Garden Head!!!!

[Darlica]

Lucky you I would love to have morning glorys growing like weed!

The plants are horrible expensive here and it's difficult to grow them from seeds with out a greenhouse...

[Opsa]

I hear that tomato seeds can last a very long time. I'll try any seeds, if they're free.

My Mom has a fish pond that's only knee deep. It's about twelve feet long and four feet wide, but in an irregular oval shape. She's had it for forty years. She ususally keeps goldfish and koi in it. They live through the winter by burying into the slime at the bottom. Every once in a while she loses the fish. Sometimes the pond freezes solid. Sometimes a racoon or waterbird gets in and has a feast. One year she fertilized the lawn and heavy rains washed the stuff into the water and killed the fish! That was sad. I don't think she'll do that again.

Rhododendrons don't like west winds, because they tend to dry out their broad leaves in winter. I have mine on the east side of my house and they're fine there. Sometimes I give them a leaf bath when the weather gets very dry in summer.

[Bruder Cuzzen]

 Garden log :15.5.95

I've had four varieties of rhodos , so far only the one from Finland can be left to it's own devices to get through a winter without leaf damage .

I swear i'm not going to shift  that pond any more ( oh my back ) , arranging the rocks that I have is tougher than I'd thought it would be .

I have discovered the beautiful but narsty scarlet lily beetle , tough wee buggers ( pardon the pun ) , I may have a war on my hands .
I'm hesitant in squishing 'em , they being so pretty an' sech .

[Opsa]

If it's them or the lilies, squish the blaggards! Someone has to protect the innocent. Japanese beetles are pretty too, until they defoliate my rosebushes. Grr!

[pieces o nine]

This house has a heated koi pond in the front lawn. Somehow, over the (unusually bad!) winter, the heating coil opted for warming at most, and the filters stopped entirely. As each successive blizzard put unbefreakingleavable drifts across the garage doors and obscured the front porch and door, the koi were not the foremost item of concern -- even if we could have shoveled our way out to them. (The pond may have been one of the things allowed to kind of ... drift towards maintainance problems ... during the last year the previous owner had been trying to sell.)

Spring is finally here (although we're apt to get another blizzard or two yet!) and the fish are still alive and swimming about. All the neighborhood kids stop to check on them every time they pass our house, and I've been methodically assuring parents that, yes, they are still more than welcome to do so with The New People.

Smaller pump/filter is DOA. Larger one works well but the attachments to the decorative water-spewing devices were apparently damaged during the blizzards. The bottom of the main pond has some grody, mossy stuff (partly from kids tossing small sticks and rocks in ?) and the smaller waterfall pond above it is more disturbing yet, so it's temporarily disconnected.

This is something I will enjoy seeing brought back to condition, although it's going to be an expensive, time-consuming, and disgusting process. I'll be reading back info here for tips and may ask for expert help in the process. Will post pics when there is something photogenic to post.

Oh yeah -- it is my understanding that deer come to the yard every night in the fall, drinking from the koi pond. Aside from having to rake up the deer 'manouevers' that might make some nice photos as well!

[Opsa]

Koi are tough! And the grody mossy stuff can be raked out and put on the compost heap to be used on your garden. It smells a bit, though, as most manures will before they have fully ripened. But it's good fertilizer!

[Earthling]

This house has a heated koi pond in the front lawn.
.....
This is something I will enjoy seeing brought back to condition, although it's going to be an expensive, time-consuming, and disgusting process. I'll be reading back info here for tips and may ask for expert help in the process. Will post pics when there is something photogenic to post.

Oh yeah -- it is my understanding that deer come to the yard every night in the fall, drinking from the koi pond. Aside from having to rake up the deer 'manouevers' that might make some nice photos as well!

Hi, Pieces!
Wow, that's so cool to have a pond like that - we have an ideal area to put a water garden/waterfall/stream/pond combination, but no money to do it with . Some day, maybe. I can't wait to see pics of your pond and deer. We've had three moose in our yard since moving here eight years ago, but never managed to get pictures of them - though I see plenty of deer and moose at work. These guys were behind a camp I was inspecting.

And this guy was right beside the office - about fifteen feet from the building.

[pieces o nine]

Hi ET -- good to see you here. Nice pics of the deer! I'll see what I can get when our weather turns again.

[Opsa]

Wow! Great photos. I love the moose. What a handsome fellow.

[Bruder Cuzzen]

He looks like a young-un , I find the young ones to be relatively tame .
Deep in Algonquin Park me and me mateys managed to get close enough to pull their tails , they just ignored us and continued to forage .
They were beautiful healthy looking specimens .

[Earthling]

He looks like a young-un , I find the young ones to be relatively tame .
Deep in Algonquin Park me and me mateys managed to get close enough to pull their tails , they just ignored us and continued to forage .
They were beautiful healthy looking specimens .

We figured he was a second-season adult. Getting close to them is potentially non-lethal if they're not with a calf (unusual for a male, but I've seen it) and it's not in the rutting season, but I'd generally recommend against it regardless. They are mucho plenty lots of big, and can get twelve kinds of nasty if they want to. On the other hand, they literally can't see past their own noses, and they aren't particularly clever. I've been within 50 feet or less of adult moose many times, and I've been nervous every time. They can run WAY faster than a people, especially when the people is me.

[Bruder Cuzzen]

We figured he was a second-season adult. Getting close to them is potentially non-lethal if they're not with a calf (unusual for a male, but I've seen it) and it's not in the rutting season, but I'd generally recommend against it regardless. They are mucho plenty lots of big, and can get twelve kinds of nasty if they want to. On the other hand, they literally can't see past their own noses, and they aren't particularly clever. I've been within 50 feet or less of adult moose many times, and I've been nervous every time. They can run WAY faster than a people, especially when the people is me.

I let the other canoes get between me and them , we came across 3 females and a calf ,  I thought that was unusual , is it ?

[Earthling]

Not too unusual, moose will do the auntie thing on occasion. It is unusual to see the male with the calves, though. if you do come across a cow with a calf, be sure not to get between them, the mother can get very protective no matter your intentions. I think I have a photo in here somewhere of a group, two mothers with two calves - I'll try to remember to dig it up tonight. I have to go to the dump right now though....

[Bruder Cuzzen]

We spotted 7 of the big beasties that trip and  a number of critters .
All the moose were spotted somewhere along the trip to the outfitter's or on the portage to our campgrounds .
We figured they where accustomed to humans , the route we were on was the only way to get into and out off that section of the park .

It took a few hours to paddle the lake and meandering river to reach our campground .
At one portage point were encountered two groups and a mass of canoes , on the beach , landing docks , by the rocks , leaning on logs , packs gear and paddles everywhere .

A large male , no , a huge male was foraging in the water perhaps 30ft ahead of us .
Some were taking photos , meanwhile two more groups had come in , the moose was there a long time , none of us (20+ had piled in ) wanted to be stuck in the river system at nightfall .
So everyone either had snacks or prepared their canoes to push off when Bullwinkle left .
I think he liked it there , he hadn't moved much and I think he got even closer .
The first group were there for almost a very long hour and decided to go for it and all watched as our intrepid heroines passed within meters of the behemoth .

Thus inspired , we all ran the gauntlet , it was a fun trip ,  per usual for me .

[Earthling]

Cool adventure, Bruder, but fairly risky. Don't trust 'em, they don't think like we do. On the other hand, I would probably have done the exact same thing, only more nervously.