The Pond Thread

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

let me know how well the plants are when they arrive! this is a company i've looked at before. i've used Lily Blooms and William Tricker for pond plants in the past but the last time i got plants from Tricker i wasn't impressed. they had small leaches on them.

 

[secuono]

I was going to order from lily blooms, but found out they are part of pond plants direct and both companies don't have good history with customer happiness.

I didn't find http://www.tricker.com/ when looking for websites. Looks like a nice old company. I wonder if they take Paypal...

I get leeches in the bog, but not in the pond. Seems like they feast on the snails, but that doesn't slow the snails down any at all.

 

[thistlebloom]

Maybe your duckies need a keel like a sailboat....something long enough and just heavy enough to add stability...

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

have you ever ordered from http://texaswaterlilies.com/ i found them a couple years ago and have been lurking on their site each year in the hopes i would get my pond in.

 

[secuono]

Plants have shipped! Guessing Saturday or Monday delivery.

Top half of waterfall is here! It's MASSIVE! 200+ pounds, nearly 3 feet tall! Bottom half will come in later, coworker will bring it, it's too huge for our truck!

Also got my Lotus tuber in today!
And yesterday morning, I got 2 king tut papyrus plants.
View attachment 7416

 

[secuono]

Irises are starting to bloom!

 

[Nyboy]

I purchased both yellow and blue water iris off a ebay seller. I couldn't believe how fast and big they where growing. Had to wait following spring for flowers, turned out they where not iris but cattails

 

[secuono]

Plants came in. Not worth the price for how small they are, won't be buying from them again.

Potted the king tuts and moved some other plants onto a ledge.

 

[MoonShadows]

When we moved here 20 years ago, we wanted to put in a pond. Part way back on our property, we have a ravine through which a small spring runs. I got approval from the local conservation center for the dam I designed and how I wanted to re-locate the "wet land" running parallel to the spring. I thought everything was a go until I got about a 2" thick "form" from the State which had to be submitted before I began work. They wanted things like an endangered species study, a 500 yard run-off study, photographs to show I was not submerging historic buildings, and on and on and on. Needless to say, we never got the pond built.

Now that we are redesigning our back yard area (moving some raised gardens, putting on a new deck, fencing the chickens out, adding a greenhouse, etc,), we are thinking of putting in an artificial pond but probably not until next year.

The pond pics in this thread look great, and make me want a pond for our yard even more. Any idea on what electrical costs are? I would think they are up there when you are filtering water and running a waterfall.

 

[secuono]

My pump is actually slightly energy efficient. But I don't have the bills from before the pump started in summer to when it was on full time in summer to compare. I don't think it would be all that much more though. I know there are much more energy efficient pumps on the market now and depending on how you link everything up, you could save some.
I have a 3k pond with a very powerful pump, rated for, I think, 8-10k ponds. But I knew that I would eventually be upgrading to a larger pond and didn't want to buy another pump. One I have was $350 or a little more, and to me, for just moving water, that's a lot of $!
I'm not even using the UV light this year. Algae is cleaning up all on it's own. I'm giving thanks to the bog for that!