No more pond

Is anyone else good at tangents? ...those things that take you off the what-should-be path and send you down the what-shouldn’t-be path? My brain is so capable of being switched-on to something with all the intensity of a nuclear blast. Have you ever tried to put a mushroom cloud back in the bottle? Blessedly, I only had to live with this tangent for two months instead of years and years.

You see, maintenance isn’t my strong suit. You knew that, right? Around Christmas the pond went from clear on Sunday to tea-colored on Monday and then black on Tuesday. I could only see the fish if they were a few inches from the surface. Miss Clueless was dumbfounded. That’s the thing about tangents. There’s never a knowledge prerequisite.

So Saturday I was going to fill it in, but then the goldfish were so cute so I tried to save the day. DH suggested the Shop-Vac to suck out the leaves. Then we put some one-inch foam and some quilt-batting in the tank to filter the water, but the vacuum only worked until the tank got full, so it was an on/off, on/off proposition that would likely take the rest of my life. Then I asked DH if the pump could be used to filter somehow. I know you know the answer to that question, but I have zero mechanical abilities. So I hooked up the pump appropriately. (No joking – I had to have him explain it three times. “Hook it up” just was not sufficient.)

The batting was getting blacker and blacker, and by 2AM the fish were visible just below the ledge. I was excited and decided what I needed was a Bio-filter for $62 and the required vinyl tubing for $15 – $20 and a vacuum for $25 if I could find one with more than three stars that half the reviewers on Amazon didn’t hate, but I wasn’t settled on all of that so I didn’t pull the trigger. I did find two books that looked to be the perfect solution to my ignorance of fish and ponds, and I ordered them.

Sunday morning I dashed out to see the clear water and the bottom of the pond. That didn’t happen. Visibility was still terrible even after filtering for 18 hours. I was dejected. I couldn’t get past the thought of killing the fish, so there was no decision on Sunday and no decision on Monday, but Tuesday was different. Different day, different tangent. I made the decision to go buy the bulk potting soil and fill ‘er up. Before I left I turned on the pump, and when I got back an hour later it was almost dry.

It's going to be my Hybrid Tea bed, my cutting bed. Well, la-de-da! Never had one of those before.

I was at Aldi today. They had body-bags (bare-root roses so named because they're stuffed in plastic, and they're kind of a no-no especially in Florida and prone to failure because their root systems are chopped short) for $4.97, so I got 'Heirloom' which I had been eyeing online, and it's soaking in water now. Possibly another tangent but I prefer experiment. Apparently, it gets bigger than I thought and may get some BS, so I'm going to plant it over by the post where the purple clematis is growing. Borrowed leaves are still leaves. I have hopes for the cuttings I got from the bouquets at the Festival of Roses. One is growing new shoots like crazy, and 'Sweet Juliet', 'Bride's Dream', and a couple others are doing well. They won't all fit, but I hope at least three will, and I have pots ready for the ones that don't fit.

Black dirt is indeed possible in Florida. You just have to truck it in. I threw on a bunch of Milorganite so the worms would hurry over, and then when I was cleaning up, I noticed two bags of Black Hen (chicken manure) that had been hanging around so long the plastic bags were disintegrating. So I threw them on. Well, not exactly. The former granules were now congealed into actual wet poo of a very solid consistency and stink-ee! Oh, my goodness! It was like tar, very hard to break up. If this turns out to be a very successful bed, I'll be using this stuff a lot.

Now on to the pretty faces of 'Clotilde Soupert, Climbing'. These blooms were quite large, almost 3 inches across.

Considering these were buds when we had a recent freeze, I'm amazed they're so gorgeous.

And they're fragrant, too.

When my work was done today (it only took four hours), I had the feeling I was back in my comfort zone, the place where I have the most control over what goes on. I’m comfortable with dirt. I know dirt. Dirt is good.

What's new? Water & fish

Yes, there’s water in the pond, and we have ten little goldfish shivering in the bottom of it. When I was researching ponds, I read a comment by someone who recommended getting two dozen feeder fish because he thought it was neat watching them swim in schools and besides the raccoons like to eat your expensive bigger fish. But now I’m worried that these little guys won’t survive the shock of the chilly water (probably less than 70 degrees). Oh, I guess I needed something else to worry about.

Yesterday I finished the digging and shaping.

The ragged edge at about 10 o'clock on the upper ledge is a tree root that I decided to leave - for the benefit of the tree and for me. It happened to be in a reasonable place, too.

This is a typical ME situation. I decided to make the pond deeper than the directions said (18 inches didn't seem deep enough), neglecting to realize that the liner was sized for that depth. Geometry does have consequences. So after I laid DH's cornflower blue (purple) waterproof nylon fabric for underlayment, then laid the liner in place, no matter what I did, it wasn't quite wide enough to make a good edge on the left side. So out came the liner, up came the underlayment, and in went more dirt to raise the bottom. Back went the underlayment, back went the liner, but it didn't make sufficient difference. Didn't want to repeat that routine again, so I scooped the gravel off the purple stuff, pulled out the bricks (which I thought would have made a nice lip), and put the bricks on top of the liner. Sometimes being me is not to my advantage.

And here's the result which didn't make me real happy. I don't like the bricks showing which demands replacing them with something else that will cost money. Yuck! But I'll think about that later. I vacuumed the dirt out and...

Added water!! And the pump and fountain. DH helped with this part. Since the pond was deeper, the pipe on the pump was too short. More jerry-rigging. Thank goodness for 1/2" poly tubing and black electrical tape. Supposed to be 200 gallons. Who knows what mine is with the Sherry-modifications. I do love the fountain.

I have a Sherry-plan (similar to jerry-rigging, I'm afraid) for the stonework around the edge. I have never liked the typical flagstone/boulder configurations on most ponds I've seen. They're never very realistic plus they require tons of money. So I'm working on some ideas with realism at their core. We'll see.

It occurs to me that I should not be showing you these photos, because the project isn't finished and it still looks like c**p. That's the old perfectionist in me, the one who keeps everyone out until the job is done and tries not to let on what a near disaster it was. However, this is a new era of tell-all, show-all, reality programming, er, blogging. You get the blow-by-blow whole story. And my stomach feels queezy.

Perhaps you noticed in the last picture, and you can definitely see in this one the empty spots, portions of the garden devoid of roses. Remember? They moved away to Cyd's house, and planting their replacements is what I should have been doing while I was doing this.

DH still needs to put the wiring in conduit. In the meantime we're hoping Code Enforcement doesn't drop by. That black electrical tape really does come in handy especially since the sprinkler is right there. Can we spell electrocution?

Here are the babies getting acclimated to their new environment late this afternoon.

Positively the worst photo ever seen on any blog, foreign or domestic. Oh, my gosh! They'll be taking my award away. At late dusk focusing was nigh onto impossible for the babies' grand release. But it could not go unrecorded.

'Mrs. B. R. Cant' is really liking the cool weather.

I was very thrilled today to finally see buds on my potted Camellia sasanqua Pink, since sasanquas are already blooming elsewhere. I just googled the name 'Sasanqua Pink' that was on the Walmart tag. Typical! It's their generic name. Hmmm. I might oughta check out Walmart's garden department for more of these beauties. As long as they'll live in pots, they seem to like my garden and it's neutral ground. The only thing is I thought it was white. Did the white one die?

And look what's blooming in the front!! These are the roses I bought at the Rose Festival. On the left (out of the photo) is 'Mister Lincoln' on Fortuniana, then the deep red one has no ID but plenty of fragrance also on Fort, then comes 'Iridescent Pink', and 'Bonica'.

You know I have a pathetic weakness for obnoxiously pink roses with zillions of petals. This rose was also loaded with buds, and I about died getting it to the cashier while my heart was doing back flips. After purchasing her I found out she's a great rose here by a wonderful hybridizer from Tampa (I think) who is a member of our rose society and a Master Rosarian. You did great, Jim!!!

Such fat blooms!!

And as if her face and voluptuous body were not enough, 'Iridescent Pink' is fragrant!!

Well, I'm back to reds hating me. This rose in not this color. It's a very deep red, burgundy really, and the outer petals have a white streak in them after they've aged. So just imagine the wined colored rose that isn't here.

Oh! And this afternoon a hawk swooped down over ‘Mrs. B. R. Cant’, between the two huge oaks and pounced on a snake in the field behind my neighbor's house, then carried him up on her roof! Amazing.

The snake was wiggling and flipping his tail, but the hawk was having none of it.

Please forgive this grainy photo, but he was a good 50 feet away on top of the roof, and my camera (which I love) has a wimpy zoom. See the snake?

I guess the hawk isn't afraid of snakes like I am. No way I'd be up on that roof with a snake wrapped around my foot. Gives me the willies! Hey, Mr. Hawk! Stay away from my goldfish!!

New project: fish pond

I’ve always wanted a fish pond, but I was younger then.

It's right off the back patio. This part was easy. Since I was conserving energy by not pushing the gravel any farther than I had to at this stage, the bricks are just to keep the gravel from falling in. It's a "new" secondhand 200-gallon kit I found on the local forsaledotcom for 40 bucks. Trying to go cheap.

Another view, mess included.

I really like this view.

And then I started digging. Sometime about now (after 3 or 4 barrowfuls) was when I said to myself, "I don't want to do this anymore." Typical.

Roots!!!

Done for the day. The experience was very much like going to the dentist.

I should have been making room for roses or planting some or something else on the existing garden to-do list. Instead, I went off on this tangent. All I can say is, "Sherry, I hope you pull it off, and it's really spectacular...and pretty."

And just for beauty’s sake…

Clematis 'Henryii'

David Austin's 'Bow Bells' (1991)

Griffith Buck's 'Quietness' (2003)

Scipion Cochet's 'Maman Cochet' (1892)

Benjamin R. Cant's 'Mrs. B. R. Cant' (1901)

Jean Desprez's 'Marchesa Boccella' (1842)

Peter Lambert's 'Leonie Lamesch' (1899)

Peter Henderson's 'White Pet' (1879)