This is the pond in March 1998. After a year of El Nino rains, we are delighted to see the Forget-me-nots beginning to bloom as they tumble into the pond. We experimented this year and encouraged a tiny floating water fern (duckweed size) to cover the pond, thus blocking sunlight and hopefully discouraging algae growth. Last year we had a lot of string algae and hope to discourage it! It seemed to work, but the water fern seemed to put a lot of decaying material into the pond and turned the water brown. We eventually decided to skim it out.
By May the floating water fern had just about been all skimmed out, and the Forget-me-nots had finished blooming and I'd pulled them out. The gloomy weather persisted, but that didn't keep the native foxglove from flourishing!
In June several elementary classes visited the pond as part of their studies of water systems and plant life. Click here to see the pond in June and read one of the student's poems written about the pond while she toured here.
By July a little warm weather had arrived, the dragonflies came out at least in small numbers, and while the foxglove was fading, the hydrangea began to bloom. One of the things I LOVE about the pond is how it is constantly changing!
Click here to see a photograph of the pond, taken August 31, 1998
And clicking here will show you a photograph of the pond,
taken in early December when we had a net up to catch the leaves that were falling.
We hope you'll come back later to see more!