Central Florida pond under construction

[CountryEscape]

LOL, Sissy, I'm all out of likes ... again!!!! Loved your last post! Yeah, he was pretty stingy about lots of things. And, it was pretty much his way or it was wrong. I'm pretty bull headed but I can back down, too. He never would back down. Can't handle that! Nice guy otherwise. Still looking for my Knight in Shining Armor .......

 

[sissy]

he is out there and you will run into him in the strangest place and the strangest way .

 

[j.w]

I liked it for ya Ce! Met my hubby on hippie hill at the Seattle Center :razz:

 

[CountryEscape]

Yep, I've tried the internet dating stuff, got tired of it. Same people have been on there for 3 years now (including me, but at least I update my pictures and put dates on them), but I've been off more than on, they just leave your profile unless you ask to have it removed. Just figure someday someone will catch my eye, or I will catch theirs ... and if men would wear wedding bands if they were married it would help, too! Geesh ... women almost always wear theirs, but I guess it's a big treasure usually for women. Men ... they use the excuse they are not used to it, or they can't wear because of their job (ok, I understand this one, my ex did construction, didn't want a finger pulled off while working), etc. I just think then they should have to wear a pin that says they are married. LOL I'll just sit back and wait...... No hurry, I love my life, enjoy doing what I want when I want, but hate to get into a rut and never want to get out of it to do things with someone else. I'm pretty good at sharing though, so figure I can enjoy having someone in my life again someday.

 

[shinksma]

Finally have enough time/energy to post an update. I'd start a new thread in one of the other areas, but this thread seems to be getting some traffic, so I'll keep putting photos in here for now.

All shots of the pond are from less than an hour ago, so they are fairly current. :razz:

It's been a drizzly day (a bit unusual for Florida, even for this time of year), so the shots have that "overcast" gloomy glare.

The two fisheye lens shots are of the main pond, front and back view. In the back view you can clearly see the top of the retaining wall I put in, and a chunk of that fallen tree. The third shot is an ultra-wide-angle shot (but not fisheye), also from the front.

The final photo shows the garden area that is next to the pond, including two more chunks of that fallen tree with flagstones leading between, and a statue of Saint Fiacre, patron saint of gardeners (growing food and medicinal plants). (vs Saint Francis, patron saint of nature [animals and the environment]). Curiously, St Faicre is also the patron saint of taxi drivers. (See the wikipedia page for lots o' details.) You can see other new statuary in the other photos.

Anyway, we added a tropical water lily today, "Linsday Woods", a bunch of stonecrop (sedum) around the pond edges, and a whole whack of other plants to fill it out, including bulbs of various types - it will be interesting to see what grows as a perennial and what gets killed off by the brutal summer heat and is essentially just an annual.

shinksma

 

[j.w]

Patron saint of taxi drivers :razz:
All looks so nice at your pond waiting to come alive w/ blooms.

 

[sissy]

looks good and nice shape to it .

 

[callingcolleen1]

Holy ROCKaMOLLY! That is some nice rock layout you got going on!!! Great job and I bet you spent hours playing with the rocks!!! Really nice drift wood too! Your pond looks really fabulous with the nice rock pattern you have created. Totally Awesome!!!

 

[gardengimp]

Very, very nice! And I love your bottle brush, it's a lovely tree in a great spot for your pond. Where did you find the lily?

what grows as a perennial and what gets killed off by the brutal summer heat and is essentially just an annual

Yup, that's Florida. Central Florida is tricky, we can get away with a bit more in the bulb department than S. Florida, but not so much as we might like. I hold my breath every spring and continue to be amazed that bulbs don't rot in the ground during the dormant season.

I have a whole bunch of bulbine that I need to divide. I have both the yellow and the orange, and it would probably do quite well around your pond. You are welcome to some of it if you want.

 

[shakaho]

Oh that's pretty. Can I have some too? I have a lot of rain lilies that I grow in my filters, a lot of little nymphoides, and cannas that grow like crazy as marginals if anyone wants some.

 

[gardengimp]

Oh that's pretty. Can I have some too? I have a lot of rain lilies that I grow in my filters, a lot of little nymphoides, and cannas that grow like crazy as marginals if anyone wants some.

Sure thing! I've been wanting to get some rain lilies going for the bog - sounds like a great trade to me! And I think we must be pretty close to each other.

 

[shinksma]

gardengimp, colleen, thanks!

The rocks have been fun to arrange, and thanks to the racoons trying to get at the bird feeders and the dogs chasing squirrels, I get to arrange them far more regularly that I would like. (We now take in the bird feeders at night - the racoons have figured out that, although they can't get past the squirrel baffle, if they just shake the post hard enough the seeds shake out...)

I got the water lily at Lukas. A bit more expensive than I'd like, but I figure I probably only needed the one more (a couple of lilies from local retention ponds have been "rescued" to my pond already). I need to save some pond surface space for a lotus.

That bottlebrush is doing super in that location. It is currently massively in flush with blooms, but will have some off and on throughout the year. I picked up a couple of kangaroo paws on the weekend (also from Lukas), and I'm trying to decide which hot-and-dry location I want to put them. I like Australian plants - I used to live there, eons ago, so they bring back fond memories.

I'd really appreciate some of that bulbine. It looks like it would fit in well. I don't have anything to trade just yet, unless you want palmetto scrub - lots of that in the fringes of the yard...

shinksma

 

[callingcolleen1]

You guys are so lucky, everything is so green down there, must be nice place to live, not to cold, don't have to worry about the pond freezing hard, and surrounded by palm trees. On the other hand, what if an alligator comes to live by your pond! Yikes!

 

[sissy]

But warmer weather year round means more work and more critters that can visit your pond colleen .Thats why I settled on this area of VA cheaper change of seasons bad storms get stopped by the mountains .I can go visit and enjoy and not pay the higher prices .I think i like it just fine

 

[shinksma]

You guys are so lucky, everything is so green down there, must be nice place to live, not to cold, don't have to worry about the pond freezing hard, and surrounded by palm trees. On the other hand, what if an alligator comes to live by your pond! Yikes!

The gators tend to stay in the larger retention ponds and lakes, they are only seen in backyards when they are wandering, probably going from one pond to another. And the largest gator you'll see in a residential area will be less than 6 feet long - they get reported and removed fairly quickly at that size. Still, I don't let my small dog hang out near the shoreline of the area ponds and lakes.

But I will admit a big part of the reason I came to Florida was the weather. I love the heat, although this time of year is nice too, when the cool days are around 60 deg F (15 deg C) - much easier to do yard work right now. Although Saturday was a bit warmer than I was expecting for yard work, at 87 deg F or so (30 deg C).

shinksma