Our Backyard Pond
Our Backyard Pond
Our pond was built by
Bill "Mr. Pond" Gorgas in October, 2004. This first picture
was taken a couple of months later.
Water flows out of a small upper pool, down a three-tiered fall, through a shallow stream, and into the main pool, which is almost 3 feet deep. The sides are completely vertical to discourage raccoons from wading in. There are many built-in planting pockets in both pools and in the stream area, but when this picture was taken there weren't many plants yet, and no fish. For the first couple of months, the water was a bit murky, as in this first picture. But in January the water quite suddenly cleared up completely, as you can see in the next picture. |
These similar views over the pond to the waterfall were
taken in February and July. You can see that many plants
were in place, including a Water Hawthorn which is blooming
in the foreground, in spite of this being mid-winter.
In February the pond got a bunch of tiny tadpoles collected
from nearby puddles. They grew quite a bit and seemed to
thrive for a time, but unfortunately they all disappeared
before becoming frogs.
We got our three baby koi in April and by July they had grown to about 6 inches. The smaller orange fish, which you probably can't see unless you click on the image to enlarge it, are rosy red fathead minnows. They are sold primarily as feeder fish, but are amusing pond fish if you can get some that aren't diseased. Click here to learn about fathead minnows. |
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Here are closeups of our three baby koi.
Click on the image to see them better and read how
Zac got his name.
Blondie Goldfinner started out yellow all over, but
gradually turned white everywhere except for a spot
on each fin.
Zachary Hoover excels at eating. He grows an inch every month, and dreams that one day he will grow large enough to swallow a blue heron. Click here for more pictures of our fish. |
Our water lily bloomed for the first time the morning
after the summer solstice.
Click here for more pictures of our pond. |
