My pond photos

[Big Lou]

We used to have a squirrel that didn't have a tall ! It was so funny to watch him, looked like a ground hog climbing a tree!! :rolling:

Our sqirrels use to eat all of our bird food until we acquired an effective sqirrel proof bird feeder. Happy days!

 

[Fishylove]

They are fun to watch :cheerful: I don't dislike feeding birds, I just don't like the mess they make :huh:

 

[Big Lou]

Hey there friend,

When you told me about your cypress tree in a pot in your pond I failed to mention the following.

Cutting back the roots stresses the tree. Cypress trees in nature have a deep running tap root along with side finger roots that in themselves can get large. A true Louisana Cald Cypress matures after many decades. The Cypress tress shown in our pictures are very young at only 14 to 16 years old. Carry on Ponding!

 

[Fishylove]

Tmann do you have alot of trouble messing with your Cyprus? I mean is it worth it having it in there? And trimming it... is it something I could do myself? or is it too heavy for one person?

ohh and one more question ... your bog? I se that it is raise maybe? How deep is it? an did you have to mortar the wall? you gave me a great idea if I can figure out how to do it right

 

[Big Lou]

Tmann do you have alot of trouble messing with your Cyprus? I mean is it worth it having it in there? And trimming it... is it something I could do myself? or is it too heavy for one person?

ohh and one more question ... your bog? I se that it is raise maybe? How deep is it? an did you have to mortar the wall? you gave me a great idea if I can figure out how to do it right

Question. How big of a bog pond do you want and will it be near any structure. Here in North Texas West Nile Virus is widespread and potentially deadly. That is one reason we are going to drain our bog pond while retaing plants that will still give the bog pond look. Local regulations require us to use mosquito donuts in our pond and bog. We also have Gamgusia's (mosquito large eating tiny, tiny fish. In our pond. Just my two cents. )

 

[taherrmann4]

Tmann do you have alot of trouble messing with your Cyprus? I mean is it worth it having it in there? And trimming it... is it something I could do myself? or is it too heavy for one person?

ohh and one more question ... your bog? I se that it is raise maybe? How deep is it? an did you have to mortar the wall? you gave me a great idea if I can figure out how to do it right

I have not take the tree out of the pond in the last 3 years or so, I imagine it will be heavy if and when I need to pull it out to trim the roots. However the last few years I have only trimmed the ones that have made their way out of the pot through the drainage holes in the bottom. I guess it weighs a good 50lbs or so. The dirt in the pot was clay from my yard and I think it is a 10 g pot.

My bog is raised about 2' on the back of the hill and 18" on the front side, it is not mortared in, just dry stacked. If you look at some of my pics you will see that i packed dirt around the rocks on the inside of the hole and sloped it downward, like a bowl shape. It is about 16-18" deep and I have one pipe that feeds it from the bottom. I cut slits in the pipe much like addy did on hers.

Any more questions ask away.

 

[taherrmann4]

Question. How big of a bog pond do you want and will it be near any structure. Here in North Texas West Nile Virus is widespread and potentially deadly. That is one reason we are going to drain our bog pond while retaing plants that will still give the bog pond look. Local regulations require us to use mosquito donuts in our pond and bog. We also have Gamgusia's (mosquito large eating tiny, tiny fish. In our pond. Just my two cents. )

Big Lou there are some bogs on here where people have created small rivers in their pond. I have mine filled completely with gravel and there is very very little water that you can see besides what is flowing over the rock, hope this makes sense.

 

[addy1]

I have enough flow in my bog, mosquitoes don't lay eggs. Only squished on blood sucker this year and I am outside all of the time and they love me.

 

[Fishylove]

They love me too addy, got the battle scars on my legs to prove it!
Yes West Nile is a threat here Lou, they don't make us use mosquito wafers here, but they have been known to spray whole neighborhoods for them. It gets particularly bad in one area of the city that's closest to the river and levee. I try to keep the pond water flowing so they can't lay eggs, at least not in there. We have about an acre behind our house, and I fogged it Saturday all around the perimeter and the neighbors yard. Worked great! Till today... Hate those things!
Tmann, that's what I want to do with my bog. It is storming right now, in a bit I'll post pictures of the area I have in mind for the bog.

 

[taherrmann4]

Today I took my lotus out of the whiskey barrel and sank it to the bottom of the big pond for the winter. I was amazed at how much it grew this year, as I only started it this spring so hopefully it will make it through the winter.

My bog has grown like crazy this year and I will have to thin it out a big come spring. I pulled some hibiscus out of the bog and replanted them in an oil pan with gravel to bring them indoors and see if they survive. Keeping fingers crossed. I started them from seed and they are about 15" tall.

I am leaving the water lettuce and hyacinths in the pond for now, waiting for the frost to get them before I pull them out. The fish like to hide under them and I want to give them protection from any herons heading south for as long as I can. An added benefit has been b/c they grew so well this spring and have taken over bout a 1/3 of the pond that they are catching a lot of the falling leaves and it makes it easy pickens to grab them.

 

[addy1]

The fish like to hide under them and I want to give them protection from any herons heading south for as long as I can.

Herons heading south??????????? geez I wish, according to what I read some overwinter here. One showed up in january, but it was a warm winter.

 

[taherrmann4]

I still have my pump running, this is the latest that I have ever left it running. Water is clear as it was in the summer and the pond temps have been averaging in the lower 40's and rise during the day to the high 40's. We have had several days this last week where it was 60 degrees. So it looks like I will keep it running until I see where the temps are going to get below freezing for a sustained amount of time.

 

[sissy]

Weather here confuses the daylights out of me .Mid 60 's all week and water at the bottom is still in the 60's ,so septic tank must be giving off lots of heat after i added rid ex to the tank again ..I was talking to murphy construction about the heat coming off the tank as they installed the septic system and was looking online and found the best time to treat the tank is just before winter .I always thought it would be summer since it is hotter then .I add rid ex every 4 months but held off to see what would happen .I read about a temp thing you can add to the cap to see what temp you are getting from it .Well thats something .People use there septic tanks for heating there houses in winter by wrapping them in pipes .Still have my filters running and now wondering if this winter is going to be like last winter for every one .

 

[j.w]

Well good to see ya Tmann! My pond is running away too still and plan on keeping it that way all winter cold or no cold
Fish are all standing still and not moving much now that temps are falling. Was out cutting off the dead tops of the Iris plants to make things more presentable for Christmas guests. Man I have some Azolla that I got from the wild and that stuff sure takes off good. I had it in a little floating ring and it grew so much I had to put my old big huge ring in there and when I dumped it in from the small ring the next day or so it had spread all out and taken up the whole ring.

 

[callingcolleen1]

JW does the ring have a net under it? Just wondering..... I could keep duckweed in pond that way and big fish could not eat it all then!