Ponds
A backyard pond adds beauty, attracts wildlife and provides a serene spot to watch frogs and birds and to follow the growth of lilies, cattails, and milkweed.
Our small pond has no pump and is eight feet long and five feet wide. The bottom is shelved, with the deepest area only three feet deep. Pots of lilies and horsetails sit on the two-and one-foot shelves.
A small 1.5 foot x 3 ft. bog is on the north end.
No pump is used, yet the pond stays clean and I refill evaporated water with water from the hose (the water treated to remove chlorine and other additives).
From a bare spot…
To a pond that is surrounded by cannas (red blooms), a small willow bush, millet, milkweed, and pots of sweet potato vines.
Winter view
Here is the pond, drained Halloween weekend 2008. We brought in tiny frogs for the winter and put the big frogs in the large pond
The maple tree next to the pond, Oct. 30, 08
June. Looking to the south, you can see the broccoli, cabbage and strawberry garden; beyond that are the raised gardens (with the red tomato tipis) and the larger 60 x 20 garden beyond the trampoline.
Ari’s fresh water clam, Squirt, happily lived in the pond moss along with his/her pal, the clam Clammy.
Tosh and one of the monarch butterflies that metamorphosed in our basement.
Build a Farm Pond
One of the best investments we made was to dig a large farm pond. Here is the “before” sloping, grassy land.
Digging ensues.
Now we have geese, turkeys, white-tailed deer and a host of other wildlife such as opossums, raccoons, frogs, snakes, turtles, ducks, red-winged blackbirds, herons, and a bob cat who occasionally comes to drink.
Henry the Heron searches for frogs.