Starting Your Ponds Back Up Yet?

[pecan]

Well I got it all running this weekend . Decided to take the waterfall apart, throw a new piece of liner on top of the old and add a couple small falls. It is nice to have it running It is supposed to hit almost 70 by the end of this week, so just in time.

Here is a pic of the falls last year in March when I installed the skippies and and started her up for reference as to what I changed. Small changes, but I like it. I think I will put canna's in the two small pools I just made. I also took starts off some of my plants from last year to fill in some of the areas where I had annuals.

The fish are silly. All winter they have been hiding from me, but the moment I started the pumps up they started begging for food. I guess in fishy heads, pumps me food. Silly fish.

March 2012

March 2013

Can't wait for the water to clear

 

[CountryEscape]

Wow, you have lots of growth already in your plants, and I love your new ideas. I am going to take my waterfall apart this year, had already thought about the possibility of making a side waterfall, too! Going to re-route the line to the skippy so it goes up the waterfall, that way if I have any hole or crack or line pull apart, the water will have to return to the pond, not out on the ground, like I had happen 2 weeks ago! No harm done, thank goodness due to pump being up on milk crate. Water is crystal clear, which mine was NOT this time last year. Our temps were at 60 on Sunday, then only 40's yesterday, getting down to 20's next 2 nights, then back up to 60 on Fri. Illinois weather, don't you love it?
Remind me, Pecan, where you live. I had it in my mind you were not far from my daughter in Price, UT. Is that right? She is starting seeds in her house, wants to have a nice garden this year to harvest from. Last year was her first year to try, and it got cold too soon. She was not used to that, after living in IL her whole life. Your yard and plants look much more advanced than hers, so you must be in a warmer climate maybe.

 

[pecan]

I am in Salt Lake Valley and it is warmer than Price. We are about one and a half hours NW of Price. Salt Lake Valley has a very nice micro-climate that is warmer than most of northern and central Utah. We get more snow than most of the state as well due to our proximaty to the Great Salt Lake.

Funny most of the green you see is not new growth from this year both the growth from last year I just cut back. Suprisingly even with a record cold winter I had a lot of plants they stayed green all winter.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Pond sure looked good Pecan, do you still have that pond or is someone else taking care of it now? Just wondering, cause it would be very hard for me to leave such a beautiful pond. You sure did lots of work and you water fall is just magnificent!

 

[pecan]

Pond sure looked good Pecan, do you still have that pond or is someone else taking care of it now? Just wondering, cause it would be very hard for me to leave such a beautiful pond. You sure did lots of work and you water fall is just magnificent!

I still have it. We are still discussing selling the house and moving. But I really love the house and yard. I have been wavering a bit and am now thinking of maybe just building a small two room cabin on our 30 acres in southern Utah rather than selling our house and moving down to southern Utah for good. I don't know and haven't really discussed it with my DH yet. We shall see what happends. But for now I am enjoying our pond

 

[Event Horizon]

it looks amazing.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Good to hear you are still with the pond, after all the hard work you put into it, it would be nice to stay and enjoy it for a while. Moving would be too much stress and sometimes not worth it. I never moved for over 25 years cause moving would be too much of a nightmare with all my junk!

 

[j.w]

I love looking at your pond Pecan. You did an amazing job on building it and making it look just right. It would be a shame to have to leave it behind. How hot does it get there and do you ever see many poisonous snakes, scorpions or spiders? We don't have any of those where we live and we are always thinking about warmer places to move to but not too warm like Az or Africa hot. I just don't know if I could deal w/ the poisonous stuff after not having to deal w/ it all my life and I love being outdoors, hiking,biking, swimming, camping etc. I'd always think they were out to get me!

 

[CountryEscape]

If I'm not mistaken, and Pecan will let me know if I am, High Desert Zone means sandy soil, lots of water to keep things green, or at least that's how it is where my daughter lives south of Pecan. That sure seems strange, that north is warmer, but I sure understand being in the valleys, too. Daughter has taught me lots about mountains and valleys. I would not like having to irrigate my yard to keep grass growing. I love green grass, and my daughter has none. She chooses not to have grass, then she doesn't need to have a mower or mow! She has her horses in the scrubs and they chew on that stuff, and the little bit of green that does grow when the rains come, but for most of the summer she has to water if she wants anything to grow, like her garden, which she DOES have to water daily. If I remember correctly, Pecan has a beautiful garden out the back end of her yard, with irrigation that she opens and closes to flood or fill the ditches in her garden. Very neat system! She has "water shares" so is allowed to take the water from the canal. My daughter also has water shares, but not enough purchased to irrigate all of her 12 acres, so for now she is feeding hay to her horses. Just seems strange to see horses grazing on pastures with the irrigation sprinklers running. But, you do what you have to do for the area.
In my book, moving to where Sissy is would be ideal. Still have all the seasons, not much cold and snow, and not near as hot and humid in the summer like I have here in the midwest. I don't care for hot hot hot like AZ gets, and love the ocean. Who knows where I will end up when I retire ...

 

[pecan]

I love looking at your pond Pecan. You did an amazing job on building it and making it look just right. It would be a shame to have to leave it behind. How hot does it get there and do you ever see many poisonous snakes, scorpions or spiders? We don't have any of those where we live and we are always thinking about warmer places to move to but not too warm like Az or Africa hot. I just don't know if I could deal w/ the poisonous stuff after not having to deal w/ it all my life and I love being outdoors, hiking,biking, swimming, camping etc. I'd always think they were out to get me!

I think the hottest I have seen it here in Salt Lake Valley is 112'. We are normally in the 90's during the day and 70's at night in July and August. We normally don't get below 5' in the winter. It was a record cold year this winter and I think we went below 5' twice.

It gets dreary in the winter in the valley because of the bowl shape, all the pollution builds up and we can go the whole month of January not seeing the sun, even though it is sunny and blue skies above the inversion. This is hard since we get over 250 days of sun here a year, we get used to it being sunny.

We get very little rain (10" a year) but our water for the year comes in the form of snow since the mountains above us get on average 600" a year, if I remember correctly.

We are at 4100 feet above sea level in the valley and the mountain peaks that surround us stand over 11,000 feet high.

I am kind of a nerd about climate LOL

 

[mtpond]

I'm still waiting for my pond to warm up some more before I start my pond up. My water in the pond is clear but the string algae is starting to grow because the sun is starting to shine more. Colleen do you know what the bottom temp of your pond is when you run your pond through the winter? This is the second winter with my pond and I have seen a bottom temp of close to 32 F which I think is to cold for the fish and I have only been running an aerator which I have had about 12 inches from the top of the pond. I have since pulled it up to about 6 inches from the top of the pond and it warmed up a couple more degrees.

 

[mtpond]

That's why I don't run my system all year.

 

[Phil]

This was the first winter for my pond, and I took a page from Colleen's book and kept my skimmer/pump running all winter with an aerator also running at the other end. I would say it was an average winter, and the pond and waterfall froze completely over twice for a total of maybe ten days but the water always kept flowing underneath. My thermometer isn't real exact but I had bottom temperatures below 35 many times. My fish are natives so I never really worried about them, although I was amazed that six fish that big could disappear in a pond that small for so long. Like most ponds I've read about here, I do have some string algae but my water is crystal clear. We saw last year's young more or less all winter on any sunny day, but yesterday we saw at least four of the six adult fish for the first time since before the first of the year, so I'm considering yesterday my "start up" date. They all lined up in the middle, looking up at me, just like they do when I feed them. No food yet, but I guess they were wondering what I am waiting for!

 

[pecan]

If I'm not mistaken, and Pecan will let me know if I am, High Desert Zone means sandy soil, lots of water to keep things green, or at least that's how it is where my daughter lives south of Pecan. That sure seems strange, that north is warmer, but I sure understand being in the valleys, too. Daughter has taught me lots about mountains and valleys. I would not like having to irrigate my yard to keep grass growing. I love green grass, and my daughter has none. She chooses not to have grass, then she doesn't need to have a mower or mow! She has her horses in the scrubs and they chew on that stuff, and the little bit of green that does grow when the rains come, but for most of the summer she has to water if she wants anything to grow, like her garden, which she DOES have to water daily. If I remember correctly, Pecan has a beautiful garden out the back end of her yard, with irrigation that she opens and closes to flood or fill the ditches in her garden. Very neat system! She has "water shares" so is allowed to take the water from the canal. My daughter also has water shares, but not enough purchased to irrigate all of her 12 acres, so for now she is feeding hay to her horses. Just seems strange to see horses grazing on pastures with the irrigation sprinklers running. But, you do what you have to do for the area.
In my book, moving to where Sissy is would be ideal. Still have all the seasons, not much cold and snow, and not near as hot and humid in the summer like I have here in the midwest. I don't care for hot hot hot like AZ gets, and love the ocean. Who knows where I will end up when I retire ...

Generally high desert is rocky, sandy dry soil. Cactus and sage brush. Trees are not really native to salt lake valley. I am sure the only ones that grew naturally would have been near streams, which there are not a lot of. Our property in Southern Utah is considered high desert as well, but since it is higher up (6900 feet above sea level) there are pinion pine and juniper trees.

Our yard is a little different though. Because of 100+ years of flood irrigation being used to water our land it has brought in silt with the water. Giving us a pretty good sandy loam soil,

Without help from people this is what a typical high desert landscape looks like, minus the trees if you head lower.

This is our property

This is probably what the salt lake valley looked like before the pioneers started channeling water down from the mountains.

Yep we have water shares. 12 canal shares and 4 mountain shares. We pull water from the mountains till it dries up (typically mid july) then switch to the canal that pumps the water up from Utah lake for the remainder of the summer.

 

[CountryEscape]

Pecan, that is exactly what my daughter's yard looks like with the sage brush. Are those your horses, too, I assume? She has 3 horses now, after acquiring a new coming 2 year old reining/cow horse bred filly last weekend. She's working with her, and will train her to "be her next champion". I think she will accomplish that mission, too! Very smart daughter, awesome animal trainer, and very patient. Her new filly seems to be extremely smart as well, and learning quickly. Her other two horses are a mare she raised from a foal that now has one blind eye due to medical problem that happened 4 years ago, and a Fox Trotter/TN Walking Horse cross filly, born and bred in the mountains of Montana, she got given to her as a 2 year old to train, and then the owner told her she could have her! She has done an amazing job with her as well. I can see why you would want to move to your other property to get away from the smog, but your yard is so beautiful!