Pond update

I want to jump ahead a couple of months into summer because the pond is progressing slowly right now. Still, I guess things are happening.

There's been a little bit of growth in the water plants, I've planted more things around the edge of the water, and more things live in the water itself now. Let's take a closer look.

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The first thing I want to point out: tadpoles.

I've mentioned already that I found toad eggs in the water. I've found more:

Here's a newly-hatched tadpole (on the rock):

The body is so small in relation to the tail at that stage,  but that quickly changes.

The bees are still drinking from the pond every day:

There are so many maple seeds (helicopters) in the water:

I skimmed as many as I could off the water's surface, but we had some rains that sunk so many of them.

The water plants are doing okay, but aren't all taking off like I thought they would.

Water lily has a second leaf though:

Frogbit is looking more red than I think it should:

I'm pretty sure those leaves should be green, which indicates a lack of some sort of nutrient in the water.

The submerged plants are still alive, although they're so difficult to see right now:

I've been doing more planting around the perimeter of the pond too:

Some sedum to soften the rocks. Petasites japonicus for some perennial big-leaved impact:

I have a place for my few irises now:

I tucked a few mint cuttings into the pebbles just to see what happens:

This stuff seems to love growing in the stream, so I thought it might do well here too. We'll see. My goal is to have a lot of the spaces between the rocks filled with plants.

I added several grasses:

Little bluestem, prairie dropseed, 'Blue Zinger' sedge, and some little wild sedges that were growing in my yard -- they'll fill in and make a nice, grassy border. I'm going to be planting a big bluestem here soon too, once I figure out the exact spot for it, as it can get quite large. Not Miscanthus large, but a lot bigger than these other grasses.

Click for much larger view.

So that's a look at the pond right now. I really want to add some goldfish, but I've been waiting for frog mating season to pass. Goldfish may not eat toad tadpoles, but they surely will eat frog spawn.

I already spend so much time standing by the pond just watching the insects and tadpoles, the movement of the wind over the water. With goldfish in there I may never get my garden chores done!

Another update in a few weeks when I get finished with more planting.

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