My water garden journal

[AlyssaFish]

oh wow, just wow

I know! It was one of those moments where I was like, "Aren't I supposed to be a grown up by now?!"

But it was kind of fulfilling a childhood dream. I remember when I was 9 years old I kept trying to float different things in a metal trough to see if I could make a boat to use at the nearby creek. Nothing was strong enough to hold my weight. So when I noticed how well the hard pond liner floated, I had to give it a try.

 

[TheFishGuy]

I know! It was one of those moments where I was like, "Aren't I supposed to be a grown up by now?!"

But it was kind of fulfilling a childhood dream. I remember when I was 9 years old I kept trying to float different things in a metal trough to see if I could make a boat to use at the nearby creek. Nothing was strong enough to hold my weight. So when I noticed how well the hard pond liner floated, I had to give it a try.

sounds like some thing I would do ( insert witty emjoi )

mabye ill try it in our pool!

 

[Joshaeus]

Hi everyone! Here is the water garden as of this morning;

And here is the flower, which opened only a few minutes ago;

Sadly, I found several more damaged pads this morning that had to be removed. Here are pictures of one of them;

Any idea what might be amiss here? The water lily is in about 1.5 gallons of soil and sand (in an oil drip pan), and I am fertilizing it at the rate recommended for a 2 gallon pot...am I overfertilizing?

 

[AlyssaFish]

That is so strange. I have no idea what that could be. Be careful about how frequently you remove pads, though. A gardener friend of mine said you should never trim more than 20% of a plant at a given time as a rule of thumb. You don't want to starve the tuber--and it looks like there is still a lot of good green left on that leaf that could have kept producing for the plant.

I'm sorry, though. I have no idea what that could be. It almost looks like some kind of fungus or something...

 

[Joshaeus]

That is so strange. I have no idea what that could be. Be careful about how frequently you remove pads, though. A gardener friend of mine said you should never trim more than 20% of a plant at a given time as a rule of thumb. You don't want to starve the tuber--and it looks like there is still a lot of good green left on that leaf that could have kept producing for the plant.

I'm sorry, though. I have no idea what that could be. It almost looks like some kind of fungus or something...

Thanks. I can refrain from removing additional pads so long as they remain attached to the stem (some of the afflicted pads yesterday had rotted right off their stems).

 

[Joshaeus]

Hi everyone! No picture today, but the water garden is nonetheless doing well. I temporarily stopped fertilizing the water lily, and this has apparently slowed or stopped the problem with grey holes appearing in the leaves...perhaps I was overfertilizing? I will now refrain from using more than 1.5 tablets a month. The indiana lily opened a new bloom yesterday and is still growing vigorously; the water garden is too opaque to view the rhizome (it looks like green water, in spite of the fact that almost the entire water surface was covered with frogbit and lily pads this morning), but feeling around revealed numerous new pads and even a third bud that is already several inches above the rhizome.

EDIT: This morning I also found a 3 inch red dragonfly of some kind on a lily pad, in spite of having tied the aquarium mesh lid to the water garden to prevent it from coming off. I gently removed it from the water garden, but when I add fish next year I should probably stick with species too large to be eaten by dragonfly nymphs.

 

[Joshaeus]

Hi everyone! Not much new today, but rooting around my water garden this morning unveiled a second bud on its way to the surface in addition to the one I mentioned yesterday.

EDIT: I just got some pictures! Here you go;

 

[addy1]

Very nice!