Pool to Pond 2013

[joesandy1822]

This whole thread is awesome!! I vote keep the porch. Plant bushes around it and make a storage underneath it and a sitting area on top with all your potted plants. It is amazing! Great Job!

Awe, thank you!! That's a great idea. When we had the pool, we kept a lot of pool equipment under the deck. Right now, it's just mulched and we keep our "firepit" of sorts under there.

Once in awhile, I even crawl under there for shade and I sit and watch the fish.

 

[joesandy1822]

This was the view from the deck as of July 10. It looks a little different now, as I have a lot more plants.

 

[joesandy1822]

And then came the dreaded pea soup, which ended up lasting about 6 weeks (it finally cleared up totally about 3 or 4 days ago). We decided to go the more "natural" route (as much as possible), so we didn't use any UV sanitizers/sterilizers or any chemicals. Just had to learn a lot of patience. We learned a lot along the way. The only thing that I have put in the pond was a 50lb. bag of oyster shells to help buffer the KH, and some baking soda to raise the KH. Apparently our municipal water is fairly "soft". Toward the back of the pond, you can see a stack of flat rocks piled up to make a "bench" to sit on. It looks crude, but it works great and used up all the extra rocks until we find another use for them.

 

[slakker]

Very nice... you're neighbours must be envious and want to sit in your back yard!

 

[joesandy1822]

Is this lily not GORGEOUS?! It's called Lily Pons. It has only bloomed once so far, but there is another bud getting ready to open.

 

[joesandy1822]

Another lily, which a very nice lady who I bought my lilies from gave to me free. It was just a tiny, tiny little bulb looking thing when I planted it. Turns out it is a tropical, and I think she said it's called Orchid Star or Rose Star. Very pretty, but I will have to figure out what to do with it over the winter.

 

[joesandy1822]

I decided to plant moss roses (one of my absolute favorites!) in the rocks around the falls. They look much fuller and prettier today, but this is when I planted them initially.

 

[joesandy1822]

This Four Leaf Clover plant has gone crazy! I went in a couple weeks ago and tried to pull some of the dying stuff off. Look at all the roots it put out! The fish love to hang out underneath in all the roots. I think that's where a lot of the babies hid.....and ended up surviving!

 

[joesandy1822]

July 29th view from the deck. If you look, you can see the fake rock lid I made to cover the skimmer. I know it is amateurish, but it works for me, and was cheap. I used a piece of corrugated plastic as the base, and sprayed 2 cans of "Great Stuff" foam insulation on it. When it dried, I used camouflage paints to paint it. I still need to work on it a bit, but it looks a lot better than the black lid it came with. Oh, and if you notice that ice cream bucket at the back of the pond, it was enclosing a webcam. My husband came up with that GREAT idea so we could see the pond while we were away on vacation. It even had nightvision! He had to return the camera to the friend he borrowed it from.......but I'm thinking about using my piggy bank to buy one of our own.

 

[joesandy1822]

Wanvisa blooming again, along with a couple others. I guess there must be a small amount of phosphate in the pond, as we always have a few bubbles going on. But they look pretty, and the water tests good.

 

[joesandy1822]

The moss roses are really filling in, and the colors are so cheerful!

 

[joesandy1822]

One of our Shubunkins swimming in the rocks near the Four Leaf Clover.

 

[joesandy1822]

This butterfly bush has been moved a couple times over the past 3 years before it finally found a place it "liked"......which is in the mulch along the pond! It is blooming beautifully, and the butterflies really do love it!

 

[joesandy1822]

Just a close-up of a moss rose. Have you figured out yet that I like moss roses? Did I mention that?

 

[joesandy1822]

Very nice... you're neighbours must be envious and want to sit in your back yard!

Thank you! Actually, they rearranged their chairs for awhile so they were pointed toward our pond. They said they loved the view.