From the category archives:

water lily

An Algae Farm?

by Lisa on August 19, 2003

P8190001.jpgThe pond is very pretty these days, and very full of algae. The water is clear, but we’re constantly pulling out netfuls of the stuff. I’m sure we’ve got too many animals in there: The nine remaining big fish are twice the size they were when we bought them, (much faster growth than our first set), there’s least a dozen babies, the largest of which is the size we bought the big guys at, and the frogs are uncountable.

We’re not putting in enough food for all of them, but they seem to be thriving. I saw one of the babies eating algae once, and of course they like bugs.

I’m not very impressed with the barley ball, either. It was supposed to help keep the algae growth down, and doesn’t seem up to the task. Although I tell myself that maybe it would be worse without it, but myself doesn’t really believe that.

There are other problems, too. The pump we have in there is really too big for the pond, and if the water level drops just a bit, it complains.

I did buy a pond heater to help us get through the winter. Losing the fish last year was really bad and I do not want to repeat that performance.

P8190002.jpgThe plants that we got earlier this year seem to be thriving, however. The miniature water lilies in particular are a big hit. They are very bright colored and have been blooming all summer long.

in Algae, Barley Ball, Fish, Pond, Reviews, water lily, water plants

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Lisa’s Saturday chores

June 14, 2003

One of the things I got done this Saturday was planting the stuff from swapping that had come in during the week while I was out of town. I got some Monarda Purple Bea Balm in on the side of the pergola by the chives. I didn’t actually need more bea balm, but since I [...]

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Tulips and more tulips

May 17, 2003

Of course, it didn’t freeze last night. Our weather station says it went down to 37, so everything probably would have been okay even without all the covering up I did. But since there’s another frost warning tonight, it makes sense to just leave them all right where they are and covered them up just [...]

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Water plants came in

May 15, 2003

The stuff we ordered last month from Waterplants online from Colorado finally got here today. Though I’d ordered everything they had for zone 4, they were out of some stuff, so my $160 order turned into $98.25 with shipping. Everything came bare root, but I had some left over pots from previous attempts at water [...]

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The Independent Garden

July 20, 2002

We were both out of town all week last week, and quite concerned about how the garden would do without any attention at all. It’s maintaining itself remarkably well, considering how little I’ve been home to tend to it. While it did rain last night, things are still very dry, and the poor lawn isn’t [...]

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The Marlow Garden Tour

June 29, 2002

We were up very early this morning, getting ready for the Garden Tour, and I made a list of the stuff I thought had to be done. We even finished it all in time to go see the houses on the tour before ours, which was surprising. The pond was in fine form, with water [...]

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Iris and Lilies

June 13, 2002

The water lilies are out, and the turtle from the other day did seem to lay eggs before she left. The trick is supposedly being the closest body of water that the new baby turtles find, and then they’ll hang out here for most of their life. We hope it works! The iris! I hardly [...]

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