Author Topic: 2 years ago today... (Read 2404 times)

LynneNY · « **on:** August 25, 2009, 08:24:21 AM »

My husband finished our pond and filled it with water for the first time!

And here it is yesterday with lots of plants

and fish

and algae

!!!
(through the upstairs bathroom window because that's the only place I can get the entire pond area in the camera frame like this!

What a difference 2 years can make, huh?

kitfoxdrvr · « **Reply #1 on:** August 25, 2009, 08:28:49 AM »

Beautiful. And I see no algae...

Love the angel's trumpet, and miscanthus has to be one of my favorite landscaping plant groups!!! Very well done in a short period of time!!!

Steve

HOWELL · « **Reply #2 on:** August 25, 2009, 08:31:24 AM »

Awesome pond...........Love it...

miguynmkoi · « **Reply #3 on:** August 25, 2009, 10:20:25 AM »

It looked really nice in the just done photo but it really has blossomed into a more beautiful setting! Bet you spend lots of time by the pond enjoying your hard work.

MikeW · « **Reply #4 on:** August 25, 2009, 11:59:56 AM »

Nicely done. It looks like a LOT of hard work has paid off very nicely.

Cheers,

Mike

cricket67 · « **Reply #5 on:** August 25, 2009, 12:32:10 PM »

WOW!!!! thats is pretty....

Jonna · « **Reply #6 on:** August 25, 2009, 02:46:56 PM »

Really stunning! Well done!

Holldoll · « **Reply #7 on:** August 25, 2009, 03:07:32 PM »

Beautiful!

LynneNY · « **Reply #8 on:** August 26, 2009, 06:19:11 AM »

Thanks so much for your kind comments everyone!

It's been fun planting around the pond. The most difficult part is getting plants in the rock hard clay soil that makes up the waterfall hills, but I am slowly getting lots of low growing sedums there, as well as some tri-colored ajuga, and a few other fillers. The back side has creeping junipers which are slowly starting to fill in, this second summer they are there.

Steve - the brugmansia was a tiny cutting from an online gardener friend who lives in Texas. I had to overwinter it indoors last winter, and it got really bad spider mites early spring before I could put it outside, but it has rewarded me splendidly this year! This is the second flush of tons of blooms this summer, and the scent is unbelievable!

As for the miscanthus - I had all 4 plants in other gardens but they just weren't right there - I thought it would add a somewhat tropical look to the pond, and am very happy with the results. Next year I will have to plant the orange cannas in a different spot - it also got huge this year - about 8 feet tall - another plant from another online gardener friend who lives in Texas - YEP they grow things BIG down there!

The variegated grasses are about 6 feet tall as well.

Something keeps eating the marigolds in the pots this year. I do think it's the

woodchucks that we can't get rid of. We have trapped and removed many many MANY babies and mothers, but we cannot get that BIG FAT FATHER!!!

kitfoxdrvr · « **Reply #9 on:** August 26, 2009, 06:34:07 AM »

Lynne:

Are the front two miscanthus 'Cosmopolitan'? I have one neat my pond as well and I LOVE it. I think I have every variety known, but I think that is my fave.

You are right, the canna needs to move a little...

And based on the six foot size of the grasses, that has to be the biggest sedum ('Autumn Joy' or 'Neon' maybe?) I have ever seen!!!

Once again, great job!

Steve

LynneNY · « **Reply #10 on:** August 26, 2009, 06:57:59 AM »

Thanks once again, Steve!

I don't know which variety the variegated miscanthus is, but I googled Cosmopolitan and it does look just like it.

As for the sedum - yep it is Autumn Joy, BUT... I had a very large one on the right side of the pond and a small one on the left side. So, early spring I divided the one on the right and put that piece on the left - BIG mistake.

Now the left is over-run by the 2 next to each other (you can see the 2 diff. colors in the flower heads - the part I moved is a bit behind in blooming than the original piece there), and after the last rain (will it ever stop this summer???) the entire thing is splayed down from the middle on the ground! Very messy looking!

I would attempt to tie them up, but a few weeks ago I did just that with another one in another garden, and got badly stung in my underarm!!! OUCHIE!!! :'(

By the way... the area on the right side where the large clay pot holds a flowering maple plant ( Abutilon), we had an adirondack chair, ottoman, and table in the prettiest shade of blue. But the set was very inexpensive and fell apart quickly - I had bought it at Christmas Tree Shops and they let me return it 2 years later!!! WOW! My husband is finishing up BUILDING a new one - he does such nice work when he finds the time!

Now I have to go out and choose the paint color - think I'll do that today!

kitfoxdrvr · « **Reply #11 on:** August 26, 2009, 07:34:53 AM »

Good, a reason for you to take more pictures. I love pictures! I get ideas every time I see one!

And 'Autumn Joy' is a real magnet for all kinds of nectar lovers, including the stinging kind!!! As large as yours grow, you may want to use those hoop style supports that many use on peonies. I love them, but you have to put them out early so the plant can grow through them, then they just about disappear under the foliage, but no flopping! And no stings, either!!!

Steve

LynneNY · « **Reply #12 on:** August 26, 2009, 07:52:39 AM »

It's funny, Steve! I was in the process of trying to put one of those peony rings around the other Sedum Joy (yes I waited too late to do that!), but it only went 1/2 way around - that's how large my sedum are getting these days. I then got some heavy duty plant wire and was attaching it to the ring to complete the circle when I got stung.

These plants are just getting too big, even for the rings, and I MUST divide them next year when they first sprout early spring. Then the problem will be where to put the pieces - I'm all out of room in my current gardens, and my husband developed 2 herniated disks in his back this summer, so he can't help me dig out new gardens in this county we call ROCKland!!! I can't even get a shovel 2 inches down into this hard clay and rocky soil - SHEESH!

I, too, get wonderful ideas from everyone's pictures, and love to see the creativity and talent that people share online! It's so inspiring, isn't it?

kitfoxdrvr · « **Reply #13 on:** August 26, 2009, 08:05:24 AM »

Inspiring it is!!!

Lynn, we all run out of room. And it gets like zucchini, when you got it, nobody else wants it!!! I will never get used to dividing and putting all these plants in the compost pile that just a few years prior I had paid really good money for and then they quadrupled in size. Running out of room is a good thing, though-we never get enough rest as long as there is more to be done, do we???

Steve

LynneNY · « **Reply #14 on:** August 26, 2009, 08:42:50 AM »

So very true, Steve!

But really... gardening is my salvation! I have always said that my plants are my children who do not talk back!!! One can nurture them, talk to them, and feed them, and they will reward you time and time again.

I suppose some children are like that also - mine like to give me a run for my money if you know what I mean?!?

LynneNY · « **Reply #15 on:** August 26, 2009, 10:27:40 AM »

Here is a shot of the waterfall hill to the right of the waterfall.
The sedums, ajuga, etc are filling in nicely this year I think.

And this is around the bend from that area - on the right side of the hill.
The 3 yuccas are babies from a very large tuber of a mamma plant that I had to move last summer. Mamma did not survive, but I have a few babies in assorted gardens in the yard.

Some curly rush in the front of the pond. Does anyone know how I overwinter it?
Do I submerse the pot into the pond, or leave it on the shelf exposed to the elements here?

Kat · « **Reply #16 on:** August 26, 2009, 03:01:43 PM »

What a BEAUTIFUL pond.

Wish I had one similiar to it

landey1230 · « **Reply #17 on:** August 26, 2009, 08:43:01 PM »

Everything is placed perfectly. Wonderful job.

LynneNY · « **Reply #18 on:** August 27, 2009, 06:54:47 AM »

Thanks so much, everyone!

So does anyone know the answer to my question about the curly rush? Should I put the pot in the bottom of the pond for winter, or leave it on the shelf where it is? The top of the pond will freeze solid during winter.

Also, what about the lizard's tail (which hasn't had a bloom yet)?

I am bringing the dwarf papayrus inside for winter, and the elephant ear bulbs get stored inside as well. The parrots feather will have to be replaced next year, as well as the water hyacinths.

kitfoxdrvr · « **Reply #19 on:** August 27, 2009, 07:54:54 AM »

Lynne:

The curly rush should come inside with the papyrus, I have not been able to overwinter it even here in Zone 7 NC. The Lizard's Tail is native to your area all the way up into Canada, so if you just drop it to about 6" below the surface, even if it freezes, it should be OK. In fact, it will come back bigger and better next spring. I swear that stuff grows underground over the winter!!!

Steve

marla · « **Reply #20 on:** August 28, 2009, 06:17:45 PM »

Lynn your pond looks fantastic, your husband did a GREAT job, as for algae I don't see it and even if I did it's a pond. Things have filled in nice in the last 2 years nice paridise you have. I'm in Wisconsin (zone 4) and my curly rush has been in the pond since day one 6 yrs ago. It gets solid ice where it is and does fine.....this is the plant the fish love to spawn in in the spring. My parrots feather stays in the pond also as does the lizards tail some years they are slow to come back but they live. The papyrus yes should come in, I have a hardy papyrus grass that does wonderful, does not have quite the same look but works.

jw · « **Reply #21 on:** August 28, 2009, 11:31:00 PM »

That's really a nice job Lynne and everything is placed just in the right spot and growing beautifully