The pond bed

We finally got our mulch!  And since the mulch is so hot, I really can’t put it out around plants quite yet.  BUT – I can put it out in the bed where I want to kill a lot of grass!!

Now when I say hot, what I mean is literally HOT.  It is steaming.  There is so much microbial activity breaking down all that fresh organic matter that it gets really hot.  To protect the other plants that I really don’t want to kill, I had put down other mulch and there is also a thick buffer layer of cardboard.

The pond is starting to come around.  The water lilies have started blooming.  The water is still pretty green from the algae bloom, but it is getting better.  I would do EVEN better if I would remember to keep it treated.

Water Lily

And filed under lessons learned: don’t forget to turn off the sprinkler… especially if it is falling into the pond.  Chlorine killed off all of our “mosquito fish” and all but three of our gold fish.  I will have to go get more of the mosquito fish.  We can’t be breeding mosquitoes!

We do have to watch the level of the pond though.  Evaporation has been incredible lately!  Luckily we got some rain last night and this morning.  We could use a lot more.  But I still need to keep several buckets of water de-chlorinating to refill the pond with.

We are not quite done with the project.  It will eventually wrap all the way around the chicken coop and meet up with the irises.  That will make mowing SO much easier.. and weed-eating too.  And there should be less ending up in the pond.

The cannas have almost recovered from the tornado and look a little less battered.  Maybe by fall, everything will be pretty again.

More To Be Done