Sunday, November 18, 2012

Garden Goldfish Pond that Gazebo Overlooks

 
 
This is the small Garden pond that our new Gazebo looks down over. These are pond photos from previous years, but since we just brought the goldfish in for the winter and I also recently posted about building the Gazebo I thought I'd include some summer pond views. 
 

 



The garden around the pond is mostly wild flowers, with a section of ornamental grass and some flowering shrubs bordering it. It has admittedly been neglected as of late but is a lovely quiet spot to relax in comparative privacy from the neighbors and occasional road traffic, since it is down over a small bank with the Gazebo and shrubs separating it from the rest of the yard at the end of our road.
 
 

 
It's very pretty with it's colorful rocks and water lily's.
 


 
And we always have at least one resident frog and some salamanders.
 
 
 
Along with the Goldfish we introduce ourselves.
 
 In the occasion that there are no fish in the pond we also get lots of dragonflys, but apparently the fish eat any dragonfly larvae before they can mature...
 Perhaps I should have another small dragon fly pond nearby :-)
 
 
 
But the fish are always fun to watch and make a lovely addition to the pond. They love to play in the waterfall and once they are established you barely have to feed them since they can survive on insect, algae and other plant life in the pond. I train them to come to the top to be fed by splashing my fingers at the surface before distributing the fish food. I've had a couple of fish that would voluntarily swim into and lay in my cupped fingers if I held my hand still just below the surface.
Whether they like the warmth or companionship, I don't know...
 
 
 
These six fish have lived in the pond through two mild winters now, but in colder years they can't survive outside and since this season is supposed to be harsher than last year we decided to keep them in a tank until spring. It looks mighty boring compared to life in the pond, but they seem to enjoy the bubbles and play in them like they do in the pond's waterfall. They also like the stones at the bottom of the tank, which they didn't have in the pond...besides it must be better than freezing in the muck on the pond floor, even if it is over-crowded.
 
One fish is huge compared to the others and since they were all of similar size when we bought them, I assume that a Koi fish must have gotten mixed in with the smaller Gold Fish. But they all seem to get along fine and I will enjoy watching them through the winter months.
 
 



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