The Pond this Summer

This was a good year for the pond. It had a few rough years recently, but I put a little effort into it this year and I think it shows.

This shot was taken in early September, and you can see that I've added lots of sedges around the edges -- that really helps to soften up the rocks and make this a more inviting space.

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The best surprise

If your garden doesn't surprise you at least a few times a year, I'd say that there's something wrong with it. One of my biggest sources of surprise -- both good and bad -- has been the pond. Almost six years old and different every year.

This year (after its makeover) it still seems to be settling in, with greener water than I'd like, but lots of oxygenator plants. Those are the key to today's post, the anacharis and hornwort.

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The pond gets new fish

If you've been following along regularly you'll know that I updated the pond this spring: emptied it, made it a bit smaller, refilled. I've been waiting to add new goldfish, and the wait is finally over!

A dozen small comets were purchased and introduced to their new home last week!

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Surprise Lilies and FIsh

A couple of surprises down by the pond recently.

As terrible as the water has been and the fact that the level is so low due to the critter-created tears, lots of rain recently has rejuvenated it somewhat.

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Pond Update

The pond is not looking great, but with temperatures around 70ºF the last few days I just had to take a look and see how many fish made it through the winter.

As you can see, there are quite a few! I'm always surprised, as just last week there was a thick layer of ice over this and it had been there for a few weeks. So glad to see the orange!

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Feeding Herons

Do you know what starts to happen after your pond has been around for a few years, goldfish multiplying, getting larger?

It starts to get noticed. Sure, the water is pretty well hidden by trees, but when your diet is made up primarily of fish and frogs, you must develop an eye for these things. Unfortunately.

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Checking on the pond fish

It's the time of year finally when the snow and ice clears from the pond and I get to see how many of the fish survived. The water is certainly not pretty now...

...but the experience of two previous springs tell me that things will change quickly, greening up, teeming with life. First though, the fish...

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Some of the pond life

The pond is teeming with life. I'm getting so little done in the garden now, because every time I pass by the water I have to stop "just for a second" to see what's going on.

Twenty minutes later I snap out of my observational trance, having completely forgotten my original task.

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Spring means new life

Yesterday turned out to be an eventful one for me, and it all revolved around Spring and what it means for the animals around me. As well-balanced gardeners and nature lovers, we all pay attention to the new life around us: baby rabbits all over the place, nesting birds of all kinds, the calls of mating toads and frogs (if you happen to have water nearby). You can't help but notice it, as it's everywhere at this time of year.

Sometimes though it really pays to be extra-attentive, as I happened to see this very young baby bird on the ground in the front yard yesterday.

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Pond Art

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I think I lost one

Unlike earlier in the week when I photographed the depths of the pond, the fish weren't hiding the other day:

They must have been sunning themselves, absorbing a bit of warmth from the ever-increasing sunlight (until the trees start leafing out of course).

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Soaking up some rays

The pond. It's coming to that time of year where things get tricky. I know it's important to keep as many of the falling leaves out of the water as possible, and there's probably something I need to do with the submerged plants, but I'm not certain yet. The water sure is getting cold!

I'm not the only one who has noticed the chill either, as you'll soon see.

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Pond gets better, and fish!

The pond is getting better, as the algae problem is lessening. It may not look like it here, but it is.

Let me show you what I mean.

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As you can see, some of the string algae has started dying:

There's still plenty of it around, especially near the "beach", but it's definitely going away. The upper parts of this photo would normally be covered with string algae too, but there's none there:

I've been adding beneficial bacteria to the water twice a week for almost two weeks now, and it's been hungrily eating all of the extra organics in the water (from the leaves, maple seeds, and other things that have fallen into the pond that I couldn't remove). This stuff was providing the extra nutrients that the algae was thriving on.

Besides the algae being reduced, I have a feeling that deer have been wading into the pond and reducing my water lily:

Fewer leaves and bare stems usually indicates munching, and I don't envision rabbits or woodchucks taking a swim.

Something I do see taking a swim is....

The goldfish! See those three spots of orange?

This is all of the look I usually get: just a momentary flash of color, a bit of a tail:

These fish are wild and shy, and hide as soon as you walk up to the pond. They've never been fed, so they don't have the "human equals food" conditioning. They only relax and start venturing out of cover after you've been standing still for a little while.

If they've never been fed, what do they eat? I don't know everything that's in their diet, but I know they eat some algae. This one is nibbling it from the rocks:

So are these:

They also eat the duckweed that somehow found its way into the pond. The duckweed is the floating stuff that look a bit like clover:

You can see the last little bit of leaf sticking out of this guy's mouth before it goes down.

I was expecting the duckweed to take over, but there are only small bits of it around. I guess the fish have developed a taste for it and are keeping it in check.

They've at least doubled in size in the five weeks since I released them, so they're finding plenty to eat.

They must be eating mosquito larvae too as I haven't seen any, although there are nooks and crannies in the shallows where those pests could probably develop unharassed by fish. It's been so dry here in St. Louis that mosquito populations are down anyway, but I like to think these fish are helping.

Incidentally, I don't know exactly how many fish I've got. I've seen eight at one time recently, but that's the most I can confirm. I originally added 15, but a few of them died in the first week or so:

I think I've found four dead ones, which should leave 11.

The orange and white fish I can see quite easily. I've suspected that at least one of the less-colorful ones survived, but until today I never knew for certain:

It's my own bigfoot sighting photo: blurry and poor quality but so exciting to those who are into it!

So that makes nine fish that I know about... assuming that none have died since I saw those eight at once.

There are so many places to hide, it doesn't surprise me that I can't get an accurate count. The hornwort has grown so crazily, I wonder if any of it that I sank is still growing underwater or if it has all floated back to the surface?

Even though I don't get to see them very clearly, having these fish in the pond just makes the whole thing so much more enjoyable and worthwhile.

Gotta love a pond that's alive!

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