How large an area are you going to be working with, Jeanbean?
Doh! Sorry all! I just slipped out for a few.
The pond I was considering would be about a 15'x20' deal. Maybe a few inches deep at the edges and 3' deep in the center. I wanted to have the bottom all in stone of varying sizes with a few patches of sand in the shallows. I'm really interested in the aquatic plants. Fish are a possible but not likely.. I have a good sized swimming pool sand-type filter I can use for it and it has a pretty good sized pump for circulating water.
The mosquito issue - well, the very back of my yard borders on a slow moving stream and there is marshland on the other side of the stream. I'm afraid I'm overloaded with mosquitos as it is.
I don't have to many racoons in the are but ther are a few skunks. I also have wild Canadian Geese down in the marshes and stream but I'm hoping they'll stay down that way.
The Canada Geese could be a bit of a problem, they may think you're building them a nice wading pool. At the insurance company campus near where I used to work, they had to put nets over a huge complex of beautiful ponds as the Canada Geese decided to move in, and they are messy critters and very territorial and assertive in their territoriality.
Sounds like you've got a lot of this planned out - having a good filter pump is key. I've learned a lot about cleaning them since Bailey became friends with the pond owner's dog.
That's a BIG pond by my standards. One of the nice things about having a pond is the wildlife it attracts. I wouldn't have minded the Mallard had it not been for the small size of our pond. All manner of birds visit mine for drinks and to take baths. We have some racoons around here, but they've never stolen any fish at all. Sometimes the squirrels stop by for a quick drink, too.
3 feet should be deep enough to winter over your fish, if you get some, fishin'. The pond is also big enough that the fish might get big enough so you could go fishin', too. A couple of my goldfish got big enough for a meal.
There's a huge variety of water plants, but I've discovered that it's lots cheaper to order them by mail than buy them locally. For example, I bought a water lily this year for $6.95 (as opposed to $35 in the store). It came bare root; I stuck it in a plant basket (they have holes in the sides)with nothing but pebbles (no soil), sunk it to the bottom and had the nicest water lily I've ever had . If you get the plants in a store that specializes in water plants they tend to jack up the prices. You can buy some (like Japanese iris, for example) in a regular nursery for lots cheaper. But you have to really wash off the roots before planting and putting in the pond.
One of my concerns, because of the proximity to the stream, is that I want to stick with plants native to the area. I don't want to bring in anything invasive that might manage to find it's way over there and mess things up for good. I toyed with the idea that I could pull some plants from the marsh and bring them up but I need to look into the legality of doing that. (MA is a pretty particular state..)
talk to mrs. sealpoet about that sort of thing - she's an aspiring expert as well as a member of a really good gardening forum i sometimes go to visit.
i like the native plant idea - that's what i've done with the front yard, after removing all the grass. extremely low maintenance if you use native plants.
Excellent idea, fishin'. Some of the floaters are pretty invasive. In fact, water hyacinth (which sells around here for about $4 a plant -- but you only need one to cover the whole pond by the end of summer) is banned in Florida and some other states. Apparently, it's gotten into various bodies of water and clogged up the whole place.
There are water lilies suitable for all different climates. We bought a book (one of those Sunset books on Water Gardens) when we started (that was before we were online) which gave pages of plants with photos and pretty thorough descriptions. We also checked out local suppliers to see what was available in our area and then we picked what we liked. I'm sure a little searching on the web would be even better than the book.
MA is particular in lots of ways from what I gather. They may take you away in handcuffs if you borrow some of the plants.
ehBeth wrote:talk to mrs. sealpoet about that sort of thing - she's an aspiring expert as well as a member of a really good gardening forum i sometimes go to visit.
OH YEAH! Duh, Stupid me. I should call her or go on over and visit with her for a bit. Heck, they only live 5 miles away! I forgot all about her being into that stuff. Thanks for mentioning the SealPoet's there Bethie!
bandylu2 wrote:MA is particular in lots of ways from what I gather. They may take you away in handcuffs if you borrow some of the plants.
We've got rules on how to write rules for writing rules..
How's the tree doing? I've got a nice pic of the two of you with what looks like dirt on a spoon - but i KNOW it's the tree!
It's hanging in there! It grew a little after I transplaneted it. The leaves turned red a few weeks ago and dropped off. I'm going to mulch it in for the winter. It's so tiny and I get good sized snow drifts in that area when it snows.
Perhaps a hockey stick or something as a marker, so it doesn't get inadvertently raked away in the spring?
Really nice ideas here.
This year I started a native wildflower garden, which I needed to weed more diligently but otherwise worked beautifully. I'm hoping that next year, the good guys will be more established and will crowd out the bad guys (nightshade et al.) I laid out some paths, and since the plants (poppies, daisies, columbine, etc.,etc.) grew to about 3 feet tall, the little 'un had a great time wandering through. I made the center a more "formal" garden, with snapdragons.
We have peonies and a 100-year-old-lilac and lilies-of-the-valley that have all been here forever. I planted a trio of lavender bushes which (edited from "who") are doing GREAT! My biggest success garden wise so far. The spaces in the front (between lavender and a couple of yews) (yews? not sure. I'm tired) were filled in with impatiens, which are just now wilting. Strong blooms all summer.
I have a box of 100 spring bulbs from Trader Joes (for like $15 -- I LOVE Trader Joe's, I tell ya) and am plotting where to put them. Maybe along the back fence, between pines. Maybe in front. Maybe under the lilac (meant to fill that in with more impatiens, but never got around to it last year.) Any general tips/ ideas on that? We're getting cold but quick, and should probably get them in the ground pretty soon.
Sozobe - by definition, a native wildflower garden should not be weeded, other than to remove some of the imports that are still found in the yard.
The biggest concern with bulbs is how to protect them from squirrels. If they are not protected in some way, the squirrels (and a few other little critters) think you've put out hors d'ouerves. I'm a fan of adding human hair clippings to each hole with bulbs - above and below each bulb. I heard about it from the canajun government experimental farm up in Ottawa. I haven't had any bulbs dug up and munched on since I started doing that.
Will you be having a baby garden for the sozlet next year? Even the tiny ones seem to enjoy going out and picking the tiny veggies and eating them.
Heyas!
I picked yard, year-round. We do most of our gardening in the Spring and Summer (peas, roses, hostas, etc.) but just about now it's getting to be time to prune the rose bush and get it ready for winter. We won't be raking leaves until the Spring; this seems to help the lawn winter better, and I think (at least, this is what I keep telling myself) that we end up with less to rake due to the breakdown of part of the leaves.
fishin,
You're planning a BIG puddle.
It should be much smaller in size and much deeper.
They make black plastic pond liners for this purpose.
The correct size is about 3' deep and about 4' long and about
18" wide.
That way, the fish can stay all winter and it will almost self-clean.
It's also important to have a souce of water,so if ever there isn't a drought, you can turn the water on.
Water hyacinths,Japanese iris,fish,frogs,turtles......
Great ehBeth
I couldn't resist. I had to go "basement".....ha-ha-aaa
Humorous choices What a sence of humor..
Cool beens..
fishin,
This is a gardening site, that sends newsletters.There are a lots of gardening sites, but this one I happened to read now.
http://gardening.about.com/library/weekly/aa110898.htm
fishin -- here's another link. this is Gardenweb.com's pond forum. You can get knowlegeable answers to just about any question you can ask. You should see the size of some of their ponds!
