What does your pond look like ... Today?

[dinm]

My pond has been water lettuce 80% more or less from mid June to now and I'm still leaving it in there so it reproduces until last frost which is close enough. I imagine it definitely helps with nutrients though, especially in summer cause that's when people feed a lot (including me). Water hyacinth definitely doesn't like shade though, that's what I can tell cause it's not spreading that much. I basically scoop out a ton of water lettuce every 2-3 weeks, drop it near some shrubs, interestingly enough in that same period it's more or less gone, I imagine worms and slugs love that nutrient packed water lettuce...

My water lilies on the other hand sort of started waning after their blooms, still have a decent amount of leaves but they are smaller compared to mid July... although mid July is 36-40c daily so not such a great comparison because the plants love that heat.

Still waiting for algae to cover all the liner, I can still make it out, perhaps that'll be this winter.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Frogs

 

[JBtheExplorer]

By my pond last night as the northern lights were beginning to fade out.

 

[j.w]

By my pond last night as the northern lights were beginning to fade out.

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What time was it?

 

[JBtheExplorer]

What time was it?

The intense part hit from 11:53pm - 12:16am central time according to my photos. But I have some photos around 11:30 that show some green along the horizon.

 

[j.w]

The intense part hit from 11:53pm - 12:16am central time according to my photos. But I have some photos around 11:30 that show some green along the horizon.

So am I to understand that it might be hard to see much of it w/the naked eye and better w/a camera or phone? I looked out the window before I went to bed and only saw a little color out there but not sure if it was the Northern Lights or just light from the moon in the clouds?

 

[JBtheExplorer]

I removed the shrub on the left side of my waterfall. The last couple years it had been growing bigger than I wanted it to be, and yellowing more and more - similar to the shrub you can see on the left side in the background.

It's so open here now that it looks weird, but it gives me some time to plan something new for this spot. Purple poppy mallow and partridge pea are the most likely choices. Bumble bees loved this bush, so I've gotta make sure I give them something else they enjoy in its place.

You can see the shurb in this photo from spring. It always looked pretty good that time of year, but from summer through fall it didn't look so good.

 

[Colleen_MI]

@JBtheExplorer, what was the shrub?

 

[hammer]

 

[JBtheExplorer]

@JBtheExplorer, what was the shrub?

It was a Kalm's St. John's Wort. An absolute bumble bee magnet! It didn't like my soil though, and was a bit too big for the area it was in.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

This is probably the first time ever that my pond net was still off on Halloween.

Until about 20 minutes after this photo was taken, because we have crazy wind gusts blowing all the leaves off the trees.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

I've had to rescue so many frogs off my net so far. With these warm temps they keep coming out and not knowing how to get back in.

 

[NiftyFifty]

By my pond last night as the northern lights were beginning to fade out.

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That’s amazing, JB!