Water Lily

Working days means i've barely gotten top see the two water lily blooms this year. They open around 8 am and close around 4 pm. I leave at 7 and get home at 5:30, so not much chance to view them. This is as open as they get at 7 o'clock in the morning.

Pond

Well it isn't a flower, and it isn't particularly pretty but my partially finished pond will have to do. I kept attempting to level it, but it never completely worked. It has about 3 inches of water in it and I'm mainly doing that to make sure I didn't make any holes with all the dragging the liner around I did this week. The liner will be trimmed as soon as it's full of water, then I'm picking up some patio blocks to put along the top edge to hold the liner up, hide the edge of it and hide the holes in the blocks. And yes, those plants less then one foot away will be moving yet again. The raspberries I'm declaring a lost cause and the blackberry will be moved.

Gardening

So last week it was 80° F, and this week it's 28° F, got to love New England weather. Week before last I planted out some peas, radishes and lettuce under cover. The peas started coming up quickly with the radishes and lettuce a bit slower to follow. That week of hot weather did help a little. I also planted some peas inside and put them out last week. They're further along just because they had the warmer start. This week I made some seed tapes with radishes, beets, carrots and lettuce, historically veggies I am awful about spacing correctly. I'm trying to wait until the test lettuce I just planted comes up before I make anymore.

Peppers are up in pots inside, as are a few eggplant. Tomatoes were planted Monday and should be up sometime next week. I have huge amounts of moving to do in the garden outside. I had lots of work to do last week that kept me from doing as much outside as I wanted to. The cement block outline for the pond is set up but still needs to be filled with dirt and have the liner installed and trimmed. Then everything has to be moved and a few of the lilies will probably have to be re-homed as the pond is shrinking a bit.

Hopefully, next week will be warmer and I can start my obsessive shifting. I want to make two long garden beds across the yard, and finish moving the pond to it's new location.

The Best $.47 I Spent This Weekend

I have been ridiculously lazy this year about setting the pond up for winter. I have a nice net, but I bought it on clearance and didn't get a handle with it. Every year I've fished out the critters with my net that disconnects right where I hold it. I decided this year I was not pinching my hands again in addition to freezing. A very helpful Home Depot employee dug through numerous little bags to find a nut to fit. Turns out it was both metric and an off size, nothing like making due with clearance stuff. Even more interesting .47 was the exact change I had with me. It was kind of surreal. I finally caught what remained of the fish today. One goldfish and a bunch of bug eaters.

Daily Photo - Water Hyacinth

25 Cent Goldfish -> Pond Fish

My recommendations if you want to buy feeder goldfish and put them in your pond, but actually want them all to live. Or alternately to keep them from infecting other fish. Step One, a plastic tub, unused (or only used for fish), 15-20 gallon utility tubs work well. Those ones sold in different colors with rope handles are quite good. Round is best because then there is equal pressure on all sides, so they don't bow out. Step Two, fill the tub with a known quantity of water, 15-20 gallons, fairly exactly. Add a water conditioner to this water. It's best to let it sit, but as long as it is close to room or outdoor temps it should be fine. Alternately you can use water direct from the pond if you're exact about measurements. The reason you want a known amount of water, preferably divisible by 5 will be in step four. Step Three. If possible get only fish with spread and undamaged fins without any obvious abnormalities. At the very least avoid fish that can't stay upright in the water, they are almost guaranteed goners. This is the important bit. Do not use any of the fish store water. Float the fish for a good 20 minutes, and you can add water to the bag, but dump the fish into a net and put only them into the new water. pet store water is often full of whatever diseases the fish have, especially true for feeder fish. Step Four, get a body fungus medication, and treat the fish. most of these medications are listed as how many per 5 or 10 gallons. In my experience with feeder goldfish, and oddly enough chain store bought angelfish, they will have fungus, even if overall they look good they can look fantastic after one fungus treatment. Whether you do a second is up to you, but if the fish look good a week after the first they'll go out in my pond. If you are going to keep the fish in the tub for more than a week, you should probably add oxygenating plants, or a cycled filter. Most fungus treatments however are very damaging to plants, so consider what you put in a loss. Also, I've done this with up to 6 3-4 inch goldfish. You'd need more water for more. The tub is also good to make sure they're eating before you release them with the rest of the fish. I've had to treat non-feeder goldfish for fungus as well. I've found it under treated at pet stores, especially in feeder fish (goldfish, shiners, and tuffies esp.), angelfish, gouramis, and koi. Technically it's also a great idea if you insist on feeding another fish with feeder fish. It's really easy for them to get diseases from their foods, and many feeder fish aren't even fed at the store, so aren't the best nutrition they could be. Predated to break up some daily photos.

Potting Waterlilies

Well I bought another water lily and it wasn't even on clearance yet. Supplies needed for potting up water lilies: Water Lily Bulb - Offset from existing tuber, or a new one New Pot, sized for lily (bulb pan used in example) Cat Litter Pans Kitten sized seem to work well too. Something to block holes if needed (I used a piece from a net pond plant pot) Enough Clay Cat Litter to 3/4 fill the pot (MUST BE PURE CLAY NO CLUMPING OR PERFUMES) This is the kind I've used before. Smallish Aquarium Gravel to cover about 1/2 - 1 inch unless you have Koi, which may require a heavier rock size to keep them from digging. Tuber as packaged. I only once made the mistake of dropping one of these plants directly in. They spread roots every where, and when they get huge getting the plastic mesh off is quite a chore. At this size they pop right out. Make sure any tuber you buy is firm. If they have sat around for too long and gotten too dry they tend to molder, if wet sometimes they rot and turn to mush. Cover any holes in your pot with mesh, this is from a pop up grow bag I tried once. Never again the lily roots grow right out all over the place anyway. They're great for filling holes though. 3/4 fill with cat litter. Position the bulb on top with the cut end on an edge and the growing tip aimed at the open space in the pot. If you have one with roots they should be buried as you pour in the cat litter. I put a small amount of gravel in the bottom, just enough to keep the liner from raising, dry cat litter is too light to hold it down. Cover over with a small amount of gravel. Keep the growing tips free of gravel and above the gravel height. Some of the rootless cuttings have a tendency to float, so you may have to hold it down with a U shaped pin, or gently place a few larger rocks on it.

Moving the Pond

To go along with the high garden fence I needed to rotate my pond so there would be more running space for the dogs. Moving it wasn't that bad, though getting it empty and getting the plants all out was a hassle. I've been draining it over the last two weeks. Last week I got the plants out into temporary tubs, and this week finally got all the water out. I had been using it to water the other plants, but the sludge at the bottom wasn't really pourable. I decided after getting the plants out last week, that most of them needed to be repotted. All the lilies were trying to grow out the sides of their pots, and the marginals had climbed over the edges last year. I repotted most of the lilies in cat litter pans with pure clay cat litter in the bottom, and gravel on the top. A few got broken apart but grand total is 10 hardy water lilies in a 5 foot by 3 foot pond. The largest one got repotted at the bottom of a tub all by itself since the cat pans weren't big enough for it. This is why every time I walk by those pond plants in a bag I have to stop myself. I only really like the lilies, and since I already have 10, should probably stop getting them on clearance. Maybe I'll buy one more so I can show how I repot them... I was too dirty for pictures yesterday.

Numb Arms

It never fails. I always put off closing up the pond until the water is so frigid I can't get all the plants up without waiting to thaw. This year After I caught the fish the plants all got dropped back down, and hopefully I'll have an even better lily show next summer. The real reason I'm so slow at it is setting up the winter tank for the fish. Each year they get whatever tank I have empty. Some years They've just gotten big tubs in the basement. They lucked out with a 55 gallon tank. I had 5 goldfish survive this summer, and I think that may actually have been the number I put out. The Paradise Fish was a no show, but he was getting several years old. Plenty of mosquito fish survived as well, but I'm down to one male. Since I'm going to actually be able to see the fish this winter, they got names.

Pond Crop

I'm quite excited I'm up to three white blooms, and two 'Attraction' blooms this year. Sadly this is my best year yet for water lilies. So yeah, there are going to be repetitive looking images going up, but they are different flowers...

Why you shouldn't buy "Clearance" Pond Plants

3-5 years til you see anything but lily pads Four or five years ago I built a pond. It was to keep me from putting waterlilies in tubs all over the yard, and forgetting about the mosquitos just long enough for them to learn how to fly. I had one water lily then. A huge 'Attraction' that by some miracle bloomed all the time, in spite of the fact it was a five dollar dry plant from a big box store. That of course went in the new pond. Every year I got suckered into the end of season plants. That pond pickerel that is just a stump now, but weakly will put out leaves next year., or the irises with nothing but floppy leaves. And roughly 7 more water lilies in various states. I got three with names. A Sioux, which is growing in a yogurt container it was so small, an 'Alba', and something scented that's supposed to be orange I think. Requiring names has cut down the collecting considerably. The fact that there isn't room in the pond for another one isn't really stopping me. Anyway, none were bought last year, and I was so lazy last October that I just dropped all the pots to the bottom of the shallow above ground pond, and hoped I could start over. Nothing died... I ended up with just as many as last year, even though the pond froze down to a block of ice. Last week one bloom from 'Attraction' came up, which I've come to expect. This week I got another bloom from a different plant, and a third is peeking up from yet another plant... They are definitely getting left outside next year if this is the result. They were wintering in the basement in minimal light and heat. I'll still move the fishies though.

Rubber Boots and Insect Eaters

A view from the Ponkapoag Pond Boardwalk in Canton, MA. This is the view from the second to last board (I was too afraid to walk on the last board.) The walk is about a 1/2 mile, and if you want to do it all you're going to want some nice waterproof knee boots. There are a few boards that dip as much as 4 inches into the water, and get mighty slippery. It took me a year to get up the courage to walk the "boards." It is exactly as it sounds, thick floating boards, chained together making a path through a slightly overgrown peat bog. Blueberries and Sweet Pepperbushes (Clethra alnifolia) create the islands in the swampier portions. I went in to see native MA pitcher plants (Sarracenia purpurea), found a few, and a larger number of small red sundews (Drosera sp.). Once I saw my first few they were everywhere. Of course the first one was next to the sinking board. And there is no picture of me falling into the bog. I managed to avoid it.