Garden Spam

[summer_jackel]

I am really enjoying my garden right now; it's so lush and green, and really pleasant to spend time in. I added a lot of manure, mulch and topsoil this winter, and it has responded by exploding with green this spring. The fuchsias haven't started to bloom yet, but I'm starting to see the first buds---so here are shots to record my shade garden in high spring, before the summer changes start to happen.





View from the side of the house; the yule tree, a cork bark fir, is apparently happy here, since it has a bunch of new growth on it.





Water garden and Coba.


Cat Buddha's area.


A new gingko tree and the nettles I planted last year. Now that my pups are a bit older, I want to start planting some things on the deck again. I'm thinking that planting nettles will train them to keep their noses out of my garden boxes.


View from the kennel area, facing the chicken coop.


View from the chicken coop, facing the kennel.


Water garden! It is inhabited by five pond comets and two little mosquito fish I liberated from the pond up the hill. They were all hiding from my shadow when I took this picture, though.


My favorite Japanese maple, a neat dark red one.

Comments

[vivadawolf.livejournal.com]

Oh that water garden thing is interesting! Especially with things living in em... how do you get started with those?

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I love the water garden; it's so relaxing to watch the fish, and I've always enjoyed water plants.

I've used a half wine barrel, which are commonly available in garden stores around here. You have to let a new one sit with plants in it for a month or so before adding fish, to give the residual acids in the wood time to break down and the nitrate/nitrite cycle time to get started. The plants oxygenate the water and stabilize its ph for fish, and use fish waste and decomposing plant matter for their needs.

My rooted plants are a curly willow and a floating-hearts (absolutely charming little plant that looks like a tiny water lily). The floating ones are water hyacinth, the worse for wear now for being chewed upon by a bad puppy, and duckweed, which I clear out when it overgrows.

It's better for fish to keep these in partial shade; if it gets too warm, there's not enough oxygen in the water. If the fish start to gulp for air at the surface, you have to add an aquarium bubbler (or small fountain) to oxygenate the water. Right now I don't need to do that; the garden is self-sustaining. I just add water when needed and feed the fish a couple of times a week. There's enough water and the fish are small enough that the nitrate/nitrate balance is stable just from the plants using the fish waste, so I don't need to filter this. Some water gardens, especially if you have koi, require filtration similar to what goldfish in an aquarium would need.

[vivadawolf.livejournal.com]

Do they eat anything else other than what you feed em? What happens when its raining? Or winter?

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

They will eat any bugs, including mosquito larvae, that end up in the water, and may graze any algae that grows (the vascular plants outcompete most of the algae and keep it to reasonable levels as well). They don't get enough just from that, though.

The rain is great; it's a gentle, excellent water replacement and oxygenates the pool. Still, warm water is the danger. Carp are cold-water fish and go torpid/semi-dormant in the winter; they hang out in their hiding places in a sort of limbo and eat much less. They can overwinter in ponds that are iced over, so long as the water doesn't freeze solid, although I don't know the ins and outs of that---it doesn't get that cold here.