Hello from Missouri

[SideShowMom]

Hi, I'm SideShowMom from Kansas City. I have two kids (13 & 10), a husband, a bunch of pets and a small pond in the back yard of my rental house. I belong to the local water garden society and have had my pond running since last spring. We have goldfish and a koi and waterlilies, lotus, elephant ears (wintering in the house) and had papyrus in it. I'm a stay-at-home mom, photographer, computer geek and am healing two broken wrists resulting from a roller skating fall. This little house is my first piece of yardspace that I can dig in as an adult, having been an apartment dweller most of my life and it has been the best year! My husband and I have gone on the club's yearly tours for a very long time, always saying "when we get a yard..." so the first thing I did after we got settled in, was join the WGSGKC!

I found this forum searching for something to do to pretty-up the Rubbermaid stock tank. Being a rental house, I'm reluctant to bury the tank or do too much digging in the yard beyond flower/garden beds or adding rock or leveling sites for the pond liner & tank. I liked the suggestion someone made of gathering sticks and twigs and trying them together with wire to surround it, and may try that for mine. We also have a freeform rigid liner a club member gave us and will be building up a surround for it this spring. It just snowed the day before last and we have more coming this weekend, so that's put off some more :grumble: We've had just enough warm weather for me to get the itch to dig and putter! Having another pond community to be part of will help me through and I look forward to sharing ideas!

:goldfish: SideShowMom

 

[j.w]

SideShowMom
Glad you found us and hope you can post some pix of your pond. It's prolly covered w/ snow and maybe ice right now but when you get a chance we'd love to see what you've done. And sorry about your fall and the broken wrists..............YIKES, that must be horrible! Heal fast cuz warm weather will be here before ya know it and time to get out and work in the great outdoors :sun_smiley:

 

[SideShowMom]

Thanks J.W. I'll get some pix up directly. I just got my casts off yesterday and am trying not to do too much too soon!

Sadly, the small patio pond was an easy target for the neighborhood raccoons, so we moved the lilies to the stock tank. It was pretty, though.

 

[j.w]

Well good you already have the casts off and now can get busy healing completely before the nice weather starts and you really need to use your arms. Sorry those darn raccoons were messing w/ your nice pot. I had that happen to a pot I had on our back deck. I had Taro plants in mine and the raccoons were digging around and wrecking everything till my hubby took some small flat boards and shot a bunch of staple type nails through the boards so they had the sharp little spikes sticking up about 1/2". We laid those around the outside of the pot on the ground around it and no more raccoons. I bet they had to go soak there little tootsies in the creek that night. It wouldn't really injure them as they weren't really that sharp just annoying to walk on and would not feel good at all. I bet one could make a circle of a board like that and do the same thing around the bottom of the pot so the board wouldn't move. You could paint it a pretty design and call it art also :razz:

 

[sissy]

Cement board screwed together with a finish on it made of just a bag of cement or grout with tiles on it and you can insulate it with foam so it does not freeze .Broken tile in a nice pattern would look great .Think of it like a back splash in a kitchen .It could be a work of art .Build a square box around it attach the cement board make a pretty top or leave the top off and put a plant in the top ,cleans your filter water an added advantage .Nice idea you have with the what looks like garbage can for the stock tank .i may have to try that with my stock tanks .Oh and welcome to the sight of ponding nuts :razz:

 

[SideShowMom]

J.W. I wish I'd thought of that before spending all the money to have FIVE of the critters hauled to another county! I might try again with your idea.

Hi Sissy, thanks for the welcome! I'd though about doing that with the tank, would be pretty and there are lots of kinds of tiles at our Lowes that I'd love to do that with. I like the idea of a more natural-looking finish to the tank, though, but will still insulate under the stick mat covering. The tank has stepped-in sides, not completely vertical, so some insulation wrapped around, thicker at the bottom, would improve the water temperatures. We have a large wooded area nearby for easy access to good branches and sticks. It would also be pretty cheap! Yes, my filter is made from a tall kitchen trash can, painted to look a bit like stone, with a letterbox or weir outlet. It has the same structure and features as the skippy filters, but smaller for the 300 gallon pond, just the right size!

 

[callingcolleen1]

Big welcome SideShowMom! Nice little pond and I like how you fixed the edge around the deck with little stones and trinkets. I see your girl is taking a interest in the pond too. I have black troughs too that I used to use for extra fish years ago. I had one I the greenhouses year but decided to out an old fish tank there this year. I have been thinking of using them again for a project in the future.

 

[Carolyn22]

Welcome - I love your pond. It is so cute.

 

[sissy]

Yeh I have 3 of those tanks and use them for plants and got them at house auctions .I will go to a house auction here and usually there will be at least 1 or 2 and they don't get much for them ,usually about 15 to 20 dollars .I have a 2- 150 gallon one and 1- 250 gallon one ,They are a bear to get home though .The one had a crack in it and used that spray rubber stuff and it sealed right up and has been sealed for 2 years now .I go on auction zip.com to find auctions in my area .
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[mtpond]

Welcome!

 

[don't ask]

welcome

SideShowMom, hope your recovery continues to go well