The pond dig has begun!

[CountryEscape]

Yep, JW, I keep thinking how awful it would have been had the water emptied out on a really cold day, and the remaining water froze before I got home, or maybe the heater running might have melted through the liner if it got to the bottom or on a shelf as the water drained .... so many things could have happened. I just really glad Sissy was able to call me, tell me the bulges would go away, and keep me calm. She did wonders!

 

[j.w]

Speaking of sissy, where is she? Snowed in w/o power maybe?

 

[CountryEscape]

Hmm.... you're right! Haven't seen her post in a couple of days. I hope all is well at her house! We will hear soon, hopefully.

 

[CountryEscape]

I started some of the lotus seeds that I bought off of Ebay for really cheap! I think I got something like 40 seeds for $10, and there are 8 different colors. So far I have started 6 of the colors, 2 seeds each, and put them in containers that are marked for what color they are supposed to be. Of the 12 seeds put in water (some as late as last night), I have 6 that are growing. I've been doing them as I have time when sitting down for the evening. It seems all of the seeds are very healthy, as at least one of each color (if they were started before last night LOL) have sprouted, and several have both seeds growing very well. I'm impressed! Now, hoping the weather warms up soon. As it is, I'm going to have to bring a couple of buckets into the basement to plant them in small pots of kitty litter so they can start growing better. I have a light in the basement for plants, so that should help them reach for the sky.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Sound exciting CE, you will have to post pictures of your lotus seeds when they get growing! Sissy might be busy too, with spring just about here I find I am very busy trying to get the seeds done and then transplanted soon too. Then there is the everyday stuff too to take care of, now I got to get going cause hubby wants to go get more soil today. Busy, busy, busy, all day long, then there is the puppies, they know spring is coming and all day long it is IN, OUT, IN, OUT, and barking their heads off!

 

[j.w]

Lotus are so pretty. I tried growing those here in some nice container water pots and they started to grow and were doing good and then wham they went south and that was pretty discouraging so haven't tried them since. I guess I will just stick to the hardy stuff and watch your pretty ones grow CE. I think the weather here is wrong for them as they want a bit more warmth than our climate will provide.

Nice that your hubby wants to be involved in your gardens Colleen getting soil and stuff. Mine could care less. If I plant a tree I get the 3rd degree! Have do sneak everything in like we talked about in the past posts :razz:
He did think of me yesterday tho when he was out and brought me back some neat pieces of slate. I don't know what to do w/ them but nice he thought of me. And nooooooooo, I will not be building a dinosaur doghouse out of them Ryan

 

[CountryEscape]

I did not have luck with the lotus tubers I bought last year, JW, so I may be getting them going just to die as well. But, at least these were really cheap, and I love growing things from seed. Here are a couple of the lotuses. I have 2 seeds in each cup, some both have sprouted, others just one. Some none sprouted because I just put them in water a day or two ago.


I have hibiscus plants that I KNOW are now growing, from Sissy's seeds. They are hardy hibiscus, I think she said red or pink, and they are really healthy looking. Notice how huge these seedlings are from the Royal Empress, which I will post below, same size plug they are in, which is about 1.5" across. I'm hoping Sissy sees these, and can confirm that they are in fact the hibiscus, because I wasn't positive on this "row" and another row, but now that these have sprouted, and the other seeds I have in another tray and they still have not sprouted, I'm sure these have to be the hibiscus. They sure are growing well, and will be very easy to transplant.

I planted those Royal Empress seeds about a month ago, just noticed yesterday morning that half of them sprouted and OMG, they are soooo tiny! I could hardly see them, they are that small!!! There is no way they will live to make a tree, or sure doesn't seem like they will. We shall see though. Here they are, in the same sized plug as the hibiscus seedlings above! Can you see it????

 

[callingcolleen1]

Are you going to grow the hibiscus in the pond CE? I had a hibiscus in the pond once upon a time, but then I think I killed it off one winter many years ago....

 

[j.w]

I've got some Hibiscus plants that Larkin sent me seeds of and I planted them outside. Wondering if they made it through the winter. They are late starters in greening up so I'll have to wait and see. I also have a Hibiscus tree that I bought at Lowes and it grows nicely every year. Think it's called Red Heart Althea or Hibiscus syriacus "Red Heart". Gets white flowers w/a scarlet eye in the center. Doesn't bloom here tho till August or September!

 

[CountryEscape]

You're absolutely right, JW, hibiscus are the latest to start in the spring, I remember seeing that on a tag at the greenhouse. I did't plan to put them in the bog, but since I have quite a few that grew, I may put one or two in a pot in there and see what happens. I put two tropical hibiscus in the bog last summer, they were blooming profusely, and then all of a sudden they died. THEN I realized they were tropical, not hardy. That's when Sissy said she had hardy and sent me seeds. I bought a really pretty deep red hibiscus last summer late, on clearance, and am hoping it comes back. I see that the dogs laid down in that flower bed and chewed on the trunks. I think that they come back new every year, though, right? If that's the case, then no harm done. I have to remind the dogs they are NOT allowed in my flower beds now since things are starting to grow again.

 

[brandonsdad02]

Wow, I guess I have been to this thread in a few months. Lots to catch up on. CE, my water looks just like yours does right now. Just kinda blah, everything is a brownish color, nothing like it was during the summer. I can't wait to get the lily plants back in there spots once I get in the pond when I warms up a bit so I can do some cleaning and rearranging. Getting all new led pond lights so I need to place those, as well as hide all the cords. Glad you caught the pond before it emptied it. Hope your friend is holding strong with her recent loss. I went thru that last easter with my ex father in law dying from a 3 year battle with cancer. He was 54. My son was really close to him, so it was still just like I was part of that family. My wife and I had stopped over there a few times in the months before when we would be on that side of town to see my son who was spending the weekend there.

 

[CountryEscape]

Thanks, Ryan. Yes, it was a huge wake up call for all of the rest of us, and just sad reality to my girlfriend. We can all say, "Wow, I need to be more aware of possible problems with my health" but once a person is gone, there is no more rethinking the issue.
My water in both ponds is very clear now. Has been all winter. If you are referring to the brownish water in the cups with the lotus sprouts, that's from the seeds themselves, that's not my pond water. I can count how many leaves are on the bottom of my ponds, and know where every rock and pebble is, it's really clear. I just looked at old pics, and saw that on March 10 last year (remember, it was really warm in late Feb. and early March last year?) I had really bad issues with string algae. This year, not as warm, but no string algae at all ... yet anyhow. I have some green stuff in the stream, but not noticed any coloration of the water, nor stuff growing on the sides like it did last year. Waiting for the temps to warm up again, though, and may be surprised. If I don't get any discoloration of water or string algae, I'm going to be a firm believer in keeping everything up and running all winter long, or at least as much as possible, which is what I did this year. Going to move lines that are above ground to make possible breaks or cracks not hazardous to losing water out of the ponds, then I won't worry about them freezing and breaking and will be able to leave the water running even longer. Still trying to figure out how to keep the Skippy from freezing up, though. Either the lines to that container or the container itself froze often, had to shut off the pump, but once things warmed up in the sun, was able to get them going again. The line pulling part and draining my pond is where the line will be relocated, over all liner area, no more worries about that happening again. Goldfish pond is set up this way, and the stream line will be put IN the stream, instead of on the outside edge as well.

 

[brandonsdad02]

No I was talking about the pics of your pond that you took while filling it from the hose coming apart. That was one of the reasons I went to PVC pipe and not the flex hose. From the pics of your hose, it looks as tho you can glue fittings for that just like PVC pipe.

 

[CountryEscape]

Oh, yes, that did make the water look brown and cloudy, but it never really was, just was so close to the bottom, that you could see the stuff that has accumulated during the winter. I opted not to remove or net any of that out. I figured I needed that to help get my pond cycled this year. Thinking that may have also been a problem with algae last spring, I tried to clear everything too soon. This year, no netting the bottom or doing any cleaning until plants are all up and growing well, and water has warmed up and beneficial bacteria has had a chance to get a good start.
I wondered about gluing the ends to the connector union, but there are ribs on the connector, so not sure how that would work. I may go to PVC, but like the flexible as I'm still in the "move and change" stage. I'll be able to hide the line with rocks going up the edge of the waterfall, so will try that this summer, and go from there. I probably will get my Skippy running again this weekend, but at this point, kinda leery to put that line together again, on the outside of the pond. It's long enough I can move it over, though, but the rest of the line is on the outside edge of the falls, in the dirt, probably still somewhat frozen as its under rocks and has lots of roots from plants growing around it as well. Heck, as cheap as the stuff is, I may leave it where it is, and add a new section up to the Skippy.

 

[brandonsdad02]

Just remember how I made the PVC flexible. I heated it up on my grill til it was like a limp noodle and then placed it where I wanted it to go and it would cool down that way. I'm still in the move stuff around stage too. I asked the wife if I could add another pond. I think the swelling on the side of my head will go down by morning. Lol