another hard decision

[marla]

Well today was a day for decisions,  I ended up killing 2 living things, one the little koi, and the other the maple near the lily pond.  We have been disscussing it all summer, as this year the little maple we transplanted form the woods, grew enough to fill out and shade the lily pond to much, and thus some of the lilies did not do as well.  So the question was when to cut it down, because we knew it would grow way to big and shade the whole pond and then there was the question of the roots because it was so close to the pond. Also DH kept reminding me of all the leaves and in the spring the whirlybird seed pods.  So it was decided to take it down now.  Another sad decision, it had grown into a nice looking tree, but one that had to be made.  Right now it looks sooooo bare without it.  I have a Black Lace plant you can see near the urn that looks like a Japanesse Maple, it will get to be 6' tall so I'm thinking I will either transplant that there or buy another, or maybe a Japanesse maple that doesn't get to big.  The one I have would need to be split where it forks at the bottom to make it grow straighter like a tree, now it's more like an oddly shaped bush.

[EagleEye]

Hey Marla, sorry about the koi :'(

Glad to hear the maple is gone though.

Your lilies will enjoy the sunshine

Steve

[marla]

I'm sorry about the koi also, but yes more sun and less mess with the tree gone.  And next year if the wood is dry it will keep us warm, Maple burns nice and hot.

[Mikey]

I find myself periodically removing some shrub that either became bigger than expected or the roots became invasive or there was some other problem with it.  Although my intentions were good when originally planted I eventually end up thinking to myself... "well that didn't work out very well did it...."

[Esther]

Sad, such a nice little maple too. I have noticed that when newbies come on and ask for advice on placing and building their new pond that it is never mentioned to beware of how close the pond is placed to living things that drop stuff. Or when they ask about landscaping around the new hole in the ground that holds water, I suggest, DON'T PLANT STUFF that drops stuff like leaves and flower petals into the water.

Now my pond for instance attracts leaves from Indiana. I swear, when it is windy, the leaves blow in from other states. At least it seems that way.

[Mikey]

Now my pond for instance attracts leaves from Indiana. I swear, when it is windy, the leaves blow in from other states. At least it seems that way.

You may not be too far off Esther.  Water is like a magnet, a pond magnet if you will and that is why it attracts leaves.  Depending on the hardness of your water and it’s ph level your pond’s water is highly charged with positive ions.  And as we all know, live plant material is charged with negative ions, however, when a plant dies or in this case when a leaf dies the polarization at the molecular level is immediately reversed and the dead leaf is now charged with positive ions.  Positive ions attract positive ions and thus the dead leaves (positive ions) are attracted like a magnet to the water of your pond (also positive ions).  Pretty simple really……  (big wink here….)

[tenuki]

Your pond and landscaping look absolutely beauthiful

[miguynmkoi]

Mike, that brings to mind the Santa Ana winds we a last week....I'm positive I collected leaves from the creek full of eucalyptus trees.  I should also say I had a few branches from them too!! 

Love your pond Marla.  Sad about the koi and tree though.  Live and learn.  I do that every time I'm in the garden.  I can be heard muttering to myself about wrong plant location and size.

Good attitude about using the cut tree 

[clm]

Sorry about the koi Marla.  Carp pox can be so disfiguring.  I know it must have been a hard descision.  I think losing the maple was a good idea.   Nice tree, wrong place.  I have a black lace elder and a tiger eye sumac where I would have prefered a tree.  A whole lot more managable size/shade and leaf wise. 
We took down our russian olive that was close to the pond last week.  It wasn't so much a shade issue, nice dappled shade really, but those leaves were a problem all season.  I'm not missing that part of it at all, it looks so bare without it though.  I'm going to plant a pine instead.  Nice winter interest and no leaves to worry about. 

Cindy

[Esther]

Mikey is I didn't know you, I almost could believe what you said.   

[bunny56lbc]

I'm sorry about you're koi . Too bad about the tree , but atleast you're pond will be cleaner without
the leaves falling in...

bonnie

[marla]

tenuki, miguynmkoi, thanks for the compliments on the lily pond, this is the newest of the ponds, still some landscaping to do, an always ongoing projet.
Everyone, thanks for your sympathies on the koi, still feel bad, but that is what happens when we become attached to the living things we care for.  If it would have died over the winter under the ice that could have been a worse case for the other fish then possible pox.
Mikey  too funny!!
Glad we got the tree down Sat. because Sun was soooo windy all the leaves would have for sure been in the pond, as it is most of the neighbors tree leaves came over here.
clm, Russian Olives are messy with those little leaves, the MIL had one.  DH cut down a large Maple by the koi pond a few years ago (it had a bad split at the fork and we were counting the days before it would crack to the ground anyway)  We put in 2 14'-16' white spruces, they have now started to grow much better this year, not the same kind of shade but look very nice.
Esther, we knew when we put the pond here there was a potential problem for the future, just was not expecting the tree to take off and fill out so quickly, we also had a dwarf peach tree on the same side of the pond more towards the middle, last year it was so full of peaches(first year to bear fruit) the branches were hanging in the pond, DH was going to transplant it last fall and as he wiggled it to loosen the root ball a bit it snapped at the graf, he was really PO'd as he had been digging for quite some time.  Missed the peaches this year, but still have some canned ones for the winter yet. This is a picture of it after I had picked off about 50% of the peaches

[Julles]

Oh man, I love that!  We had a peach tree when I was growing up, and, boy, I sure can remember how HUGE they got, and JUICY, and sooooo GOOD.  You don't know peaches, until you eat one right off the tree. 

[marla]

Julles, these were dwarf peaches, but oh yes they were sooooo juicey and good, and you could eat a few at a time.  At our pond show last year I allowed whoever wanted one to take them.  It is a shame that the tree broke, I missed them this year.