The Koi Pond turned Green!

Oh my....the fight to keep the new pond clear! Well I can honestly say I am losing this battle, but very intrigued by what I am learning in the process! Let's begin with a little lesson in pond ecology :) To start with your  pond needs two kinds of filtration, the first is mechanical, that would be the removal of large and small solids from the water column, the second and most important in terms of a healthy pond is Bio filtration, which is a set up that allows the nitrification process to take hold and thrive creating a happy and SAFE home for our most beloved koi or goldfish friends...well any fish for that matter really,  from the aquarium in our home to the most vast of lakes in nature...a nitrification process is in use if the body of water is the home of life and is healthy!  The nitrification process is the natural biological cycle of breaking down waste in the water, such as plant debris and fish poo! It begins as soon as you add fish to your pond. The fish will eat and then they will poo ALOT! The waste from the fish quickly will start the rise of ammonia in your pond....Which is toxic to our fish! The Aerobic, nitrifying bacteria called Nitromonas will start the first half of the process of your bio-filter by converting the ammonia to Nitrites, which by the way: "ALSO TOXIC" to our fish :(   Thank goodness for the aerobic, nitrifying bacteria called Nitrobactor which will then gobble the Nitrites up and convert them into Nitrates, which in simplicity is just fertilizer! (talk about this later) Then the whole crazy process continues to repeat itself! WA-LA "the nitrifying process"

When I upgraded to the larger pond, I already had an established filter to aid in the conversion so my process was quite painless...but many Koi have been lost due to an un-informed well meaning fish parent! This process can takes 4-6 weeks to settle in, and testing should be done daily during this process to stay on top of harmful levels... Should harmful levels arise to unsafe conditions, there are products out there to aid in binding ammonia and salting can help reduce stress of fish from high Nitrites in pond, along with water changes and perseverance you can establish a healthy system in your pond. My Bio filters are 2, 55 gallon strapping barrels, each barrel holds approximately 7,000 feet of strapping material with lots of surface area to grow all those little bugs that I so desperately need in my pond! Note that I mentioned "Aerobic" bacteria earlier on! Yes they thrive in oxygenated water, so both of my barrels are fed air also to keep my bugs alive and well and thriving! I also have a bead filter which aids in both bio and mechanical filtration....So then why with such a healthy pond atmosphere would it be green with Algae...You see...the water is healthy, it's just green with free swimming algae, you see my UV light broke when I did the new plumbing, and brilliant me thought I could survive in Florida without one...Ha!...As soon as the water warmed up and the sunlight penetrated that water I had a beautiful Algae bloom......yep...all my fish disappeared into pea soup! I quickly out witted the algae, or so I thought.....remember I said the Nitrates were fertilizer...well the algae is a plant....so how do you kill a plant? Starve it!

Water changes were made and Canna Lilies were added in large tubs to the edge of the pond to consume more Nitrates that the algae....and between the algae and the plants, my levels quickly dropped...starving off the Algae and my water started to clear right up! SWEET! I was so happy to too see my babies once again....even though I believe they enjoy the green water better!  Alas....It was short lived, once the water cleared somewhat, the Nitrates built back up and the sunlight penetrated the  water again, the process started all over again! This pond cycles this way about every 4 weeks now....I give in. I am now in search of replacement parts for my UV light to kill the free swimming algae altogether, I would rather not add any more plants. Plants can help balance the process if plated heavily enough to consume your Nitrates altogether and floaters to shade the water, but in a Koi Pond, the injuries of the "xtras" in the pond to the Koi are just not worth the risk. So I will choose mechanics in this case and buy the UV light.  This is just not the vision I had of my pond.....
I want my gin clear water back I did find it so interesting to watch this process continue to repeat itself though! Life is teaching me new things everyday! Got to love it! Well that's my lesson on getting your pond established and understanding the Nitrifying process in a Pond, because truly the most effective way of having a healthy and clear pond is to understand the process, then work with it, not battle it! Nature is wondrous that way! It has a glorious maker that has engineered all this stuff  "perfectly"

John 1:3. Through him all things were made: without him nothing was made 

that has been made.

.....Enjoy some shots of the garden from a beautiful Summer Evening in Florida! and for goodness sake...sow some seed!   -janine

Hibiscus acetosella

Twilight purple Crape Myrtles

I love the woodland look of wedelia!

   My dumpster dive find : a rescued (upcycled) vintage kitchen chair  

The bird garden

Love the warm patina from the newly mopped with "ironite" patio!

A nice coffee spot in the morning shade, chickens cluckin in the background

Native Canna in beautiful bloom!

The Caladium path....

For the love of a Butterfly

Can you believe that at 12:30 AM tomorrow it will be officially Winter....CRAZY....I mean it reached 80 degrees today...Well here's hoping for a mild winter for 2012! I've been working on my butterfly garden recently....and I got a huge surprise over the weekend! As I tried to identify tiny lil sulfers darting everywhere..I caught from the corner of my eye...a new butterfly, flying erradically around the coral Porterweed .(stachytarpheta mutabilis)..I knew instanty what it was... A Zebra Longwing! 

Wow...the first one to visit this garden in the entire 10 years I've been here....It's not that I don't give them a host plant..I do, but I just haven't had one until this day!!!  Passion vine is the host plant of the Florida state butterfly, the Zebra Longwing. That surprise reminded me of one of my favorite Garden/Christmas memories.....Years ago, in my first garden about this same time of the year...there was going to be a freeze and I noticed some eggs on the new growth of the vine. I broke it off and brought it inside, That's when the genius in me came out....I had a baby at home at that time, so I stuck the sprig in a very well watered Diaper....yep that's right a disposable diaper, cut some small slits water it up....and slipped those sprigs right in...worked like a charm...told ya...genius!!!!! Never even had to water it again!  We moved them into a hamster habitrail and kept them well suplied with food. It was our first experience in watching all stages close up and personal in the comfort of our home. My five year old son, Nick, loved it, we watched everyday as they first hatched, then grew, then each, one by one turned into a Chrysalis and then finally, they all reapeared as beautiful black and yellow butterflies. 

We released them on a moderately chilly night that December, amongst the Christmas lights in the shrubs in front of our kitchen window. My son took each out so carefully and let them go. They stayed around for a little while over the next couple days or so, we would keep count each time we saw “one of our brew”. It was a great experience and a wonderful memory! 

   

    Speaking of Butterflies..this is my advise..... If you want butterflies in your garden, first you must determine the butterflies native to your area and then you must plant their host plants. So many people try to lure them in with flowers, which works temperarily, but to keep them, give them what their babies need...FOOD. 

And never ever use pesticides. If you have a plant or flower that is a bug magnet, get rid of it or move it to another part of the garden where the butterflies do not visit. I find that if I give nature time, it takes care of itself. Just when I think the thrips or aphids are going to get the best of the roses in the garden, the first rains appear or the ladybugs come and keep them in check. My garden is full of pests actually, that is part of the great allure for the kids...they just love the creepy crawlies.  As it turns out, it is very seldom that I have to resort to any sort of pesticide. We do rid ourselves of the ant mounds though, and when the occasional VERY large bannana spider shows up,  I ask my husband kindly to remove it from the garden. How he does it is up to him, as long as it goes. I hand pick the hornworm catpillars that devour my Pentas. Even though they turn into Sphinx moths, they will strip a plant in a single night. The Pentas (pentas lanceolata) are the cream of the crop for my Butterfly gardening, they must be protected though if there is a freeze. I believe if  I was limited to one host plant and one flowering nectar source for butterfly gardening, I could be succesful in Central Florida with just Passion Vine, and lavender Pentas.  

    As I get refocused on my butterfly gardening..I will be researching some new host plants and nectar sources for my area of central Florida...But I will surely include my Pentas...Three of which I have already picked up, along with a new butterfly weed, and some tri-color lantana! (lantata camera).... Yea!...it's already getting exciting and I haven't planted a thing yet! Please stay tuned in...My goal is to lure some more Zebra Longwings in too, now that I know they will come here! ......heck, maybe she laid eggs over the weekend....hmmmm, I may have to dig out a flashlight right now and go check for some cute lil black and white cats out there! Please leave me a comment and share with me what flowers you plant to bring butterflies into your garden...or what suggestions you may have for my Fl zone 9 garden...

   Well in a few hours winter will have arrived....and we are still expecting 80 again tomorrow...but it's okay! This is a great time of the year.....! I wish each and every one of you a most joyous holiday season! God Bless and spread some seed ;).....  Janine

December Bloomers!

Wow! What fabulous weather Florida is bringing us this month! I have spent every free moment I have had out in the yard! Working and daydreaming. So much so, I forced myself to take out the Christmas decorations. But I did, and they are up! Shew...back to the garden! It's such a good time of the year for clean up...I removed a portion of the old pond, to get things simplified for transition...  We spent the weekend digging the barrels in for the filters on the new pond...that's a load off my mind. Now it's just a matter of putting it all together! 

The garden has been loaded with butterflies and skippers this month. They apparently rest underneath the mass thicket of Wedelia that grows crazy along the fence line.... I believe it will become my new area for a Butterfly Garden too. I was looking for an ideal spot...and I guess they know better than me!! 

 I've decided to keep them in containers and place them amongst the Wedelia, so I can pull them during flooding or freezing! Hope I am faithful in keeping them watered! I'll post pictures as soon as I have them placed! It is a wild area just off the barn balcony...I'll call it my Butterfly Balcony..The view here is from the balcony!

The Powder Puff bush (Calliandra haematocephala)  has finally bloomed. It has been a few years since I've seen it:( 

It dies back so early with the frost that some years it never gets a chance to flower at all...One of my daily rituals is to take a stroll through the garden each morning, to find the surprise the garden has left for me each night! That was mine today! Each day you can usually find one...if you look hard enough! 

One of my most favorite of December bloomers is Louis Philippe Rose, Or "Cracker Rose" as it's known in the South! It is very disease resistant and smells sweet and fruity...reminds me of apples! It grows huge....and I keep it pruned twice a year and it still reaches 7' easily! What a great Old garden rose this is for Florida! Everyone should have one!

Some of the other December Bloomers include........

Knock Out Rose/ and an old garden variety in the back

Princess Flower (Tibouchina) 

Milkweed (Asclepias curassavica) 

Blue Daze(Evolvulus glomeratus) 

And a few of the other Old garden Roses

Overall...it has been a great month in the garden! I've already made my plant list for Santa! So many ideas...so little time! Please leave a comment and let me know what surprises you find in your garden in December!  I hope you have a very blessed Christmas.....Janine

A tale of a Passion Vine......

I wrote this many years ago....before blogging was even a thought :) But my sister's first comment on my blog brought the memories flooding back so I thought I'd share! The time period is my first home and garden....I was new at gardening....All I had was a small side yard I gardened in...and it was the love of my life...some of my greatest moments in a garden were there!  So here ya go!

  I’m not sure where my love of gardening began. Possibly from the need to grow something from my childhood that kept me still attached to those memories. Or maybe the desire was always there and that just got me started as an adult. As a child, the only gardening that happened at our home was my father rooting and rerooting different houseplants on the back porch. He must have been way more toleranat than I remember, because I once took cuttings from all his plants and set up my own makeshift nursery in my bedroom. Making a total mess of the carpet. When I was discovered, I thought for sure he’d be furious, but instead he was very supportive, I don’t know but maybe he liked that I was interested in a hobby that he seemed to love so much himself. Than there was the time he planted Sweet potatoes bordering the pool decking, he of course grew them for the attractive vine that flourished here in Central Florida, I on the other hand was totally into the harvest. I dug up each and every tuber I could could get my 9 year old hands on. That led to my first vegatable patch and a small Strawberry plot behind the house. I was all that! Little miss farmer, or at least I thought I was.  I watched those strawberries everyday, so when I saw one half eaten one day, my heart broke. I immediately went into action. That hand painted “Poisinous Berries” sign went up that same day! Little did I know at the time that, a bug had been the perpetrader, and not some little kid from down the street, like I had imagined.  But the real passion that brought all those childhood feelings back, was the desire to grow Butterflies. 

You see my parents had gotten a Purple Passion Vine plant from my Aunt one year. They planted it on the ouside of the screen enclosure to the pool. In one season the entire enclosure would be covered with this incredible vine. I used to pick the purple flowers and float them in the pool. Dozens of them at a time, it was beautiful. The Gulf fritilary butterlies and catepillars were a part of the landscape, and as a child I just took for granted they were always there. Every year as the frost would top kill the vine, we’d pull it down off the screen and then in Spring the magic started all over again. It was about the third year into that my parents realized how invasive this vine could be and soon began the useless effort of erradicating the vine from the premises. I believe that continued for many years. My sister  bought the family home when my parents retired and moved into something smaller. She was determined to remove it once and for all. Thankfully by this time I had a home of my own and was just beginning my first garden on the side yard. I slipped over and dug up a couple of small sproutings, brought them home and placed them on my own fence, knowing very well that one day I may regret this decision, but that desire to have those butterflies back was strong enough to persuade me to go ahead. Though the vine still sprouted at the family home they had managed to keep it enough in check that the butterflies were no longer around.

I was so excited to be planting it, I had visions of masses of vine clambering along the fence. Of course I failed to tell my husband that this perticular vine ran, you know, about every three or four feet a new vine would sprout up all over the yard. You see Dave, likes a manicured yard, nice and neat. Boxwood type of gardening. Formal, you would call it. I on the other hand could see flowers and more flowers everywhere. Because he liked the idea of a vine growing on the fence he didn’t object, I mean how threatening are two little six inch sprigs freshly dug out of the ground. But, that first year my little 

passion vines never became lush and beautiful as I had anticipated. Just weeks into growth, I saw my first Gulf frittilary butterfly zooming around my yard. Now understand that our home is surrounded by undeveloped lots consisting of pines, oaks and a billion palmettos. Yet this lone butterfly was able to find my flowerless sprig of passion vine. She then laid her little eggs and was off. The catepillars kept those sprigs from getting no higher than about a foot tall that hot summer, and not one flower the whole year. By the next spring my own garden had some bones of it’s own, and the season was beautiful. My vines started popping up here and there, from the runners the first years sprigs had sent out. I got my first flower that year, and I’m sure we had several dozens of  frittilary concieved , hatched, and metamorphized right there in that small garden. I had learned the secret to butterfly gardening in Florida. Plant the right host plant and they will come. God made nature a wonder that way. He just sends them where they need to be and gives them all they need.  Now five years later, on any given day, even in the middle of winter (isn’t Florida great that way) there is a fritillary butterfly darting this way and that way in search of flowers, or a place to lay her eggs.