The Pond With A Few Friends

The fish had babies again this year.  If you look very closely you can see some tiny, tiny black smudges.  They don't have any coloring on their bodies, just on their eyes and the end of their tails.  Most of them are still black, but s few are already growing and turning orange/white.  This is the cleanest my pond has ever been.  I think I might be getting the hang of ponding.

We have frogs!!!  Finally!  I have been waiting SO LONG for some frogs to find my pond.

There were 4 of them.  I took a lot of pictures.

Pond and A Few Blooms

My water lilies that over wintered in the pond.  They are blooming a lot earlier this year.

So this is what the pond looks like now.  I am NEVER moving it again!

Foxglove.  One of my favorite flowers.

Delphinium.

Garden 2011 - Spring

A lot has changed in the backyard since last year.  I planted grass, for one thing.  This is the first time I have ever planted grass in my entire life.  I have killed a lot of grass over the years, but NEVER planted it.  Turns out it is kind of difficult to grow.  Well, if you have a puppy that insists on running across it and trying to dig it up :)

The pond.  The white trellis fell over a couple days ago.  Well, actually it was picked up and twisted around by the wind.  It was a strong wind, because that is not a light trellis. 

The water lilies over wintered with the fish in the pond.  They seem to be fine.  I replanted them and there are many leaves already floating on the water.  Soon water lilies!  I also added some water lettuce, water hyacinth and parrot feather.  I also added 40 Japanese trapdoor snails.  There is a toad that lives in the rocks around the pond.  So lots of wildlife in/around the pond.  I wonder what happened to all the salamanders and frogs I added to the pond last fall?

Only 6 garden beds.  I took out 7 beds.  I wanted to cut back, because it seems like - yes I can grow a ton of food in my backyard - but why am I doing it?  A lot of stuff went to waste last year, because I didn't have enough time to care for everything.  I want to have a garden that is productive and looks good too. 

View from the porch of the grass.

I'm really happy with the changes that I made.  It's pretty and now I have more time to enjoy it, instead of only having time to take care of it.

Can't remember what the garden looked like last year?  Neither could I :)

Click on the links below if you want to see the yard last year.

Garden Sept 2010

July 2010

June Garden Update 2010

May 2010 - easiest on this post to see the difference between this year and last year

Mourning Dove

This mourning dove visited the pond yesterday.

Amphibian Attack

A friend collected some salamanders, frogs and toads from a window well at her house.

We brought them to my garden and put them near the pond.

There were a lot of them!

"What is that?!"

"Can I eat it?"

Wonderful camouflage.

My New Bridge

I finally installed the bridge over the pond last week.

I have been working on the bridge for the last month, varnishing it and sanding it.

It was a closeout kit that I bought and put together.

I also finally have the rocks the way I want them and the waterfall.

The fish went back into the pond last week too.

Last Fall there were the big original 8 and close to 100 of their babies.

Now there are 7 big ones and about 25 of various sizes.

I have been feeding them every other day.

Last year I fed them about 5 times the whole summer, because I thought they wouldn't reproduce as much if they didn't have extra food i.e. they would eat their young. Yuck.

But they had over 100 babies!

So, this year I will just feed them and see what happens. There is also a frog in the pond, but I could find him when I had my camera.

Of course, now that I am DONE with the pond it's started to leak.

Argh!

Anyone know an easy way to find a hole in a pond liner?

The water level drops down to about 5 inches below the edge, so I have some idea of where the leak is, but there is a lot of rock to move to find the hole.

Catty likes the bridge.

Garden Clean-up

I have been working on cleaning my garden up this week.

It was a long, hard winter and there was a lot to clean up.

First, I picked up all the junk, trash, ect.

Then, I fixed the pond.

Last Fall I took most of the rocks off of the liner and took out the stream. I ran out of time and it got too cold, so I finished it this week.

Finally, I have the pond exactly the way I want it!

After only moving it 10 times!

Then I placed 2 more raised beds in area I want to make into a small patio. I just have to wait until the tulips bloom, and I can move them, to get started on the patio.

Then I started moving all my raised beds. Again.

Yes, I am crazy.