The Pond is such a tranquil place,  A refuge from the strife,                               Of all the woes the human race,                    Can dish out in my life.                                The koi and goldfish greet me there, the wind blows through the pines, frogs are croaking everywhere, and I'm glad this place is mine.         A Volkens

My first pond was actually a child's wading pool...but Feb. of 1998, I began excavation on my real pond.  By April, I had the water in and began to add goldfish and plants.

By the end of May, the plants were starting look pretty good. So far there are cattails, Pickerelweed, a couple of lilies and papyrus.  Also at this time I added two koi.

Yellow Lily (unnamed)  My son dug this out of an old cranberry bog while he was fishing, just after I started adding plants.  We didn't know what color it would be at the time.

This is my swamp Hibiscus.  At the same bog where the lily came from, these were growing wild.  I gathered a few seeds and planted them in the boggy part of the water garden. A friend told me that it is called  Texas Star.

Now here are a few pictures of some water lilies.    1999

On the left is a blue tropical lily, the only tropical lily I have... to the right are two pictures of the same Colorado lily, from the Plant Place.

On the left is a white un-named lily... on the right is a Bleeding Heart lily... also from the Plant Place

One of the fun things I had done this year, is to teach my koi and goldfish to eat out of my hand.  I started with a hoop placed on the water. Once they were used to that I put their food in the ring... lastly, I gradually got them used to my hand, until they came up and ate.

I purchased this great arbor at Sam's Club... it is the entrance to my watergarden.

I have 2 ponds now, here are three pictures of them... the first 2 are of the "little" pond, and the third is of the "big" pond.

Of course I had to sneak in a picture of Gollum... and by the way, for all of you LOR fans out there, the koi's names are Aragorn and Arwen.

Here are some links to other Pond sites...

Pond Pals Tour...   http://members.aol.com/marylady/pondpals/pindes.htm Ponder's Places.... http://www.charm.net/~huribeard/ponders.html Mike's links... http://members.aol.com/CMFH001/links.htm The Plant Place...  (and get a cool FREE screensaver) http://www.theplantplace.com/index.htm

Now onto the wildlife habitat page