Marble Gardens & Fish Ponds

[Marblehead]

Cute.

 

The Daylilies and Lantana are doing great. I saw a butterfly at the Lantana yesterday. Seems a couple of my white Bleeding Heart vines might have died over the winter. If they don't come back soon I will likely replace them with the extra growth of the Creeping Trumpets.

[GrandmasterP]

http://www.buddhamaitreya.co.uk/gallery.html

 

This old Japanese monk has single-handed built a nice garden and carp ponds not too far away from us.

Some clips here you might be interested in MH.

Scroll down for the carp pond clip.

He's a nice guy too.

Edited May 7, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[Marblehead]

Yeah, well, with a garden like that he would have to be a nice guy.

 

I don't have the land or the money for anything close to that but I did the best I could with what I had.

 

The Koi looked very healthy. I didn't see any ribbon winners but he likely doesn't take them out of their water and show them anyhow. I don't either and never have.

Edited May 7, 2014 by Marblehead

[Nungali]

Cute.

 

I think he thinks my cursor is a seal?

[GrandmasterP]

We've lost one creeping trumpet.

It was the runt of the litter and just didn't take to the garden at all.

The rest are doing well.

Much needed rain today after a long dry spell when we've had to water every evening.

The ground has been bone dry.

Edited May 8, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[Marblehead]

I wish I could somehow send you a couple of the runner plants from mine.

 

I already have flower heads (buds) on mine. I will likely see flowers in three- four days.

 

I actually have two different varieties of the same colored flower. One has larger leaves and flowers than the other. Kinda' like twins but not identical.

 

I know the feeling about watering. My soil doesn't hold water so if it doesn't rain I water everything every other day. I generally water in the evening just before dusk so that I lose as little as possible due to evaporation. But even that isn't trouble free because it can cause fungal disease with some plants (especially the purslane and moss ross).

[GrandmasterP]

Sod's law here.

Stopped raining, sun shining and I'm off to work soon.

Grrrrrrrrrr.

 

We don't get much fungal disease here apart from potato and tomato blight, some years worse than others.

Edited May 8, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[Marblehead]

My heat here allows for the fungal growth which normally happens mid-summer.

 

Have a great day!

[CloudHands]

We Want Pictures

[Marblehead]

We Want Pictures

Okay. I already did the Daylilies last year so I won't do those again. But as soon as the Trumpet Vines get a good flower head on them I will do a picture and post it.

[Marblehead]

Here are the first blooms of the year.

 

 

Edited May 12, 2014 by Marblehead

[Marblehead]

Those things have really been blooming well this year. From the time I took the above picture I have had at least a couple flower heads on the plant. Lots of bright orange color!

[zerostao]

i once heard someone say that looking at any garden at the opportune/right moment would remind one of paradise.

[Marblehead]

i once heard someone say that looking at any garden at the opportune/right moment would remind one of paradise.

Yeah, people who get a really good look at my gardens and especially the trellises I built are always amazed that there is a swing in each one, facing each other. When my neighbor's two oldest kids come over to my place one of the thing they have to do before leaving is sit in the swings for a little time.

 

But really, the pond area is more like paradise. It is my sanctuary (when I'm not working on something; and yes, there is work waiting for me to deal with back there).

[Marblehead]

I went out to the gardens this morning and one of the first things I see is a dead, medium sized, black snake. The feral cat that has established my place as a good place to live apparently killed it last night. The black snake isn't poisonous but cats have to do what cats do.

 

Then a little later when sitting down relaxing a hummingbird comes over and partakes of the trumpet flowers. Then it goes to the Lantana but didn't find anything interesting so returned to the trumpets. After a minute or two it flies over to the red Bleed Heart vine and partakes of the flowers for a while. In all it stayed in the area for about five minutes.

[GrandmasterP]

We've some buds on our one surviving trumpet vine.

Should be open soon.

Edited July 19, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[silent thunder]

Yeah, people who get a really good look at my gardens and especially the trellises I built are always amazed that there is a swing in each one, facing each other. When my neighbor's two oldest kids come over to my place one of the thing they have to do before leaving is sit in the swings for a little time.

 

But really, the pond area is more like paradise. It is my sanctuary (when I'm not working on something; and yes, there is work waiting for me to deal with back there).

that is going to be one of their coolest sense memories of being a kid when they get older.

 

what an awesome gift that is...

[Marblehead]

My Christmas Cactus are beginning to flower. Violet was the first to open followed by a red. I will have to do some transplanting of them next year when new growth starts.

[Nungali]

Hey! My big black fish is gone ! Someone snaffled him

And he was the hardest one to find being black, the others stood out so much more.

I suspect the goanna or a black snake, some of the surrounding fernery seems a bit trampled

[Marblehead]

Hey! My big black fish is gone ! Someone snaffled him

 

And he was the hardest one to find being black, the others stood out so much more.

 

I suspect the goanna or a black snake, some of the surrounding fernery seems a bit trampled

I'll bet those two mongooses got him after they finished having sex.

[Nungali]

I also found the large water snail dead (well gone and the shell empty) , when I examined the shell it had a small jagged long hole in its centre and side , looks like something chewed or punctured its way through and ate the snail ? (Obviously smaller than mongoose teeth). Its outside - the snails are big and healthy in the inside tanks. Invaded by some roaming feral underwater shell puncturing predator ? ? ?

[Marblehead]

No idea about the snails. I tried keeping large snap-door snails in the ponds but the cold winters here killed them all off after a few years.

 

I can't think of anything that would be able to eat through the shell and eat the snail from the inside.

 

I do have a small water snail in my ponds that do well during the winters and occasionally a goldfish or koi will eat one. But they just smash the whole shell.

 

 

 

To the gardens: I did get some snapdragons transplanted yesterday. It will take a couple days before I know how successful the move was. Pansies are doing great - beautiful colors, and the violas are doing pretty well although growing and flowering a little slow this year for whatever the reason.

[Marblehead]

The snapdragon transplanting went well.  None flowering yet though.  Pansies are doing well and the violas have exceeded my most optimistic expectations.  They have gone crazy this year and even invaded five other garden areas.  I didn't have to buy a single plant for fill-in this year.  Apparently they had a good propogating last year.

 

I have been trying to get good iris flowers for the past five or so years.  So far I have gotten only one or two flowers before the plants start dieing back from the hot weather.  This year it looks like there is potential for maybe half a dozen flowers if all goes well.

[Nungali]

I have a new citizen in pond town

 

 

 

 

He looks pretty much like this one - but skinnier .  I was a bit worried at first as he wasnt eating,  but now he is happily snapping up worms and little crickets and things. He seems a little fatter now .  Yesterday I was in town and I went into the junk shop and a lady had just bought in a big glass bowl and they were putting a $5 price tag on it. - snaffle ! ( I cant keep him with the other fish. 

 

So today I will be making a new axolotl  apartment.  I will get some stones out of the river (they are supposed to be kept on stones because apparently they will eat anything smaller than their head, even  pebbles   )  a water-logged wood feature  , some water plants, some type of  house / cave  and a supply of little mosquito  fish  - I'm sure he will glop them down. 

[Marblehead]

Pretty baby.  A very special and unique animal.  I have none of them even though there is one area of the pond complex where a few could live if they didn't get ate up by the frogs.  Yeah, thinking about it, the frogs would likely try to eat them and then die from the poison.  Okay, no salamanders in the ponds.