Spring is here...or not
Yesterday was absolutely gorgeous, sunny, 70 degrees. Today is cloudy and rainy with thunderstorms and cooler, with a high of 68. Yesterday Wayne built a pergola over the pond. The pond and all of the landscaping around it took a beating this winter. It was unusually cold, with one memorable 10 day stretch of freezing temps at night. The pond has turned an alarming shade of green. The pergola is meant to keep the strongest rays of the sun off of the water. I know we need a stronger filter, and to add some more underwater plants. That will help. At least the koi are still swimming and eating. Not sure about the plecostomus. He (she?) is pretty big, but we can’t see into the water and he tends to hide anyway. What a difference from last summer, when we built the pond. Apparently, we have much to learn.
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| From Backyard Pond |
The plan is to plant some kind of flowering vine at each of the four posts. We haven’t decided what, yet. I love wisteria, but haven’t had much luck with it. It may be too hot here in the summer. We’ll have shade cloth on the top (right now it’s a tarp, so not very pretty), until the vine we choose grows up to cover the roof. Wayne had the brilliant idea to add a swing on one side. The spring plant sale at the USF Botanical Gardens is coming up soon. I’m sure we’ll find stuff to replace the plants that were frozen. We learned that Paphiopedilums need to move into the house when it’s cold. We may have lost 10 or so, but it remains to be seen if they’ll recover. They’re in the “orchid hospital”, which is a corner of the garden where we put stuff we don’t want to look at. Kind of like a garden junk drawer.
Here's how the pond looked last summer.  |
| From Backyard Pond |
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