Pond after Rain

It has rained the entire week and as a result the pond is in rough shape.  The winds in the storms blew every single crab-apple blossum into the pond plus a fair number of sticks and other debris.  Visibility is only about a foot and a half.  When the pond is in good shape its crystal clear to the bottom  Part of the issue is also the DOCs.  See all those bubbles under the waterfall?  That is not good.  Those are DOC's or dissolved organic compounds.  Its the result of leaves blowing into the pond and starting to rot for  the entire winter.  Leaves I have only started to remove.  Normally I would be farther along but the water is still only 55 degrees and putting on waders and spending a few hours scooping up methane loaded rot is the recipe for a bad day which one has to mentally psych oneself up for.  The cool weather has not inspired me so instead I have been doing a scoop or two at a time, in between rain storms.

The big yellow koi is Luna.  I have had her since she was 4" long.  She spent November through March under ice with no problem whatsoever.  This is because my pond is 4 feet deep and doesn't freeze to the bottom but more importantly it only has 4 koi in it, Luna, Fred, Bella and Ginny.  The fewer koi the larger the margin of error.  I don't have any intention of making this group any larger. This size herd allows me to go on vacation and ignore them there is enough in the pond where they can sustain themselves.  Plus each time you introduce a new fish there is a significant risk of introducing bad disease

The goals this weekend is to get the leaf debris reduced by 75% at least, and get this final load of seedlings planted. 

I'm hesitating for two reasons.  1) we have two nights in coming days with lows of 36 degrees.  That is cutting it closer than I like.  The remaining unplanted seedlings and plants are primarily tenders and expensive ones at that.  I may hold off a few more days. 2) Reason two is another good reason to delay.  It has rained the entire week we got several inches and everything is pretty wet.  The winds are up again so it will dry out fast but I'm not sure fast enough for any work at Mar-duke.  Fingers crossed there!

Week of April 25: Pond Start up and Mar-Duke post Rain

The week has been rainy and cold.  Not that misty rain that one thinks of when one thinks of spring.  No this was multiple days of downpours.  Very very cold downpours.  Wind chill yesterday was 36 degrees in the 2" down pour.

Needless to say, there was no real planting that went on this week.  Oh I tried today.  I went out to scope out the allotment.  I even took the shovel out of the car and make a few half hearted swings with it.  It wasn't happening.  Moving with tens pounds of goo on your boots is hard and getting the goo to fall nicely off the shovel without destroying your soil structure just doesn't happen after that much rain.  So Mar-Duke was a wash this weekend.  One thing I did note though was geese.  Lots and lots of geese wandering around and yanking out plants.  I was glad for my three sided fence.  My plot so no evidence of geese or other traffic through it.  I will need to make it a four sided fence soon.  The other thing of note was that the fence saw 30 knots of wind this week and held.  That's good news.

I did have some productivity in the pond arena.  I got the bog filter and waterfall filter box cleared out of winter sludge and got the pump connected and flowing.  This is good timing for this.  I have not been feeding the fish regularly because the water is still too cold but I suspect that will change soon.  I need the bacterial filtration established some before feeding resumes.  That requires temperatures about 40 degrees and I have that.  I also want the water moving to prevent any  mosquitoes from hatching.  Mosquitoes do not like moving water.

I took a few swipes of the leaf net at the bottom of the pond just now to see how bad it was.  Verdict was BAD.  There are probably about 500 pounds of wet leaves down there.  The methane smell when you pull them off the bottom can give you a headache right away.  This will be a project I will tackle in spurts.  When the water is this cold, the koi's immune system is not up to par.  I only want to disturb a little bit of water at a time so keep their conditions as decent as possible.  It is important to get this off the bottom though.  I can host a whole lot of bad bacteria an parasites and with the ducks hanging out here again this spring who knows what is being brought in.  Here  is a picture of the pond this afternoon.

This week's garden related tasks

This is the time of year that there is not much to do.  Its too wet to do much outside and I'm running out of room to plant any more inside.  I've summed up the week's activities below.

Monday:  move seedlings outside am
                move seedlings inside pm
Tuesday:  move seedlings outside am
                move seedlings inside pm
Wednesday:  move seedlings outside am
               Replant more seeds for things that did not sprout yet (peppers and eggplants)
              move plants inside pm
Thursday:  move plants outside
             bottom fertilize with Organic Neptunes Gold Fish and Seaweed (stinky!)
            Move stinky plants inside pm
            burn candle to try to cover stinky fish scent
           open windows
           give up and go to bed
Friday:  4pm  move plants outside-forgot to do it earlier
            4:30 pm move plants inside to save them from the hail.

Tomorrow if the weather is decent its time for spring pond clean-up. (blech)  Plan B is continue wiht the really good book I'm reading.   Fingers crossed for rain! 

Winter Cover: Attempt number 2

I've decided to try a pond cover this year.  There are two reasons for this.  First, it is an attempt to make winter less stressful for my fishy friends.  Second, to keep all of the winter blown leaves, seeds, sticks etc and you never image you be a factor in the winter, until you get a pond.

My first attempt at a pond cover was a big Ole fail.  I criss crossed multiple 2x6 beams across the pond in sort of a spider web pattern and then caulked different sections of plastic to each area.  I can't remember why I didn't cover it with just a single giant sheet.  That might have held up a little longer but in the end would have failed for the same reason this did.  Water is really heavy.  Rain drops water on plastic, which stretches it forming deeper and heavier pools until the caulk gives and the cover fails.

Attempt number two was full of adventure.  I decided to make a sort of tunnel over the pond, out of bent PVC.  I didn't build it over the pond though.  I build it on the driveway.  Picture a sort of skeleton of PVC that is 26 feet long and 20 feet wide.  Now picture a lone person moving said structure down the driveway, through the yard, between trees that are 15 feet apart and over a fence.  It was, er interesting.  Almost as interesting as getting each side of it on opposite sides of the pond.  (Eventually completed by just dumping one end in the water and fishing it out.

Raising the structure was easy, as was getting the plastic over the top.  It looked most excellent until the first big windstorm (40mph gusts) when it tried to blow away.  I eventually made it heavier with an additional top of 6mm plastic and disassembled half of the circle garden blocks to weight it down.  It has held up to recent winds OK.  Snow will likely destroy it but at least it is buying me a bit of time.  The inside of the tunnels is like a rain forest.  Condensation coats the sides.  I moved my wheel planter in there and planted some beets and lettuce to see if I can get a winter harvest out of the project.  That's if winter ever gets here.  Today was 64 degrees.

Waterfall Progress

I spent 12 hours on Friday another 16 on Saturday and Sunday putting about 12 stones on the waterfall.  I'm excited though because I tried out out on Sunday and it works, with only a few tiny leaks!  So why does a short little waterfall take so long to build.  Ah, for many reasons you would never anticipate.

1.  Deluge of rain each day means work interruption, timing of silicone and foam and concrete to work with pending storms.
2.  Deluge of rain each day makes working with massive boulders on tiny wheels on slippery clay...challenging.
3.  Taffy and Daffy the duck visit twice a day.  I feel bad if I scare them so I work slower so as not to startle them.
4.  I spend a lot of time studying stuff.
5.  The rocks are too big.  It took me two hours to get this one off the driveway and into the vicinity of the waterfall.  Then another sweaty hour to get it in place.  The picture doesn't do a good job showing how heavy this is.  I cannot lift even one end of it solo.  Thus the 2x4 in the background.  I learned I can lift a whole lot of rock with a piece of strong wood! 

6.  Limited rock selection.   I only want to move each of these once, which means a lot of time plotting out how it will all fit together.  Since I only have two pallets, I have to plan a few moves ahead.  As we know, I am a bit slow in the whole planning arena.

The goal was to get water flowing down this, this weekend.  We have two new urgencies to inspire faster working.  A BBQ in early June and a new addition to the pond.  We have koi.  Our first of the favorite Harry Potter characters has been added to the water.  Red Head Fred got added to the pond about an hour before a massive thunderstorm.  He promptly disappeared for days.  Since he is a little guy (3") I was a bit worried he became a duck mcnugget but we spotted him on Saturday!  Since Red Head Fred ain't dead, I need to get this filter going!

So here is where I am not.  The area is a HUGE mess, the falls are still sort of sticking out in the middle of nowhere.  The final plan has plantings around them.  I already got a few things in, the amazing Stich in Time hosta has a place of honor at the front lower left.  A division of my Paul's Glory is at the top and a tassle fern is near the bottom with some scotch moss you can't see yet.  Once the rain slows down I will be out daily.  Must get pond done!

Learning Lotus and Lilies

I've been gardening for a long time.  Because of this is it really weird to be working with a group of plants that I feel absolutely clueless about.  I'm experiencing this now with the water plants for the pond.  A couple of weeks ago I ordered a few plants to try things out.  I ordered 1 hardy water lily , one tropical water lily (Director T. Moore shown above) and 1 lotus (Thousand petals).  They came the other day along with an additional tropical lily called "Imperial".

I immediately panicked when I opened the package.  Basically they were water lilies set in giant baggies with a tiny bit of moisture in there.  The directions said plant immediately.  Okee Dokee no problem, how do I plant them?  The site I bought them from (Texas Water Lilies) had some really great directions.  I didn't skim them either which is why I was able to quickly observe that the tropical lilies want pond temperatures of at least 65 and preferably 70 degrees.  On the day the lilies came, it was 37 degrees outside.  I checked the pond and it was 61 degrees.  Surprising.  I decided that the 61 degrees wasn't going to last too long with the air temps being down so I had to figure out another plan.  The internet saved me here in that I was told to stick them in a big pot inside.  So that is where the tropical ones are now.

I'm a little concerned about T. More.  One of the leaves turned black.  It seems to be very sensitive to touch, bruises easily.  The bloom opens every morning and closes each night but I don't think this plant is happy.  I hope the weather gives me a bunch of heat soon so I can get this outside.

I'm toying with what to do about the lotus on the left.  It is just coming out of dormancy.  I have no idea if the stems it is showing need to be in the water or are OK above it.  I'm thinking of putting this in the pond this weekend.  The thing that gives me pause with all of this is that these were not inexpensive plants.  If they croak I am out a decent amount of cash.  I probably should have started with something cheaper, but I wanted to go to most pretty right away.  :P

The hardy water lily is in the pond.  I was worried that adding a pot full of clay would make the water cloudy.  It didn't at all.  I'm glad to get these started.  Plants in the pond, eat the nutrients in the pond.  Keeping nutrient levels down is a great way to keep algae suppressed.  Between that and the UV I turned on this past weekend.  I am hoping to avoid green floaters completely.  Except for those I want of course.  Hang in there T. Moore!

Rock On A Roll

I did a lot of research related to finishing my pond's edge.  There are many options, grass, time, small stone, a ring of boulders, poured edge, ring of flagstone etc etc.
My plan is still evolving in my head as I stare at this space a bit each day.  What I've know for sometime is that I do not want the common pearl necklace of flagstone around the edge (too formal).  I also wanted some flatter areas for easy access.  I also wanted low maintenance and didn't want to worry about thousands of tiny pebbles falling into the pond.  That is why I was so excited to find Rock on a Roll.   It is what it sounds like.  Rock.  On a roll.  It is completely flexible.  It shapes itself to conform to whatever it is laying over the top of.  It is water friendly, easy to work with and very realistically colored.

I am using it around the entire perimeter of my pond to cover and protect the liner.   It also does a fabulous job covering the wrinkles.  Wrinkles under rock on a roll just make the rock work look even more realistic.  Done right it ends up looking like a way more expensive poured shell.  Installation took a bit of time because I wanted a lip to the pond edge to help contain the mulch;/grass/moss that are coming.  I did this by gluing flexible plastic electrical gluing to the collar, then draping the liner over it, then the rock on a roll over that.  Landscaping fabric and mulch finished off the area in front of the seatwall.  All it needs now is some plants.  I started with a bit of phlox (I like its mossy look).  Added a bit of hardy lavender to the one end.  Coming soon are a few Canna, some wintergreen and a few other herbs to keep the edible theme going!  Yay Progress! 

Thirty Pounds of Petals

Several things have become apparent this spring. First the crazy hot weather has killed my plans for stuff staying dormant until I could get the waterfall and veggie filter built. Second, everything I do takes four times longer to build than I thought.

So this morning I noticed that the magnolia was about to blow. Last year it dropped its petals all at once and I weighed them. They were thirty pounds DRY. I really didn't want to deal with that in the water so today I took time between conference calls to quickly rigged up a temporary line to get the water running thru the skimmer. It all works! No leaks and holy cow it cleaned things up FAST! I'm amazed at how quiet the pump is too. All in all a good day!

I'm Never Going to Finish this Pond!

Sunday was another gorgeous day.  Eighty four degrees which is around 35 degrees above normal!  The goal was to complete the piping to the veggie filter, from the waterfall box and for the overflow line.  Before I could do the one from the overflow line, I had to cut a notch out of the concrete collar.  The notch is about 2.5 inches deep and about 14 inches long.  In other words ITS SMALL!

It took me five bleeping hours!  Yes five.  I attacked it with a sawzall, chisels and a circulating saw. Five hours later the little channel for the overflow pipe is done. Was I kicking myself for forgetting to put this in when the concrete was wet? You bet I was, lol. This was messy painful business. My husband was watching me and told me that my ratio of whacks to the chisel to whacks to my hand was roughly 4:1. Now you know why it took me five hours.

The only other thing complete was the planting of six pansies, the watering of the tomato babies and the ordering of some organic mosquito control tablets.  Oh well, the forecast for the rest of the week is good too.

The Hole: A Pond Story Part Two

The skimmer hole is at the far end of the seat wall

Late last summer I decided I needed a pond.  Here is part two of the installation saga.  These stories were originally posted in a private forum.  Part one is  here.

	Chapter Two:  Fantasy's surrounding the Hired Help           From 10/5/2012    Paragraph 1-7 {Insert Poetic, though increasingly dark imagery about daily rain storms for eight days straight} This shovel is long and this hole was deep!     Paragraph 8   Four whole days to get the skimmer level.  Leveling clay in a small gooey wet hole is hard.  Unfortunately it took me roughly eight hours to figure out it this was easier accomplished by other means.  During these eight hours I first played with leveling the clay, then played with bricks and sand in the clay.  All were big fails, but eventually I figured it out.  Since the hole was deeper then needed, I made concrete forms to fill with concrete that I could level at the bottom of the hole.  Making concrete forms at the bottom of a deep hole level is hard.   I needed forms because the concrete shape was a C, to accommodate large pipes.  Success finally achieved on Saturday.  Time to mix the concrete!  You know those giant 80 pounds bags of concrete?  Mixing them up tiring and they sure do not go very far.  I did it in a little dishpan, one blob at a time.  Why a little dishpan?  Because I didn't want to get my shiny new wheel barrow dirty.  (Crazy remember?)  One hour later, my forms were filled and yippee they were level!  Almost done.  Ha    Sunday I spent trying to get the skimmer to the final right height.  Now lest you think I am a moron the reason this was so hard was the skimmer bottom is not flat.   In the center of it is a pipe that comes down six inches.  Also, the directions said the final front height was supposed to be 1/4 inch lower than the back.  I have learned that subtleties in measurement are not my strong point.;  After much pulling of bricks and polymer sand in and out of the hole, I got it right.  Time for pipework! After the pain of getting the skimmer hole just so, I very definitely never want to have to dig it out again.  The could be required if the fitting at the bottom of the skimmer leaks.  One of my concerns was that I would knock it around during the final install.  One of the things I did to help protect it was this.  I found a thick rubber end cap and cut a hole in it that was the exact diameter of the PVC.  I sleeved it over the PVC and glued it in place then surrounded it with copious amounts of marine grade silicone sealer.  In theory this is a second layer of leak protection.  It definitely won't hurt!      PVC pipes are stuck together with glue.  First you use a toxic purple primer that makes permanent a stain.  Then with lightening speed you apply the glue, stick the pipe together  and do your darnest to get to in perfect position before the glue sets up.  You have about three seconds.  This took forever not because of complications but because I was so scared to do it wrong and then have to take a saw into things to correct mistakes. I sat and stared at one step for a hour before getting up the nerve to do it.  I think it went OK.   I plan on doing a test with water today to check it.  Just in case I plastered liberal amounts of silicone around the joint as well. My work on the Hole has been further hampered by our desperate need to replace the rotted out remains of the old balcony.  We used Trex composite for the boards of this and a different manufacturer's rail system because we hated the plastic look of the Trex rails.  It was more work getting it to fit together but it was worth it.  This thing is done!  It cam out pretty nice . All of this work was supposed to be proceeding parallel to the collar getting poured and the hole getting dug.  I've decided to pay for both of those to happen after seeing how long it took me to mix a single 80# concrete bag and knowing I need about 100 more to finish the collar.  I won't be fast enough to finish it before it gets hard.  Problem with the help.   It is like pulling teeth to get him to show up.  Once here, the work is great.  The week is perfect for this.  Sunny and seventies and so not going to last.  His email today was that he decided to take apart his dump truck's transmission during the rain and now he has to wait for a part to come in before he can come out.  Maybe Monday he says.  My fantasies surrounding him surround dump trucks whacking sense into him.  Oh did you think it was something else?