A year ago I completed building my pond. Why a pond? Well living in Central Florida, the rain is scarce at certain times of the year. I got tired of not having any grass because we were on water restrictions. So my solution to have a green yard? Build a pond/flower garden. So that's what I did. I thought that I would also end up having less yard work. Boy, was I wrong! But it is very enjoyable. I love going out there at night, light the torches around the deck and read a book while listening to the water splashing over the rocks. Or lighting a fire in the chimnea on those cool winter nights (remember it's Florida we don't have a real winter).
Building the pond was a big process and alot of work. I made some mistakes along the way and now that I understand the process alittle better, would do some things differently. I would like to build it bigger and build a larger waterfall (now that I have a better idea of how to do it).
I had to add some things along the way (like a second filter system) and because of my line of work (day care) I had to add an enclosure (which was a real pain to do after the pond was already functioning but ended up being a blessing because it keeps the animals out of it). During the first part of this year it was losing to much water and getting warm (because of the depth) so I put lawn screening over the top of the trellis and solved that problem.
I haven't lost too many fish to critters. Caught a heron staking it out one day and couldn't stand guard 24 hours so I ended up using fishing line which I zig-zagged between the posts and haven't had a worry since (except to remember to duck when climbing in the pond).
Mark and I scavenged the local ditches and ponds and came up with some plants (and some snails too). Others I bought. Recently my Spider Lillies started blooming. And a few weeks ago I found 3000 tadpoles (hope they have all gone to greener pastures). All the plants are filling in around the flowerbed. The wildflower seeds I planted really went wild and I ended up pulling almost all of them out because they were to thick, but they are coming back again.
For fish, I first bought some large fancy goldfish, but those were the ones I ended up losing. So I went to the feeder godlfish that were about 1" and now they are huge. I bought one small Koi to see if it would survive and now he is about 9" long. I lost my algae eaters during the winter of 1999. Got some minnows out of the ditch to eat the mosquito larvae.
It was alot of work that Mark & I did by ourselves (my boyfriend did help some) and continue to do together. Sometimes it's fun. Sometimes it's just work. But the pay-off has by far been worth it.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy looking at my pictures. Have a great day. |
