2004-04-15

Small garden pond for habitat

Five years ago I helped put in 2 ponds at the deCleyre Co-op and ever since I've wanted to put one in for my parents. It finally happened! Here's the before photo:

Here's the after photo:

The whole process took a week but really could have been done in 3 days. I kinda like to play in the dirt and listen to the birds so I'm in no rush. I also spend alot of time day dreaming and planning where things will go. The rocks were slowly carried in from the woods and that took a day because I was being really careful with my choices of rocks... no need to harm one part of the ecosystem in the process of enhancing another part. We planted mostly native wildflowers including: Purple Coneflower, Coreopsis, Beebalm, Pickerel (pond plant), and Columbine. We'll be adding a few native grasses up along the house as well as Yellow Coneflower, and Lizards Tail (in the pond with a couple fish too).. I'll post another photo later in the summer after everything has filled in a bit. You can't see if but I've built in a great bog area and a stream to handle the runoff that occurs due to 2 drainage spouts.

All in all it's been a great week. Both of my siblings now want ponds so i'll be busy for awhile! It's really been a long while since I've felt this kind of desire to get my hands dirty which is scary because I've always loved doing it. Glad to be feeling more like my old self.

In the process of working on the ponds and researching native plants for the surrounding area I rediscovered the Missouri Conservationist magazine as well as a couple of their websites which are excellent resources: Grow Native
Landscaping for back yard wildlife.

Oh, and I'll add that I've been spending very little time with the computer and even less online which should explain the drop in posts. For my far away friends used to chatting with me... I miss ya! I'll be around.