Country Escape's 2nd pond - Goldfish only

[CountryEscape]

Haha, two of my fantails, Spot from the big pond and Speck from the aquarium, were in the skimmer this evening. Spot should have known better, but maybe they were chasing each other .... that would be awesome!!! Oh how I would love to someday see little wiggle butt babies ....

 

[j.w]

That would be cute to see those little buggers wiggling and so tiny!

 

[addy1]

I had to pull one pretty little white and yellow goldie from the skimmer. I keep it on low flow unless flower or leaves are dropping. Anything that gets in can survive until I pull them out.

 

[CountryEscape]

Here are the 4 bog plants that I bought. One has a "free" parrots feather and another has a free Pickeral Rush stalk.

Addy/JW, cam you tell me what the third pic is? I know I got some from one of you, but can't remember the name. Wanted more of it.
Here is what the stump removal looks like after it was done. The hole is about 12" deep, and the pile of wood chips/mulch is about 2' at the tallest. Going to be great mulch to put around trees out in my yard.

And, since I was taking pics, took a few of the plants on the waterfall. Saw a robin in the waterfall this morning and thought at first it was going to take a bath. It did finally bathe, but it was picking out the tiny snails that are always on the waterfall. Good robin! My trapdoors are never on the waterfall, BTW.

And, of course, can't show pics of the water without a pic of one of my many bullfrogs. LOL

 

[j.w]

Neat pix Ce and addy sent that 3rd photo plant and think it was called Pennywort but addy will know better.
Boy that looks like some nice mulch from that shredded stump! I love the view from your deck and I sure bet you love sitting out there now looking at it all! I had to really look for the bullfrog and finally found him down there!

 

[CountryEscape]

Yep, I was going to zoom in on the bullfrog, but thought it would be fun to let you all spot him.
Got my bog going full tilt tonight, and no dirt or silt to speak of. I fully expected there to be some, but it came through crystal clear. The level of the bog got higher than I had planned and so I was scrambling to get rocks and stones to hold the liner up so it would not lay over, as I don't have that outside edge done at all. My plan was to drain the water out partially and then work out the outside edge. The one end is VERY close to barely being enough liner, but I can move the edge in and gain some inches of liner. It will be ok, as the way I have it right now, it is not overflowing except where it should be. The water is NOT very clear, which is upsetting me, but I have to learn that patience word once again. Actually, both of my ponds are murky. All winter they were crystal clear, so started up the filters and voila, murky water. I'm hoping it is just going to take a while to get the bacteria cycling again. And, the pea gravel will be a filtration system even without any plants, but the plants will hopefully be put in there this weekend. I'll probably go get some more of the water primrose out of the pond, if it's growing very well yet, and add that to the ponds, too. May put some plant tabs in the lily pots to boost them a little, too. I do remember that I had yucky water for about a month and then it cleared up, so will be patient again.

 

[pondlover]

CE your view from the deck is great. Great place to sit at the end of a long work day. All your flowers around the waterfall look wonderful. Makes me have a vision of what mine will look like when things begin to fill in. My pond is still very green. I am trying to work on the patience thing myself. I think the word of the day is frustration. Because it was so clear and then within hours it turned green. My lilies are sending up new pads each day, so hopefully soon there will be more surface coverage. We are considering getting a UV light to do away with the nasty algae. Tomorrow I am going back to the high school to get a few butterfly koi to add to my pond. :razz:

I am super impressed with your hardwork and how quickly you got so much done. My hat is off to you lady!

 

[CountryEscape]

Thanks, PL. But, sometimes I think, "Well, I don't have any other life, so might as well get things done with the pond." LOL
My pond is not green, and I do have my UV light on. I guess I should check it to make sure it is working properly, but at least I don't have the pea green soup, like I did last year. I didn't want to wait until that happened before I turned on the UV. Lots say that the green goes away just fine, just have to wait it out. It's hard, I know. I want to see my fish to the bottom again, like I did in February. The goldfish pond is the same way, only can see those fish if they are topside. At least they have all learned to come to the top to eat, so I can count them and make sure all are present and accounted for.
Your plants will grow faster than you think, with all this early warm weather!
I have bugs tonight ... OMG, I need to hire those bullfrogs to come onto my deck and take care of the bugs on my screen door! Yuck!!! That would be funny, though, to see them jumping at the screens. It's like the bugs just appeared overnight! That is one thing I wish would never appear ... bugs and moths and mosquitos.

 

[addy1]

Cute bull frog ce! The plant is pennywort, Everything is looking great!

http://www.duke.edu/~jspippen/plants/hydrocotyle.htm

 

[CountryEscape]

Here are pictures I took this morning of the bog and how clear the water is. Now, if I can just get the rest of that pond to clear up. Actually, I can see down clearly to the 5 gallon bucket, which is upside down, which I could not do last night, so that means it has cleared up quite a lot just overnight with the bog running. I'm really excited about that!!!

I'll be driving my truck tomorrow to work, pick up the rest of the landscape stones, and then get the outside walls laid. Worked on them in my sleep last night so I have it all figured out. LOL Probably going to make the overflow a little bit wider, since I still can do that, so that no chance of it getting something clogged up and overflowing over the outside edges. I'll be also moving the outside walls in a little to give me more liner room on the 2 places where it's really close! But, I was confident enough last night when I went to bed to leave it running, so all is good.

 

[HARO]

CE; the first picture of your bog plants is actually water parsley, the second one is chameleon plant
John

 

[taherrmann4]

CE looking good. Was the pea gravel you used more expensive b/c of the color you got? Can't wait to finally get enough rock to start on mine. Nice job.

 

[j.w]

Boy that bog water is super clear and from my view your pond there looks good also. Things will prolly settle down soon now that you have the bog up and running. That is a pretty color of pea gravel you have there. Ours here is grey at least from what I've ever got in bags at Lowes.

 

[addy1]

looking good ce! great job.

 

[CometKeith]

Country, It looks really good. I recognize your pea gravel. It's the same one I get at Menards.