to think about how heavy THAT would be!

This is me in the pond - i was pretty overweight then, so this is all i'm showing you!

(To this day, when someone asks my spousal unit what he dug the pond with, he says, "With my wife!"). Sigh....

While we were lucky and had lots of pretty fieldstone for the taking from hubby's grandparents' farm, it was rounded and not good to use for the first layer. Here was our Big mistake, though  - my idea was to use cheap concrete patio blocks for the perimeter. Found out later that they were soaking in the water and leaching LIME into it, throwing the PH completely off kilter! We had to invest in a load of shale to replace it all, which was NOT fun! But anyway, that's how we started.

Couldn't wait to put plants in, even before it was finished!

Here's my guy, working on the patio blocks and waterfall. We did not mortar any rocks together, still not sure if that was a good thing or not. They do shift during the winter, but they were much easier to move when we had to get to the back of the filter when we had a leak. So,  there's good points and bad points to not mortaring, too.

Plants going around the outside. Once again, i saved a lot of money because i had so many plants in the gardens. i just divided or transplanted them and only purchased a couple of "special" plants.

From the other side

Before mulch...

...And after mulch!

And here ~ A year later...!

The End  LOL

Make A Simple And Quick Pond Plant Pruner (AKA- Good Old Polish Ingenuity) :o)

So the weather got cold sooner than you expected (or hoped), and you still need to get those Waterlily and Lotus leaves trimmed off before they rot in the pond. i don't know about you, but i don't want to get into 50 degree water for maintenance! SO, i use the handy-dandy pond plant trimmer i 'invented'! i use this thing all season and thought i'd share the instructions. 

Here is what you'll need:

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  One of those cheap plastic envelope openers you can find at office supply stores or that a lot of places give away (at least around here!)
  
  
  
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  A long sturdy stick (mine is bamboo, about 5-6 ft long, enough to reach at least halfway across the watergarden) with 2 or 3 notches cut into the end
  
  
  
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  Cable ties or 'zip' ties, the kind that lock securely. i like to use a dark color - it seems to be more resistant to the UV rays that make them brittle
  
  
  
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  A file or tool that will cut notches into the plastic letter opener - i use a pair of wire cutters, but whatever works for you
  
  
  

Cut 2 or 3 notches into the plastic - you just want to make sure it's secure and doesn't pull off and fall into the water (sharp plastic with RAZOR BLADE attached- get it? Very bad around pond liners!) i also cut off the little plastic guide piece that was near the blade - you want that a little wider by the blade

Attach the letter opener with the cable ties, making sure that you have it secured in shown direction, and that the ties fit in to the notches on both the opener AND the stick. Tighten the ties as much as you can, so that the opener feels secure and doesn't move.

Cut off the excess ends of the cable ties. 

If you can't picture how it works, here's a pic of how the cutter is placed around a lily stem.  

After you grab the stem with it, give it a sharp tug! Try to get as much stem as possible along with it. You'll get better with practice

i have become pretty good at using the flat side of the cutter to lift the leaves out, but you could just net them out as well.

One of these usually lasts me a season, and the cable ties have to be replaced periodically- check them before each use so you're sure they won't break when you're using it

Here i am using it to cut a Lotus stem (can you tell i'm really behind at my pond maintenance, too?) Yuck! Look at those skanky leaves!

Here is another 'invention'. This one works well to pull string algae out of the pond. Same principle - different tool - a toilet brush!

The Sacred Lotus Blooms Again!

This is my "Perry's Giant Sunburst" that i acquired in a swap last year and almost killed! i wanted large leaves for my castings and darn near vitamined (is that a word? guess it is now!) her to death! Very slow starter this year, but she's recovering and giving me a couple of buds.

This is " Red Scarf" - first year for it, growing in a pot, and i'm looking forward to the bloom, even though i primarily purchased the plant for it's leaves. The folks at the establishment where i found it could not tell me how large it would be, and while i'm disappointed to find out the leaves don't get as big as i wanted, this flower will kind of make up for it! This was actually several days ago so i will be posting pics of the blooms soon!

An Evening Walk Through The Garden...

The Hibiscus are Blooming! The white ones are big and pretty...

...let's go see a few more...

...The red ones are also beautiful with the sun glowing through them...

....But the pink ones are, IMHO, the most gorgeous by far!

The Giant form of Castor Bean is getting big, but nothing like 2 years ago, when it got to about 12 feet high! Cooler summer caused it, i guess.

I didn't plan the Anemone coming up through my "Tiger Eye" Sumac, but it looks like i did!

The Red Cypress is just beginning to bloom -( the hummy birds will be happy)!

The "Cherokee Daybreak" Dogwood still looks awesome, despite a little sunburn on the leaves

My "Silver Cloud" Redbud COMPLETELY died last winter- but i refused to give up on it, waited and waited, and it finally began to sprout again! Looks great (short, but great). Note the Lotus and Butterbur in the background.

The Boston Ivy (this one is supposedly taken directly from the ivy growing in Wrigley Field) is growing well all over the trunks of the peach tree we cut down a few years ago.

....The peas are getting cranky!....(Peas by Carruth - paint job by me!)

CRICKIT! Get outta the way!

Now that she moved, this is what i was aiming at- the fish look hungry...

Koi, Rosey Reds, and Goldfish add a calm conclusion to our walk

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The Watergarden Journey

We started out with a 60 gallon, preformed plastic pond. No filtration, no aeration, just water, two goldfish, and several water plants....No idea what i was doing, either! But, the 2 goldfish turned into 7 by the end of the season, so apparently somebody was happy with the conditions! Of course, the fish were feeder fish, and i got them with the idea that i'd just let them die in the winter or throw them away (they were FEEDER fish, after all!), but, animal person that i am, i just couldn't, so instead, they spent the winter in an aquarium! Had this little pond for about 3 years, then got the itch to have a "real" watergarden, one that the fish could stay in all year, so, in 2001, hubby and i took a free watergarden class at a local shop, and jumped in head first, to coin a phrase!

We took one week of vacation to work on it - of course, it was the only 95 degree (F) week we had that summer! Just the two of us....when someone asks my husband what he dug the hole with, he always says, "With my wife!" Well, HE thinks it's funny... ):}

In a way, it developed a life of it's own, deciding what size and depth it would ultimately be, and when we were finished digging (mainly because we decided we'd had enough!), it was an 11' X 20' oval, 24 inches deep.
Anyway, it definitely turned out beautiful, and now i have another environment to grow plants in - water! All of the plants surrounding the pond were just moved or divided from those i already had, and all of the fieldstone around it came from hubby's grandparents' farm - hauled in one pickup truck load at a time! We have various types of fish - Koi, Goldfish, and Rosey Reds, and it's visited by a large number of American Toads every Spring, almost always around April 15, except we usually have warm weather by then, and it doesn't look promising so far, so Toad Day may be delayed this year! More about THEM when they show up...
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Thoughts On Skunk Cabbage And Steroidal Giants...

My garden contains as many rare and oddball varieties of plants as i can find, whether grown from seed or cuttings, acquired from neighbors, friends and family, traded for, or purchased (last resort!).The trees are filled with many cultivars of Tillandsias, not hardy -or even heard of- in my zone. The yard also is home to variegated Horseradish, variegated Dogwood and Redbud trees, variegated Lilac, HEMP (!) leaved Lilac, hardy Bamboo, things like that, and over in the veggie garden, purple snap beans, Elecampane, and "Preacher's Pride" tomatoes grow. Now that i'm a "leafer", my sights are on unusual plants with large leaves. i do have a Gunnera (she is keeping the Tillandsias company in the Florida room at the moment), a Butterbur, giant Lotus, and Inula (Elecampane), but this year i decided i "need" a Tetrapanax (one of the varieties is the 'Steroidal Giant') and Skunk Cabbage!