A moose story

This showed up in my in box and is too good not to pass on. Looks like pond moose has a fan.

There once was a baby moose named Charlie. He knew nothing about anything except eating twigs, roots, bark, and shoots of woody plants. He will be with his mama until he is about a year old. Charlie loves the water. One day, Charlie got lost and he couldn't find his family. He looked everywhere for them. He could not find the pond where they use to swim and drink.

He was starting to get hungry and thirsty and it was a hot day. How he would love to be able to put his hooves in a nice cool pond!
He had only been walking for a few hours when he came across a wolf! His daddy told him that he should always run when he sees a wolf. But lucky for Charlie, the wolf wasn't hungry for moose that day. The wolf just turned and walked away. It was starting to get dark and Charlie was getting scared he would have to spend the night all by himself.

As this thought was crossing his mind, he heard a low moooo sound coming from over the hill. He got very excited about this and started running. When he got to where he heard the sound, it was only a for real cow. Not his mama! There was a man standing next to the cow and he had a very kind face. Charlie decided it would be ok to get closer. You would have thought the man could read his mind because he showed Charlie his nice cool pond!

Charlie ran and jumped and splashed. He was so happy that he forgot all about being lost. He did see his mama and daddy again and they were so happy that Charlie had found a new place to call home.

 
image from greysquirrel

Starting the New Pond

Starting the new water garden you should start out with just a few small feeder fish, like the hardy and inexpensive feeder goldfish. As you are starting to create the water garden using an under supply of fish is going to be a bit more tricky to clean out and balance your water garden, but you are not going to stress out the fish that cost more and that are a bit more delicate to handle, giving you the edge in stocking your water garden at a later date. The first fish that you put in the water garden should be about ½” long for every foot of water that you have. That means if you have fish that are four inches long, they will need four square foot of water. Do this for all the feeder fish that you are stocking with so you leave additional water space for fish at a later date.

Guppies and minnows are going to work well when you are first working with your water garden, balancing the environment. If you are going to purchase minnows for your water garden, be sure to buy minnows with clear skin, clear eyes, and the minnows that are most active, swimming in the water. If you are building the very large water garden, using the Japanese koi in the pond will give you colorful fish that you can enjoy, and feeder fish that will balance out, cleaning the water garden constantly for your other delicate fish.

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Is it time to feed yet?

It's that time of year again when we start thinking about feeding our koi. It's important not to over feed your fish this time of year.

As the water temperatures get between 40 and 50° you want to feed into once every three or four days. Don't start feeding once a day until you got water temperatures over 50 probably closer to 60 degrees. Come summertime you can feed the heck out of them.

even if they act like the "fish" in the photo - don't overfeed

Placement of a Water Garden

You will find that there are many considerations when you are deciding on where to start a water garden on your property. One of the first things that you will need to decide is where you would most like to have a water garden. Away from the house, away from where the children play, near enough to your other gardens to be considered an extension of your gardens, and then you will have to consider light, the soil combination, and sources of water when you are considering where to place your water garden.

A water garden is best when you design it around or in your other water gardens but within the limitations of nature in your setting.   more of Water Garden Placement

Formal Water Gardens

The formal water garden is a place of reflection, relaxation, and enjoyment. A formal water garden is one that often is used to decorate the landscape more than for picnics. The formal water garden is more of a work of art that is enjoyed from a distance than to be enjoyed in a family atmosphere.

A formal water garden is going to be successful only when it is gauged by size according to your landscape. The larger your landscape, the larger your formal water garden should be in order to look ‘properly’ in place. For smaller areas, your formal water garden should be more in proportion to the smaller size. A large sized water garden in a very small area is going to make your formal water garden seem out of place.

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Concrete and the Water Garden

Creating and detailing your water garden does include a few choices of what types of materials you would like to use. As when building any other type of structure on your land, your choice of materials, what you like to work with the most, and the price of the materials are going to come into play. Concrete can be expensive if you are creating a larger size pond, but in the end you may well like the overall look much more than a preformed pond liner.

Concrete that you use to make your pond is going to be made of a mixture of sand, gravel, water and cement. You may have also run across the term mortar when talking about building with stone and block, but mortar doesn’t have any stones or rocks in the mixture.

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Pond Filters and Construction

Choosing building materials for your pond is often difficult if you are just starting out in learning about ponds and construction but the more you read, the more you will understand your choices, and that you can make the right ones for your environment and the type of pond that you want to build. The type of building materials that you will choose will be one of the most important decisions you can make next to where to place your water garden.

Every type of material that you consider using in constructing your water garden will bring you different advantages and disadvantages. One thing that is most important, if possible, do not think about the cost of the pond you are building, but the long life, and the easy care of the pond that you are building so you enjoy your water garden for as long as possible without the worry of repairs or replacement of portions of the water garden.   

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Tips on Bog Ponds

A bog pond is a ‘tiny’ body of water in your garden or in your landscape that creates a space that will draw wildlife to your area. All animals need water and when you create a bog pond that keeps water available to them in times of drought or even in high heat, you will create a spot that you can enjoy watching the animals come and play.

You most likely already have a place picked out for your bog pond, but to make sure, you should not pick an area that is in full shade because you can have mold and bacteria growing in water that does not get any sunlight at all. You will want at least partial sun during the day to keep molds and bacteria at bay. You also might want to consider keeping our bog pond away from the near tree line because trees right on top of the pond will make a pile of leaves in your water when the fall months come.

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Pricing out a Water Garden

There are many sizes and types of water gardens that you can choose to create in your landscape that it is important that you set a budget and decide exactly how much you are going to spend on your garden before ever digging the hole for the water garden.

Your water garden is going to be a relaxing and an enjoyable addition to your landscape. So if you find that your available budget is not going to cover the size and type of garden that you want most, you should put off your water garden construction until next spring or summer when you really do have all of your budget in line so you can create the water garden that you are going to love for years to come.

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Indoor Water Gardens

You can take a bit of summer indoors and create a water garden area that will help you relax and enjoy your space indoors. There are many types of water gardens that you can enjoy indoors and a few of these include water falls, water gardening in containers, and the use of larger aquariums to create the entire water garden that you want.

There are waterfalls, water rock gardens and so much more where you can use your imagination and enjoy the sounds of water in the home.

One of the most exciting things about water gardening is the continued life that is found in the water garden. Even the continuous flow of water is a constant reminder of life in your own world.

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