Country Escape's 2nd pond - Goldfish only

[sissy]

you could have my frost colleen .The earliest we have had in a long time .27 degrees this morning

 

[callingcolleen1]

No thanks Sissy! I am clinging to summer like days right now, bUT today JW's cold weather is moving in.... the grass is way greener than it ever was all year!

 

[CountryEscape]

Took some pictures of my fist this past weekend, the water was so clear and the sun was shining in at the perfect angle, couldn't resist!

 

[sissy]

My water still looks terrible after the leak and all the rain and just getting back on my feet to get things done today .Lots of yard work after last nights heavy frost .I have to get back to the pond but the yard work really cannot wait since all the bags of mulch are sitting here waiting for me to spread them .# of my iris are blooming but only got time to take pic of one of them .The hyacinth that I protected

 

[HARO]

Took some pictures of my fist this past weekend, the water was so clear and the sun was shining in at the perfect angle, couldn't resist!
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So where's the fist? Couldn't resist!
John

 

[sissy]

Dear me .

 

[CountryEscape]

Oh good grief! That's why you can't let spell check do all the work. Good catch, Haro!
Sissy, I have not seen iris blooms in quite a while, so lucky you!!!

 

[callingcolleen1]

I had some irises re- blooming all fall! Right now I got a hardy red rose blooming even after that frost we had last week. Really we should have nothing blooming right now in Medicine Hat, everything should be dead but I got lots of crazy plants still alive and managing to bloom. It's been way above average temperature here but I'm not complaining cause I have not had to heat the ponds yet. I still have water lettuce looking green in pond that I covered with plastic dome, and it looks better than the ones I brought into greenhouse.

Your pictures are fabulous CE!

 

[CountryEscape]

Wow, water lettuce still in your ponds, Colleen, that's amazing indeed! I have plants still blooming - verbena, geraniums, petunias. Most are dead from heavy frost couple of weekends ago, though, and rest will likely die this weekend. Need to dig up dahlia tubers, and already pulled pots of elephant ear plants out of the pond bogs so they can dry out and I can dig them up and dry the bulbs and put them in the basement. Spindle palm will come in tonight. A couple of the branches got frost bit before, so I don't want to kill it!
I have a Christmas cactus beginning to bloom! It's going to be soooo pretty when it's mostly bloomed out. Over 30 buds on it, and the first few have opened.

 

[CountryEscape]

Here is the Christmas cactus. I guess it wanted to be a Halloween cactus, but began blooming too late, so maybe this year I'll have to call it an early Thanksgiving cactus.

 

[callingcolleen1]

The only reason I still have water lettuce in ponds is cause I covered the bottom two ponds with crude plastic dome and that seems to have kept frost at bay so far.
I have a hunch that winter will be extremely mild this year in Medicine Hat Alberta. If winter is very mild this will be the first super mild winter since I have been water gardening over that last 25 years.

The pictures are of the second lowest pond from the bottom pond (of four connecting ponds) inside and outside dome. That pond has just goldfish now as koi are now in the two upper ponds.

 

[CountryEscape]

Will be interesting to see how the plastic does on your domes, Colleen, when the snow and frigid temps come! You might be onto something really big. I suspect it will help immensely with your need to heat the ponds, holding in the heat very well. I wonder if you could put a couple of candles under those domes to give it a real greenhouse effect. LOL Not sure what you would put them on, and how to keep them from burning a hole through the plastic, but I figure you can come up with the "how-to" for that!

 

[callingcolleen1]

I probably could use candles but I see my Lilly pads and Frog bit in the bottom pond are getting lots of aphids, never had them so bad.... Might need to freeze things good to get rid of them bad bugs. Tomorrow it's going to be really warm. Like get out the Shorts warm! Going to about 65 degrees tomorrow and for November that's just super awesome for us Canadians.