Ducks in the pond

[jdkline]

Does anyone out there have a pond? There are lots of plants that can be grown in a pond also. But thats another subject. LOL I just wondered if anyone else had a pond and if ducks visit it every year? I have a pond and a couple of ducks come every year and visit. I just love watching them until they start messing up my water lilly. I have pics of them. Im going to try and upload them so you can all see. I just thought I would share with you guys.
Guess I need to resize the picture. LOL
Anyways, you guys should think about the pond plants. I love to watch them grow and bloom. Theres alot of different water plants you can get. And I saw on ebay that they were selling canna lillies as pond plants. I"m going to try that this year also.

[ok_nurse]

I have a small (12x8x3) cement pond with a little waterfall (2ft) over rocks we brought to Oklahoma from my Mom's Michigan beach. I absolutely love it but we drained it this past fall to reseal it and consequently I've lost my lillies and koi. Will try again this spring. It broke my heart to have to drain it but all last summer we had a leak and the water prices and refilling it a foot and a half every other day was too much. The city water guys were out checking the lines to see if there was a leak in their lines in my area and then I got a call to see if we'd recently refilled our pool.
So I get to start over this spring. Its ok though cause I bought a bunch of tropicals last spring that did wonderful at the side of the pond and I had to bring them in for the winter so I'll have some work to do there. Since I hurt myself, I've been trying to change over my flowerbeds to easier care bulbs and selfpollinators so maybe this will be my last spring to be real busy. I'll never give up te pond though. When we moved to Oklahoma in 99 I told my husband I needed to have something other than red clay and sandstone to look at. I love my pond. Its so peaceful and the waterfall makes such a nice sound-soothing. -Donna

[jdkline]

Oh I love my ponds too. I love to sit by them and listen to the water and watch the birds bathe in the channels. We have our first pond, which is 14ft by 4 ft. There's channel that connects that to our middle pond which is 4 ft by 4 ft. Next, theres a channel and a water fall, then another channel that goes into our third pond which is 14 ft by 14 ft and this one is probably 3 ft deep or more in places maybe. They are very peaceful and relaxing. Your right though, even if I cant have my gardens any more I would still have my ponds too. And I love my plants in the pond also. We live in Michigan and have had problems keeping our koi alive in the winter since its so cold. This year we put them in a watering trough in the garage. Our filter froze up and broke but so far they are all still alive. I"m hoping they are going to make it til spring. Lots of luck to you in getting your pond going again this year!!

[ok_nurse]

Sounds absolutely heavenly. I don't think mine could compare with yours but for Oklahoma-I am thrilled to have rocks that aren't brown and fish in my yard. The neighbors thought I was nuts when we dug it and started pouring concrete. We live on a corner lot and poured it right at that corner of our lot. Then I made flowerbeds and put a low black chain on poles around the corner so people wouldn't walk across the corner. Last spring I bought a fan palm and its doing beautifully, even in my foyer! Now we have all kinds of dragonflies, bats in the evening and lizards of all colors and the wild animals from all over come to my front yard when there is a drought. It really is awesome. It brings home to my little rock in a dry barren land. Not to complain because I have learned to grow many flowers here and have hanging baskets and made flowerbeds everywhere. It is alot of work because the dirt is clay and sand mix here and the grass has runners that climb and dig under barriers to invade the beds. Now that I've hurt myself at work, I'm wondering if I will be discouraged this spring. I'm hoping to buy a bunch of bulbs that will thrive and allow me to enjoy my colorful yard for many years to come. I do so love the butterflies and hummingbirds!

[jdkline]

I finally got a pic of the ducks on photobucket. Have a look. They are so awesome!!

http://s257.photobucket.com/albums/h...t=DSCN0744.jpg
Deb

[ok_nurse]

My pond would get muckied up too quickly with ducks so I'm glad they stay at the lake a few miles away. I do love ducks though-especially the ducklings. Soo cute!
We have a corner city lot so we have fewer visitors from the wild. We have had a fox two years ago before he got hit on one of the main roads. We had a road runner that stayed until he ate all the baby rabbits in the neighborhood-then he moved on.
I get every stray dog and cat in the vicinity during drought times-we have the only available water for miles. Even had a dog jump in one summer! I prefer they don't do that because of the damage to my plants. That and the fact that they can't get out because the walls are a cement drop off.
I bet you're anxious to see the life in your pond this spring again. I heard there was another storm up there recently. I'll try to blow some warm weather toward you!
-Donna
ps-photobucket is an interesting site-thanks
pss-you are a very creative and talented person!

[zuzu's petals]

Aww! I love seeing your duckies!

I'm with Donna 'tho - my pond is even smaller than hers -
much too small for ducks,
I hate to think of what just one day's worth of duck doo would do to the water quality.
My few remaining goldfish would probably all go belly up.


Our pond used to be well stocked with some beautiful, mature and rather large koi.
I had become really attached to them, they were very tame and I had named each one.
There were several that would even swim into my hands and allow me to lift them from the water.
I was devastated when they started to go missing,
but as closely as I tried to watch, I never saw the culprit in action.

It wasn't until all of the larger fish were gone that hubby spotted a big owl one morning.
He (?) was perched up on a Hickory tree limb, overlooking the pond,
apparently disappointed that the easy buffet had run out.
There are just a few common goldies in there now,
and I NEVER give the pond fishies names anymore.
Hubby sez they should all have the same name ........ ....... "Lunch".
Donna ~ we get the occasional pooch taking a dip, too.
Usually Labs, no surprise there.
I hope that you can get your pond and waterfall up and going this season,
I'd love to see pictures,
as you can tell by my story, I know how badly you must feel to have lost your koi.

[jdkline]

We have lost koi too and I hate when that happens. This is the first year we have successfully over wintered our koi. Last year we got a trough heater and put in the pond to help keep the fish alive during winter. The breaker went in the shed during the winter and they all froze. We went through that for the first 2 years. Now this past year we got them out of the pond and put them in a large watering trough out in the garage. I have worried and fretted all winter over them. Running out in the below zero weather to make sure they are not freezing up. So far they are all doing fine. We especially wanted to keep our koi from last year because it was the first year we had a breeding pair of koi and had fry, or koi babies in the pond. Only 5 of them made it though. We brought them in last fall also and put them in a tank in the house. We lost one a couple of weeks ago but still have four left. And they have really grown over the winter. I still have my fingers crossed that our koi and goldfish are going to make it from the watering trough to the pond alive and well. We need to rework some parts of our ponds so its going to be a while before they get back in it.
Deb

[jdkline]

Your pond is so cute!! Yes, Donna we need pictures of yours too. I'll take some pics this summer and put them on photo bucket also. Then you can see ours. We have 3 that are all connected. To give you an idea of how much water has to move in there.........we use a swimming pool pump to pump the water back up to the first pond. It's worked very well for us so far. We had alot of trouble out of the pond pumps. They were so expensive and broke so quickly that we decided they weren't worth it. First, we tried a sump pump but that shuts off after a while. Then we thought of using our old pool pump and its worked fine ever since. That's been 2 years ago. But just in case.......we bought another one at a yard sale last year. If we had to buy a pond pump to move that much water I dont think we could afford it.
Deb

[ok_nurse]

Got in my pond and removed the water that had accumulated and the decaying leaves. What a smell. I did find a couple water lilies that made it-gee I would've never thought it possible-in only about 8 inches of water. We will scrub the walls and seal it tomorrow-again. Hopefully I won't have to keep filling it this summer again to keep the fish and plants alive. The crack is pretty close to the bottom and it was too cool last fall to seal it well. We sealed it once and missed this crack. Then it got cool and we were afraid the concrete would just expand next summer and crack again so we decided to wait till spring to seal it again. The fish just couldn't take all the trauma. We will start again. I should be able to leave the fish in the pond over winter as long as the water level doesn't drop. They need three feet to keep safe.
My cattails are shooting green from the roots. Without water, I'm glad they survived the winter too. That end of the pond had no water at all. I cut the tall grass down that the dragonflies love. It was all brown. My neighbor hates it cause its invasive (Johnson grass they call it) but I keep it controlled and only by my pond in small amounts. Maybe I'll find something else for the dragonflies but this stuff was cheap and it does the trick.
Can't wait to get to go to Petsmart and get some more koi! I love the plecos too. My pond should be crystal clear this year. I can't wait!

[bgchavis]

My hubby wouldn't let me turn my front right side into the pond I want.. well he hasn't let me yet..lol.. still working on that.
I had to dig the ditch out along the front, and we rented a backhoe for me to do the job.
I dug that baby about 6 ft deep, and 7 ft wide.
I dropped it way below the driveway level on the right side. ( It flows right to left.
And I curved and widened out the end of it, next to the woods.
I created a waterfall from the end of the old ditch, that goes into it.
I can now stock that with fish, since it will always have at least 4 ft of water in it....heh heh heh.
The natural water plants I have here, have already started to come in, and I am going to add a few water lillies I saw at Lowes.

I want to put some ducks out there, but I know I will just be feeding the dogs and owls, so I will just spare them the trouble...

We are talking about getting the backhoe again, to do some more stuff here, and if we do, I will build a small duck house on the corner edge there, and dig out around it into the yard. That will create an island with the house in the middle, and I can get some, and they will have a safety area from the food chain here.

I have learned that where the hubby won't go for my ideas, he alsways loves the ending results, if I just do it, so hey... a gal has to do, what a gal has to do...lol.

I have alot of natural lizard tail and cattail here.
There is a large bamboo stand just down the road, on state land, and I am going to move some of that into my swamp side this year. It can go crazy, and screen the swamp view from my yard.

[jdkline]

We were talking about our ponds here this morning......My husband says to me......if we get the money ahead this summer.....I want to rent a back hoe and dig another pond. So, we may get another one this summer too. Have to wait and see what happens. LOL
Deb

[bgchavis]

I think I like playing on the backhoe, as much as I love gardening..lol


I really want to buy a bobcat, so we can do the stuff here whenever we want...but..can't afford it right now.

The backhoe runs us 300.00 a day here... so that is rare to get also.
I'm going to ask a nieghbor farmer, if I can borrow his, and pay for the fuel.
I will also return it full for him, if he agrees.
I am so hoping that will work out!!

[jdkline]

I hope that deal works out for you. That would be an economical way to get it done!! Best of luck!!
Deb

[ok_nurse]

but (DRAT) he won't let me play on a backhoe.