stuck in green stage?

[Shdwdrgn]

@micaaronfl76 - For covering your edges, use moneywort (also sold as creeping jenny). I prefer the golden variety, for its bright yellow color. This plant will look dead during the Winter, although I usually have some hanging in the water that stays green. The dead looking stuff will still act as a ground-cover during the Winter, and come back to life in the Spring. It grows fast and you can walk all over it once its established. It will grow all over the rocks, down into the water, and around your taller plants.

Another option is periwinkle. There is a variety with very dark-green leaves that is an evergreen. I have my periwinkle and moneywort all growing together, and the combined colors make a very nice ground cover. Both plants stay low to the ground, maybe lifting up 3-4 inches, and make a great bedding for other plants. I practically live in the desert, but the moneywort holds enough ground moisture that I can grow strawberries.


@waterbug - yeah you have to keep it simple when you're explaining things to most people. Go into the technical details and they will glaze over. Tell them something that gets them excited... "Dead leaves kill fish - use this vacuum and your fish will shit out gold bricks in gratitude."

 

[callingcolleen1]

Dead leaves don't kill fish! You should plant trees that you would naturally find in your climate that naturally grow by rivers, streams, lakes. Dead and decaying leaves provide food for the beneficial bacteria and as the leaves decay they will release tanic acids that will help stablilize your Ph. There is never a pond or lake in nature that has no trees. The trees help shade and the pond helps water the trees. Tree waste is natural and my ponds have tons of leaves that fall each year into the pond. As the leaves decay they will also dye your water a natural golden color and then you won't need pond peat! If your pond is balanced in accordance with nature you will discover that it is easier to maintain and save lots of money on pond products. In the spring when the catapillers come they will eat large amounts of fresh leaves as their dung will fall into the pond and again, dye your water naturally and again, the caterpiller dung will provide the same effect as pond peat for free! In the spring I net out some of the sludge that is at the bottom of the pond.
I have never taken my ponds apart to "scrub them down" because a pond is not supposed to be a "sterile hole in the ground". The caterpiller dung also conditions your water too! Try to do it in accordance with nature and you will have a healthy pond full of all types of natural aquatic life that's simpler to maintain and will save you tons of money!

 

[micaaronfl76]

Dead leaves don't kill fish! You should plant trees that you would naturally find in your climate that naturally grow by rivers, streams, lakes. Dead and decaying leaves provide food for the beneficial bacteria and as the leaves decay they will release tanic acids that will help stablilize your Ph. There is never a pond or lake in nature that has no trees. The trees help shade and the pond helps water the trees. Tree waste is natural and my ponds have tons of leaves that fall each year into the pond. As the leaves decay they will also dye your water a natural golden color and then you won't need pond peat! If your pond is balanced in accordance with nature you will discover that it is easier to maintain and save lots of money on pond products. In the spring when the catapillers come they will eat large amounts of fresh leaves as their dung will fall into the pond and again, dye your water naturally and again, the caterpiller dung will provide the same effect as pond peat for free! In the spring I net out some of the sludge that is at the bottom of the pond.
I have never taken my ponds apart to "scrub them down" because a pond is not supposed to be a "sterile hole in the ground". The caterpiller dung also conditions your water too! Try to do it in accordance with nature and you will have a healthy pond full of all types of natural aquatic life that's simpler to maintain and will save you tons of money!

colleen thanks for the advice did u see the video of my pond? does the stream look like its moving good enough?

 

[callingcolleen1]

I'm can't seem to find your picture (I'm very new to this computer thing) but I'm on facebook and have lots of pictures and stuff on there, look me up colleen Pennington (my picture on facebook is yellow (so i stand out) and I'm wearing dark glasses. I have to take the puppies to the park before dark so I'll work on finding your picture later!

 

[HARO]

How exactly do tannins stabilize Ph? And as for catterpiller dung, it's another source of ammonia. Do you ever test your water? It would be interesting to see some facts to back up your statements!
John

 

[callingcolleen1]

I don't get ammonia because my pond is like a stomach and its aways digesting as in nature. As for caterpiller dung it gives you the same effect that pond peat or barley would but for free. Ammonia comes from a pond that is not digesting proper ( the garbage can effect if you like) If your Ph is very high you run a greater risk of getting ammonia. Caterpiller dung naturally lowers your Ph (again like pond peat or barley) but caterpiller dung is much more concentrated. Trees naturally grow along the water edge and with it comes caterpillers. If nature can do it so can you. Trust me I have been playing with ponds and caterpillers for over 20 years. Nature got it right and if you try to do it in accordance with nature you will discover wonderful things. I'm on Facebook and have lots of pictures of my ponds there. Please feel free to look me up there. I'm new to this computer thing and I have not figured out this page yet (only got a computer 2 months or so ago) was lost in my garden for years! Ha ha

 

[brandonsdad02]

I didn't know caterpillers made that much waste. Seems a bit far fetched for me. Personally, I like my water clear. I was new to having a pond last year and learned a lot from this site. If you don't want to spend a ton of money on something then a pond might not be for you. I don't spend tons of money, but I spend enough each year. Once you have everything and you learn from your mistakes, its not so bad. I learned from last fall thinking I could get by with out having to net my pond by just using my net each night after I got home from work. I was certainly wrong. I didn't realize until I drained my pond to bring my fish in for the winter just how many leaves I missed. It was a insane amount. I did get a UV light this year and it has worked great for me as it has for many others. I would recommend getting a UV light. You will never had to worry about the pea green water again. Get some quilt batting and place it at the bottom of your falls in a laundry basket or someting. My waterfall wouldn't allow me to do that so I placed it across my stream making sure that all the water in the stream had to flow thru the quilt batting.

 

[brandonsdad02]

I love the rocks that you have in your stream and in your pond.

 

[micaaronfl76]

thanks brandon

shdwdrg i will do that thanks

colleen the 3 and 4th comment on this thread has a video of my pond

i know nothing about catepillars lol

 

[callingcolleen1]

I didn't know caterpillers made that much waste. Seems a bit far fetched for me. Personally, I like my water clear. I was new to having a pond last year and learned a lot from this site. If you don't want to spend a ton of money on something then a pond might not be for you. I don't spend tons of money, but I spend enough each year. Once you have everything and you learn from your mistakes, its not so bad. I learned from last fall thinking I could get by with out having to net my pond by just using my net each night after I got home from work. I was certainly wrong. I didn't realize until I drained my pond to bring my fish in for the winter just how many leaves I missed. It was a insane amount. I did get a UV light this year and it has worked great for me as it has for many others. I would recommend getting a UV light. You will never had to worry about the pea green water again. Get some quilt batting and place it at the bottom of your falls in a laundry basket or someting. My waterfall wouldn't allow me to do that so I placed it across my stream making sure that all the water in the stream had to flow thru the quilt batting.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Caterpillers may be small but they are plentiful. If you have trees that are bugged by caterpillers this year, place a small bowl of water under the tree and leave it there for a day. You will see the next day that the water will have turned a nice golden color. After one a while the color will deepen and could turn dark. This will happen to your pond if you have a lot of trees. The color will fade as the caterpillers don't stay for long in this stage of their life. I am thank full that I don't have to waste money on pond peat or barley. My pond water is always clear, it may be a golden color, but you would be amazed at how you can see to the very bottom, and my pond is over 3 feet deep in some areas. Trees and caterpillers are natural to any pond setting. If caterpiller dung and leaves kill fish as some people think, then natural ponds in nature would be full of dead fish, but this is not the case! I could not afford to have a pond if I spent huge amounts of money on pond products. It can be done in a natural way. Nature never got it wrong, we did! If you go the natural way, winter your pond lke I do, them you won't have to waste money on plants and bacteria because they will both regrow and replenish the pond. Buy sedges for your pond that are winter hearty to your area. Hearty sedges are plants with a spear shaped leaf like cattails, iris, grass and rushes. These plants come up very early in the spring and steal food from the algae to slowly starve the algae off. The only pond product I buy is small fish pellets for the small fish. I feed my dogs a high quality food and the koi have been eating the dog food for 20 years. I have never lost a koi, ever, and they stay outside in minus 40 temps here in Canada all year round. (Never feed fish when water temp cold) High quality koi food is a joke. The koi get winter greens (algae) in the winter cause its the only plant that grows all winter long under the ice. Algae provides a natural high Carb diet that is easy to digest during the cold months. If you leave your fish out all winter and summer you won't need to spend silly amounts on fancy high priced koi cause the year round sun will bring out the color better that any high priced koi that you take into the deep dark house!

 

[callingcolleen1]

I'm still tying to find your thread? I only have a small tablet and I might have to get someone to help me find the thread.

 

[brandonsdad02]

What thread and who's?

 

[callingcolleen1]

Omg I finally got one picture posted on this site

 

[callingcolleen1]

All my goldfish make it thru the winter, even the baby black mooreys, there they are in my picture from march when the ice broke up. I'm on Facebook, got lots of pictures and video that go back to Feb when I got my first computer. You can see pictures there and video and the pond with ice and water still flowing under the ice! Im better at Facebook cause I know my way around there. My facebook picturer is yellow and I'm wearing dark glasses, you'll see lots of nice clear pond water and pictures of very big fat koi too. My site is open to the public there too.