Recently in pond Category

On July 18-19, Austin Pond Society held its annual Austin Pond Tour, this one being the 2009 version. Our neighbor Jan joined us for visits to many, many beautiful ponds. It was truly inspiring, seeing such creativity and beauty. Some were natural-looking, some were whimsical, some were owner-built, and some were built by a contractor, but all were special, and we really appreciated the owners letting Austinites invade their yards for a day. The owners were welcoming and informative, and we learned a lot about the history of their ponds and their future goals. The pond photos say it all -- my descriptions won't do them justice. The nighttime photos didn't turn out, unfortunately -- but my word for those ponds and properties is WOW.

I didn't get to visit all the ponds -- many on Saturday but only one on Sunday. But of the ones I did see, I thoroughly enjoyed. And we got to spend the day with Jan, whom we adore. She managed to put up with us for a day and then soon dashed out of town for a week (visiting one of her own daughters -- did you think she was fleeing us?!!).

Latest pic! We have plants!

Details at Great Stems and our pond project page.

Progress continues on the pond, slow but most definite progress. The waterfalls are wonderful -- the flow was perfect from the get-go. The Rihas were over for dinner when we first turned it on, so they got to partake in the exciting moment. We still need to mortar rocks around the filter fall area and begin placing the rest of the edge rocks, but we are already getting to enjoy the very pleasing sound of running water down the rocks, splashing into the pond below.

I've begun a separate webpage detailing the steps we've taken on the pond. View the Pond Project here, but know that it is not finished!

The pond is officially underway. Thanks to Craigslist, we found someone who was getting rid of huge rocks from their yard, and another person wanting to get rid of an old hot tub shell (and yes, we hauled it all). We are recycling the shell into a pond for our backyard. We'd love to go even bigger with our pond, but because of the dogs, we need to have a partially raised pond in the hopes that we can keep the dogs out (I said, HOPE). The hot tub shell should be perfect for the job, plus we get to save a major piece of trash from having to go the landfill. 

The butterfly garden has a few more plants. If all goes well, these plants will be huge next year, supplemented as well by spring-blooming plants.

The first removal of an invasive Nandina also happened this weekend. One down, fifty to go! Okay, hopefully not that many. But lots.