Country Escape's 2nd pond - Goldfish only

[CountryEscape]

Well, I thought I goofed last year and just "dropped" the plants into my bog (which has standing water on top of it in the koi pond bog), but Addy says she has all of her plants directly in the pea gravel. I guess I put them in pots because I was worried the pea gravel would have no nutrients in there yet, so the clay ... wait, that has no nutrients either, but I guess I could fertilize them if need be ... is holding them in place for now. I did plant them all in pots. Dang, that would have been far easier to plant them directly into the pea gravel, but I intend to add about 2" more pea gravel in time, once the outside wall is finished. So, this way I can pull the pot up higher if need be. The way some of the plants had expanded and well overgrown their little 4" pots, I will probably pull them from the pots in time and let them do their thing directly in the pea gravel.

 

[CometKeith]

CE, I think they will grow faster if their roots can spread out. Also the pots being hard plastic aren't filtering anything and if anything are preventing the plant roots from grabbing some of the stuff you want to filter so it would better to take the plants out of the pots once you add the extra pea gravel. By the way everything is looking really nice!

 

[addy1]

Those bog plants move real easy ce, if you need to adjust them later. None of mine went into pots or any soil, just right into the pea gravel.

 

[CountryEscape]

Well, so much for scrambling to find pots! I'll do that, remove the pots and clay and put them back in bare root, once I get the rest of the pea gravel in place. I'll leave the tropicals in pots, I guess (elephant ear), so I can take them inside for winter. Thinking I will just dry out those bulbs this time, instead of keeping them alive, and restart them late winter to go back outside. Thanks for pointers, Addy and Keith!

 

[koiguy1969]

everythings looking good there C.E......be proud of your work, and accomplishments....you'll have to come help mr redo mine hopefully next year. your a better workler than i am!!

 

[j.w]

Looks so nice CE and Tarzan is giving you his look of approval!

 

[HARO]

Sorry, Country, but I've been busy lately and just saw your post about the water parsley and chameleon plant. They both show three colours in bright sunlight (green, cream and pink) but the parsley is more of a pastel, whereas the chameleon is a deeper shade. Be aware that both can be invasive, and may need to be cut back periodically. Nice looking pond, by the way. I started to clean mine up in the heat wave about three weeks ago, but wound up draining it and digging out a large section of ledge, so it should hold about 400 or so more gallons. There's just TOO much inspiration in all the pictures on this forum!!!
John

 

[CountryEscape]

Thanks for your kind words everyone. KoiGuy, you pay my plane ticket, and I'll make it a working vacation. LOL My cousin in GA saw my posts on my Facebook and she's asking me to come with my tractor. That would cost more than a plane ticket! Yikes, and I don't have a flatbed for the tractor. I was wishing someone would have asked me to build them a pond before I started my goldfish pond, that way I could have gotten my "pond build fix" without expending any money to do it. But, I'm sure glad I built it and the stream.
Thanks, John, about the info on the plants, and, thanks for the other post saying that the varigated chameleon plant I have is less invasive than the green type. I'll watch all my plants. I know the guy at the nursery said one of those two to watch it didn't get into my landscaping, as it is impossible to kill. Said Roundup doesn't touch it! OMG, I sure don't want that kind of a mess going on. Both of my bogs are elevated, so will have to watch them.

 

[pondlover]

CE your profile pic is awesome. Love how your ponds look!!!

 

[CountryEscape]

Thanks, PL. I have my parrots feather pot in the "pool" at the bottom of the waterfall, before it falls into the pond, but nothing so far. I think it didn't make it. I probably moved it around too much and killed it. Ordered some new plants, and plan to put them in that pool for added oxygenation, hoping some will overflow into the pond as well.

 

[j.w]

CE my parrots feather is just now starting to get little sprouts coming off of it but lots of it looks dead but I know from the past yrs that it's not really dead and can come back when least expected so maybe yours is not dead. Could be but maybe not. You might just leave it or put it in a container of some sort to see what it does.

 

[sissy]

ce I have had my butt wigglers since 2006 and no babies yet and not sure if they are males or females by looking at there fins and guessing they are the same sex since they never seem to hang out together .They stay near each other but i have never seen them chase each other yet .

 

[addy1]

my parrots feather, dead looking stems, a lot of it out of the water, frozen in ice, has come back nicely. Nice green growth

 

[CountryEscape]

OK, I'll remain patient with the parrots feather.
Sissy, I know that the new red and white fantail is a male, as it was chasing the other big Sarassa goldies I got from Pond Kid! So, it's possible I could have some mixed breeds, but I think if that happens someone said they would be infertile, which is fine with me, as long as they don't look goofy ... well goofier than a fantail looks normally.
What I think is funny is that Spot, from the koi pond, and Speck, from the aquarium, are buddies, always together, and they never met until I put the aquarium fish into the goldfish pond! They are much smaller than the fantail from PK, though, and that guy is pretty good sized, maybe 6-7" long or so. Beautiful, too!
I got some window screen in a roll today and another package of quilt batting, so will make a couple of small frames to put under the waterfall weir on the koi pond and under the waterfall on the goldfish pond, maybe another one for the overflow of the bog, too. Hoping that the cooler weather has stopped the algae growth at least some, to let the filters help get rid of the murkiness in the water.

 

[addy1]

lol ce, I think you are one of those get it done peeps, no waiting for you.............. it will clear and your parrots feather will grow