November 2012

Here are the two koi and some of their buddies in late fall, 2012. 

First winter storm of 2012-2013

This winter storm had a name..."Brutus"...provided by the weather channel.  It left Utah with a nice coating of fluffy snow that melted quickly.  As you can see, I left the waterfall running during the storm and over the last few weeks of below freezing temperatures.  Not sure when I will turn it off this year.  Want to give the fish as much circulation as possible, given how overcrowded they are.

Goldfish at the End of the Rainbow

This photo of a rainbow (seeming to aim at the pond) was taken in the middle of November!  Didn't know rainbows came that late in the season.  At this point, we had already had our first major winter storm with 10 inches of snow, as well as many nights below freezing.  The grass is still green, but the tropical plantings have died and I have trimmed most of the pond plants back, with the exception of the horsetail.  I left the waterfall running during the stormy week, and it seemed to do fine.

The Fish

This was taken in early summer.  By the fall of 2012, the koi were tripled in size, and the little gray goldfish were much bigger and turning all sorts of colors.  We enter the winter season with way too many fish again.....these as well as some new ones that appeared in August.

Cricket

This must have been early summer as the red stemmed thalia is very small.  Cricket and Tucker love drinking from the pond, but during the summer Cricket discovered that there were fish in there and we had to restrict him from the area for a while to keep him from climbing in at every opportunity.  We hoped he would lose interest, which he did.

Mid Summer

The summer of 2012 was very hot and dry.  Most pond plants did well.  I used more plant fertilizer this year.  The water hyacinths that look so healthy in this picture didn't last long.  Someone eats their roots and they don't thrive.  The water lettuce did better.  We had to buy a UV clarifier because of algae bloom.  It took a couple of weeks, but the result was great.  No chemicals needed to keep nice clear water.  We bought the clarifier from Lowes because we were in a hurry.  This summer has seen a build-up of string algae in the waterfall portion (not in the pond itself).  The grandkids loved to help pull it out, which made things easier.

Red stemmed thalia

The focal point of the pond this year was the red stemmed thalia.  I ordered it on-line and it has done beautifully this summer.  Here you can see the odd slender blooms that appeared above the plant at the end of the summer.  As it is a tropical plant, I will have to get a new one next year.  I couldn't figure out how to overwinter it inside due to the size of the plant.

Variegated Cattail

Plants a'blooming!

The Reed Grass (Calamagrostis acutiflora) is blooming, and you can see the brown balls of the miniature cattail through the large cattail leaves.  The large cattail has green cattails which clued me in this year that the plant was not sweet flag as I had thought but was instead a slow growing variegated cattail.  It looks great and as it is supposed to be slow growing, will hopefully stay controllable.

New Dragonfly

Newly emerging dragonfly.  He will soon darken in color and have bold black and white stripes on his wings.

The Snakes Saga

Yes, that is "snakes" plural.  It has been a fantastic snake summer so far as the grandkids are concerned, because they have been able to see some really gross and fascinating snake action.  First event, and the grossest, was finding a poor dead snake that had gotten sucked part way into the water pump and then drowned.  I'm sad to report that I think it is my buddy from last summer, because of the size.  He was really stuck in the filter, so Ken had to puuulllll him out much to the great gross-outness of the grandkids who happened to all be here.  Best pond event ever as far as they were concerned.
But...the fun didn't stop there.  A couple of days later I was getting ready to clean out the filter basket and discovered a snake and a fish in there.  Kids came a-running in time to see the snake catch the fish and slither out of the basket into the bushes.
There's more!  Turns out we have 2 snakes that are vigorously trying to hunt the fish in the pond.  They are really bad hunters, much to the amusement of the grandkids, who have been able to watch the snakes lie in wait and lunge ineptly at the fish swimming by.  The grandkids understand that the baby fish have to go one way or the other, as I have too many fish in the pond to sustain them. 
Finally, Cayden and Callie were dangling their feet in the pond when they disturbed one of the snakes who shot across their feet as he fled to the other side of the pond.  Glad to see the kids' reaction was "cool!" and excited instead of freaking out.

Snakes on the Filter

Here is one of the snakes crawling around inside the filter box.  Note the new green filter pad....great product that I had to order by the sheet, but worth it as it will last longer than the white filter that came with the pond kit.

pond plantings

The horsetail in the foreground is really looking great this summer.  I'm sure with time it will become invasive, but for now it is growing slowly and looks very natural this summer.  The first year it didn't leave its basket and looked artificially "planted".
 The colorful flowers behind are in a low hanging basket I placed at the back of the pond to add color.

Damselfly

We enjoy the bright blue damselflies like this one seen perched on the frog sculpture in the pond.  Large black and white dragonflies also love the pond.

Healthy Fish

After some late spring skin problems, the fish have recovered and are beautiful and healthy.  I used a couple of products that were friendly to the bacteria in the  filtration system and the dogs who like to drink pond water.  Most of last year's babies are still alive, and unfortunately I noticed a tiny brand-new baby yesterday.  Hope that doesn't mean we will have even MORE fish!

The end of May, 2012.  The pond and plantings are starting to really look nice.  We added a new kids' bench and another adirondack chair.  The river rock edging has been widened and new rock added. 

Spring 2012

The pond plants are coming to life in the spring...the umbrella plant had spent the winter indoors and had just been put in the pond.  It has since been moved to a pot behind the pond as it was blocking the view of the waterfall.

tadpole survived the winter outdoors

this large tadpole spent the winter in the pond and seems happy enough

the snake is back!

Apparently our resident garter snake hibernated just fine over the winter and is back in the pond.  Here he is swimming underneath our fake turtle.

Fish making their appearance in the spring

Well, it appears all 30+ babies and the five large fish  survived the winter.  Not sure what to do with so many fish.......

Bubble images

koi and goldfish in bubbles!

Robin's reflection

the robin appears to be looking at his reflection in the pond

Spring 2012

After a mild winter, the birds are flocking back.  These robins are enjoying a nice bath even though the temperatures are still in the 40's.  The waterfall has not been turned back on yet...it will spill over the large flat rock in the back center.

Tucker drinking from the pond

the pond wrapped in snow

Snowy Night

winter bird bath

Even though the temperature has been below freezing, the pond heater (the green floating disc) is keeping a space open in the ice.  I had no idea that birds take baths in the winter, but they have been loving the open water and all kinds of birds come to drink and bathe at the edge of the ice.

Horsetails

The one pond plant I knew I wanted was horsetail.  I have fond memories of pulling the segments apart when I was a kid.  Growing up in dry Arizona made finding these water loving plants a rare treat.

autumn

view from a different angle

Here you can see how the existing flower bed blends in with the new pond.  The waterfall is not visible from this angle, but you can hear it from anywhere in the yard.

the pond during Alex and Adriana's wedding reception

So no water lily blossom (the closed bud can be seen in the center/back), and there was an untimely algae bloom, but with enough new floater plants, the pond was a beautiful addition to the backyard wedding reception.  The snake had slithered away earlier, so no guests were surprised by his presence.  Lots of little pebbles got tossed in the pond by little guests, but at least no one fell in!