What does your pond look like ... Today?

[cas]

I have had a giant blue heron stalking my pond

A heron was on my patio next to my pond yesterday. Gotta have a net, what can you do.

 

[Jeff Kraemer]

Yeah, i know...but still depressing.

 

[addy1]

Addy, a few posts up the picture with of you lilies. How many separate lilies do you have in that area ?

In that picture there are around 6 oil pans with plants in them. I do need to spread them out more. They are just beginning to grow. I go into the pond and clip dead leafs, dead flower buds off routinely. I also add osmocote every spring or fertilizer tabs off and on. With plants that I am not repotting, I wrap the osmocote up in a piece of paper towel. Lift the plant and stick it under the plant. Help keeps those little pellets from floating away.

It all depends on the type of lily the spread of the leafs. Some have a large spread up to 8-10 feet of leaf area. Some only cover 4-5 feet. As they grow more than one tuber the plant with send up more leafs since each tuber will have its own group of leafs.

Some of my plants will grow out of the pot by summers end, others will just barely get to the edge of the pot.
The lily picture above, by itself was a one inch tuber two winters ago, it just now has three small tubers growing in the pot.

This was 2.5 weeks ago

right now

 

[JBtheExplorer]

right now
View attachment 81762

Wow! Look at all those pads! Mine are starting to shoot up faster now. I had a handful two weeks ago and now have over 20 on the surface. The ducks have started showing up less so they haven't been damaging the pads anymore. The pond felt naked without any lily pads, looking better now, and even better in a couple more weeks.

I can't stop taking Iris pictures...

and @Mmathis thought I'd give you a Globeflower update. Still doing good in the bog, and I noticed a bud on it yesterday.

and a video of the pond taken over the past two weeks.

 

[michey1st]

Our under-construction lower pond already has some new residents. All that is in there is the liner, water, a few newly repotted lilies and a couple of floaters. Guess they aren't all that picky...

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Guess they aren't all that picky...

Nope, not picky at all. As long as there's water for the eggs, they're good to go. They'll even lay eggs in puddles, which can turn out bad for the tadpoles.

 

[tbendl]

A few shots from this morning.

 

[michey1st]

Nope, not picky at all. As long as there's water for the eggs, they're good to go. They'll even lay eggs in puddles, which can turn out bad for the tadpoles.

I'm keeping my eyes out for eggs -- when/if I see them, I plan on moving them to our old preform that currently has a bunch of tree frog taddies. There's tons of algae for them to nibble on there. I'm worried that since everything is "new" in this pond, they may starve >.<f Or get stepped on as we rock things in.

 

[tbendl]

Trust me, when they lay eggs you'll see them. I freaked when I came home from spring break this past month to thousands of eggs.... Lol

 

[sissy]

After the rain storm last night there are lots of little frogs hopping all over around the pond .You have to be real careful .I managed to catch about 30+ of them and took them away to a new home

 

[tbendl]

Oh gosh Sissy, that's a lot! My neighbor remarked he had a lot of frogs this spring in his year. I had to cop to hosting the mother pond. He didn't seem to mind though.

 

[sissy]

There are still lots of taddies in the pond yet .Plus I caught 3 adult frogs .The noise at night is terrible

 

[cas]

I was jealous of everyone's water lilies so I repotted my lilies in pea gravel, fertilized them, which caused an algae bloom for about 2 weeks, but today I can see the bottom of the pond. Ha - I can also see all the pea gravel the Koi moved outside the lily pots onto the pond bottom. I guess my two Koi were busy when I couldn't see them.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

I haven't fertilized mine yet. This would be the week I start but I'm not sure if I will this year. Maybe I'll see how they do without it.
Here's the small Bullfrog on a lily pad. Note the duck bill marks on the other pad.

The larger Bullfrog hanging out by the Cattails.

Another Dianthus shot.

Gaillardia is getting close... I can hardly wait for all of them to bloom.

Blue Arrows Rush.

A Robin in the bog.

 

[rodsboys]

I was jealous of everyone's water lilies so I repotted my lilies in pea gravel, fertilized them, which caused an algae bloom for about 2 weeks, but today I can see the bottom of the pond. Ha - I can also see all the pea gravel the Koi moved outside the lily pots onto the pond bottom. I guess my two Koi were busy when I couldn't see them.
View attachment 81851

I've had that issue the last couple of years so this year I replanted my lilies with larger "river rock" type stones. Fish can't seem to move them around now....lol.