The Most Important Thing!

Now that we are in the full swing of the early pond season it is important to remember a few things. Plants!

That is only one, but they are so important that it should count as a few. Plants are the backbone of your water garden. If you have enough and the right type you really don't need much else. It will never stop amazing me at the level of maintenance that disappears just by having enough filtration and shade plants. Our courtyard pond gets a single dose of Aqua-One in the spring and then NOTHING else! It is roughly 15 by 8 with a Savio skimmer, endless cascades waterfall box, and a planting pocket.

There are anywhere between 4 to 7 lilies in the pond during the year and a lotus. There are hyacinth in the stream and the cascades is packed full of filtration plants. Also, not to be ignored are many plants in the planting pocket. If you haven't seen one of these, its basically a bog filtration pocket on the side of the pond. There is no water being forced through the pocket, but the underlay sides allows water in and out, but keeps the dirt in the pocket. A great visual buffer zone between land and pond also. You can pack this full of filtration plants and tropicals. They are largely under-valued. This is the only picture I can find of the pocket, but I know I have better ones at the store, I'll update shortly.



I'm not saying that you will never need to treat your pond again with enough water plants. Early in the year they are not established enough to starve out the algae, so early treatment is necessary, or a UV. But when you get the right balance, it minimizes the maintenance like nothing short of an ultra violet light.

Only a year + between posts!

Wow, haven't been paying much attention to this blog in quite some time! I'll try and get better at this, but it is getting late in the season so we'll aim for next year being more steady.

It is getting late in the year and we have a lot of people asking about when and how to shut down their ponds for the winter. In my region (Z4) we widely recommend tearing down the pond for the winter. Certain types of ponds can run all year, but you have to keep a close eye on them and you must have a certain type of fall or stream.
When to tear down varies on the weather and if you have wadders or not. Until the water freezes hard there isn't too much reason to tear down earlier than that, but if you have to get into your pond you probably want to do it early unless you have wadders to keep yourself insulated from the cold water.
The hows of plant winterizing varies according to their hardiness. Hardy lilies and lotus can just be cut back and dropped to the bottom of your pond. Make sure the lotus are fully brown before cutting them back or you can lose them. Hardy marginals vary by plant and are best handled by asking specific questions about their individual hardiness. Tropical lilies can be overwintered by putting their tubers in moist sand and keeping them in a cool area, but many treat them as annuals and just buy new each year.
Fish don't need any special treatment if you have a decent amount of volume and about two feet of depth. Keep a hole in the ice with a bubbler, deicer, or stock tank heater so the gasses can exchange. Do not feed them after the water temp drops below 50 degrees or they can die from the food rotting in their system. If the ice freezes solid for a few days melt the ice, breaking with a hammer can do damage since they are in a state of near hibernation.
I will have more info on our website - Pondibilities - link to the side. Any more questions or specific plant questions can be sent their or here. Thank you.

forum

I've gotten involved with the ivillage water garden forum and have really been intrigued. There are so many people with so many suggestions it really reminds me that each and every pond is a different ecosystem. Lotus are easy to grow vs. They are nearly impossible, UV wattage recommendations, rock or no rock, bottom drains, predators, etc........
There is so much information out there it is staggering and a little bit daunting to the newbie, my suggestion is to make sure you know what you want. Kinda the same theme as my last post, but it is so important. Do you want a koi pond, a reflecting pool, a water garden, a farm pond, or something else. It will effect what rock you use, the filtration, pumps, fish, treatment, you name it and different settings require different tools.
Does anyone out there have a forum or blog you really enjoy? Let me know if you do I'd love to have some more links and sources of information. Happy ponding.

Heres the ivillage link. http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/

Koi Ponds

I have recently had the pleasure of exploring the world of koi ponds. Its a mechanical wonderland with so many possibilities and options. I was in Kansas City this past week and had the pleasure to see a professional's personal koi pond...wow! Absolutely beautiful. Check out their link (Hix & Son) on the right margin when you get a chance. They also directed me to an excellent site, sacramentokoi.com, that had soooo much information and tons of how to info.
This whole trip was started by an experience I want to talk about. I was recently contacted to consult/build a koi pond, I guess I should say re-build a koi pond. Now I do not claim to be any sort of koi expert, but I do know there is a lot of difference between a koi pond and a water garden. If you want a koi pond, make sure you are very clear about your intentions to your contractor. You can say 'I want a koi pond' and they could still build you a two foot deep pond with shelves and bio filtration alone. This isn't a koi pond, its a water garden with fish. While koi and water gardens can get along to some extent, our own experiences have gone well, there are significant issues with this combination. See sacaramentokoi.com, 20 questions link, for all the reasons. I am by no means saying to not do a water garden with fish, I think they are a necessity, but you must understand goldfish and koi have different effects, and will greatly change your biological setup.
A 'true' koi pond should have no shelves, with steep sides and be at least 4 feet deep. Water plants cause problems; koi rooting through them, carrying diseases, harder to catch a koi you must treat, salt and water plants don't mix, etc... Bottom drains are basically a necessity, and very helpful in watergardens of large size. And the filtration! Koi ponds make water gardens look amazingly simple. There is way too much information to include in one post, but check out the links I've mentioned if you are interested in a koi pond.
To try and wrap up this lengthy post, make sure you know what you want, what you're getting into, and that you communicate your desires clearly to the builder. Otherwise you could very well end up with a cookie-cutter water garden that won't be able to sustain the amount or size of koi you desire. Make sure you get what you want and its done right.

Fertilizing

Fertilizing your lilies and lotus is not necessarily a must, but if you want the most out of your plants it really is. Lilies, and especially lotus, are heavy feeders and really need to be fertilized every three weeks or so. We put our lotus and lilies in large containers and put three tabs in the lilies and four in the lotus every three weeks. I mentioned the pot size because roughly one tab per gallon of container is what we go by, you can burn your lilies by over fertilizing. We most often use Highland Rim products because they have simply performed the best, pondtabs are a good option also if you can't find highland rim.
First tip, make sure to 're-seal' the hole you make when you push those into the plant. If you don't you're fertilizing the whole pond, including the algae. We aren't very high on the liquid fertilizer for the same reason. Secondly, don't fertilize the lotus until you have aerial leaves. Finally, depending on climate, stop fertilizing in late August so the plants can harden up a little before they go dormant. If you aren't in the mid west make sure to talk to a local specialist to find out what is best for your region.

Don't Dig Too Soon!

Just a quick post after a tough day of breaking bad news to a nice lady. Don't Dig Too Soon! I know it can be tempting to jump right into building your pond, but trust me you don't want to get ahead of yourself. A great lady called me and had me drive to her house so I could help her finish her pond. To my great dismay she had alrady dug a HUGE pond, with help from her husband's excavator, and than let it sit over the winter. This wouldn't have been as big of an issue if she hadn't already bought her liner. After the winter weather and the flooding conditions the hole washed out and became too big for her liner. Now she is faced with the options of buying a new piece of liner, re-building the sides (trust me its not fun), or filling the whole thing in and starting over. Either way its a lot more money and/or labor. So all you DIYers, do yourself a HUGE favor and make sure you don't dig too soon. Just a helpful hint.

Common Problems

After spending a full day rebuilding a bio-fall, the same amount of time I could have built half a pond, I am reminded how important it is to select the proper builder. Whether you are building your pond yourself or hiring someone it is imperative to get as much information as you can. Is this their speiality? If its the third 'specialty' listed on their business card, it really isn't. Take a look at some of their past ponds. Are they concerned about longevity or maintenance? Many, even some I thought were good companies, don't appear to be concerned about the future.

Now each job a contractor does they learn something, I wish when I built my first pond I knew what I know now. But there are some very important things that I have seen ignored in many ponds. For example, streams need to be deep with solid sides because if you walk around your stream it will compact and the rock will slide if it isn't concreted or foamed. This is a major issue, I've fixed multiple ponds this year that the side rock was falling in and the water level was off due to people walking around, admittedly one was mine. Learn from my, and many other's, mistakes and make sure to solidify the rock on sides of streams and ponds. If you think you or your contractor is building your stream too shallow, chances it is way too shallow. If it looks like the rock could slide, it will.

* One point I would like to make is I am in an area that large angular rock is hard to come by, most is river rock or glacier rock that is relatively smooth and rounded. When this type of rock is used securing with foam or concrete is important. If you can get your hands on more angular or easily stacked rock this isn't nearly as important.