Ponding

The Head Gardener calls it Ponding, ie. Water Garden Maintenance. We are bit late this year because it has been too cold, too wet, or windy, or all 3 all at once. Mother's Day weekend in Colorado seems to be standard safe date to begin gardening in earnest without the fear of frost--so we hope, with fingers crossed. 

For the pond, our plan was to remove the giant waterlily clump that had over taken the pond. The plant has its own back story. My dad had his own 1/2 acre pond where at one time he nurtured the largest private water lily collection in the Denver Metro area. He grew tropical lilies that he planted in buckets so that he could bring them in during the winter. 

With my brother moving to Texas, the folks would visit him and on one of their trips he brought home a white waterlily from one of his daughter-in-law's uncle's farm pond. This water lily came from dad's original collection. It grew to be a massive clump and bloomed profusely. I was rather attached to it. It provided necessary cover for the fish and a good spawning habitat, but beneath it the pond was filling with muck--all kinds of decomposing debris. It was time to drain the pond down and clean out the muck. 

Last summer the Texas waterlily filled 80% of the pond, leaving little room for much else.

 

In addition to our grandson Jacob and his girlfriend Allie and their pup Kora helping out, daughter Heather and her golden girl Hazelnut helped with the reclamation.

 

By now I was totally stressed to see my beautiful lily disassembled. Actually what he pulled out were separate plants that had wildly outgrown their pots and had been swallowed up in with the Texas lily. 

I watched from the patio, frustrated and sad, pondering how my little water garden would look when the "cleaning" was done, when I head the HG say as he used a 2x4 to try to dislodge the main lily from the center, "I don't need to fall in." I turned my back for a second and when I looked up again he was in the middle of the pond, waist deep, reaching his back pocket for his phone--and not take photos. Allie was reaching for it so that she could take it in to dry it out. Fortunately the phone is secured in an Otterbox and the iPhone 13s are supposed to be water poof. The phone survived.

The Head Gardener went inside to shower and change while the kids--Allie and Jacob--using a logging chain wrapped around the lily pulled it out, breaking it apart. We discovered then that a great deal of the muck came out in the tangled root system.

Heather and Jacob both received instructions on how to drive the tractor and the massive mucky mess was moved to the corral where it rest in pieces. 

  

And this is what was left. 

The pond still needs more attention. Using the filtration pump, the HG pumps out the dirty water while filling it with well water from our irrigation system. He'll change the water out a couple of time and rent an industrial pond pump to suck out the muck still in the bottom. Once we have clear water in the pond, we will be able to see what the muck layer actually looks like. 

The fish, though, are robust and happy. My only koi survived the winter. He is a shy one (yes, I finally know his correct gender just by watching him chase the girls). He hid most of the time underneath the lily; now he has been forced out into the open.

In 2021 the yellow lily bloomed, held captive by its massive pond companion. We are hoping that the yellow one is one that was reduced.

For now the lilies are in containers on the patio. I'll be dividing and repotting this week. Really, lilies are easy keepers. They will be potted pots with soil from the corral with a food tablet and from there they will thrive. Hopefully my pink and yellow one are somewhere in this mess. 

I bought a new "decoy" to deter the great blue herons from catching the fish. We had an authentic decoy, but it has disappeared--or got "lost" in the barn: this one is actually Hobby Lobby lawn art, but he's a colorful, handsome fellow, don't you think? Hopefully he is intimidating enough to fool the herons. It's their nesting season and soon they will have hungry chicks to feed.

The fish are happy and the koi seems a little more social; of course, his hiding spot has been removed. He has no choice. 

Brody has new friends, Allie and her dog, Kora.

 

Here is my second attempt at sour dough bread. You can see that I have improved my technique, for the 3rd loaf was the original attempt. 

An update on Lily's chicks. They are growing and have left their brooder and have been moved to the barn with other hens. 

  

  

And there you have it. Another full week planned in the garden. Strawberries will be transplanted to their new raised garden bed, among other chores. The weather is supposed to stabilize this week and warm up. 

Wishing you a warm and wonderful week. Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers, Ann