CanadaquaBetween Pond and Tanks

To Do on the Weekend

We’ll be doing fall clean-up and getting the tropicals out of the pond before they melt. Nights are getting chilly, and the weather is supposed to be nice for outside work. Who knows if there’ll be another opportunity before first frost.

Cut down all the perennials in the pond

… and scooped out most of the floating plants. It’s cold in the mornings and frosty at night. The goldfish only come topside during midday, when the sun warms things up.

Well, we’ve been moving tender plants inside for a few days now

I’ve been uneasy about leaving the tropicals in the pond, but we hadn’t found just the right pots for them yet. Ceramic is too heavy when full of water and can leak; and all the nicest plastic pots have overflow holes. Useless for pond plants.

Last night they got a bit of frost burn, so I did some serious hunting today. I was ready to put them in buckets (which is not my preferred style in the living room, let me tell you), so we wouldn’t lose the plants, a nice Taro and a stunning Papyrus. But today I found a nice collection of over pots in all the right sizes, lightweight and, most importantly, watertight. They’re a very pale green sort of Terrazzo style, straight, no squiddlies or anything like that, and look unobtrusively nice, not plasticky at all. Me likes.

It’s now a bit crowded around the back door, and the pond looks strangely bare.

Hibernation time

Ice dams are forming, and it’s time to shut down the waterfall.