What's going on in your garden (2018-2022)?

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rascal said:
I would love a pond.

Russ
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It is really relaxing to sit out and watch the fish and listen to water running down the rocks/ quasi waterfall. Hubby actually did all the install and continues the maintenance. We love it.
 
Backbay said:
It is really relaxing to sit out and watch the fish and listen to water running down the rocks/ quasi waterfall. Hubby actually did all the install and continues the maintenance. We love it.
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And that's why I want one, the sound of water trickling down is very soothing. Also growing up one of my Aunty and uncle had one in their back yard. When visiting them I used to sit by the pool just staring at the fish. They were rich and the only people I ever knew that had fish in ponds. My uncle drove a late model V8 then. The only people I ever knew that had one as well. My wife is not even remotely interested in a pond.
Russ
 
We had a pond for a while. It had a waterfall and a fountain. I couldn't have any fish though, as we lived within blocks of the eastern edge of the Everglades and had hawks and other predatory birds, even eagles at certain times of the year, a nesting pair. You even had to be careful with tiny dogs going out to do their business. One time I happened to be looking out the sliding door when a hawk swooped down and snagged a squirrel in our fenced backyard.
 
medtran49 said:
We had a pond for a while. It had a waterfall and a fountain. I couldn't have any fish though, as we lived within blocks of the eastern edge of the Everglades and had hawks and other predatory birds, even eagles at certain times of the year, a nesting pair. You even had to be careful with tiny dogs going out to do their business. One time I happened to be looking out the sliding door when a hawk swooped down and snagged a squirrel in our fenced backyard.
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I woke up one morning to see a Great Blue Heron in our pond and we have had problems with raccoons. When the predators make their presence known, we willput some netting over the pond as it is small and easy to lay across the top. Fortunately, it deters the predators within a couple days.

On the bright side we have also had a pair mallards that have returned every spring for the past three years.. quack! quack!

Funny story, one afternoon my peripheral vision caught the water plants swaying back and forth quite forcibly. I went outside to investigate and all of a sudden this big furry dog head emerges from under the water. The pond is about 7-8 feet deep and our neighbors lab had to decided to take a dip🤣🤣🤣
 
medtran49 said:
One time I happened to be looking out the sliding door when a hawk swooped down and snagged a squirrel in our fenced backyard.
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Years ago, when our dog Kate was much younger and we both worked away from the house, she used to spend the daytime hours out in a large, partially-covered dog run. I used to get a kick out of coming home, pulling into the drive, looking at the dog run, and seeing Kate lying at the front, waiting on me, and perched right over her shoulder, a red hawk, just hanging out, like they were buddies. That went on quite a lot over two years.

Backbay said:
The pond is about 7-8 feet deep and our neighbors lab had to decided to take a dip🤣🤣🤣
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When we lived in Minnesota, our back yard butted up against a proper pond, large enough that you couldn't throw a rock across. We owned up to the pond, but the pond was part of a public green space (walking trails, meadow, woods). It was really nice.

In that pond lived a muskrat. He was something of a neighborhood mascot. He'd even been named by some folks (Mickey), and it was very common to see him swimming around, back and forth, little fat black spot in the water.

After we'd been there for a couple of years, I was out walking the dog off-leash (which was allowed, as she was normally very good with voice commands), and for whatever reason, she'd had enough of that muskrat, because I let her out, and off like a shot she went, into the pond, where Mickey was doing his laps, and in short order, Mickey The Muskrat was no more.

People used to ask me, since my house was on the pond, if I'd seen Mickey lately...:whistling:
 
The pond house was on a lake (actually the hole left in the ground after they dug out the fill to elevate the lots before building). Anyway, come duck egg laying time, the nests would get made around the lake in greenery planted up against backyard fences. Then, when chick hatching time came, the great egrets/white herons and some kind of stork that would show up around that time would stalk the chicks and pick off any stragglers as mama would take them on their daily constitutional.

One of our neighbors used to fish out in the Glades. He'd catch peacock bass and sneak them into the lake before too many houses were built. There were only 6 or 7 other houses when we moved in, with 110 homes eventually being built. Anyway, behind our house and immediate next door neighbor was a shallow shelf. Two of the peacock bass staked that area out as theirs and would lay their eggs on the shelf. Every time we'd walk out there, the male would follow us along, giving us the fishy equivalent of the evil eye, guarding the eggs.

One time, a duck got caught in our courtyard area by our half golden lab, half malamute. Duck got the Mickey the Muskrat treatment.

We had an avocado tree in the back yard and squirrels just loved it. Only thing though is that they'd eat part of an avocado and move on to another, etc. So, we ended up getting a BB gun. It got to where if the sliding door opened, they high tailed it, but we'd still manage to get off a shot or 2. They'd chatter and chatter at us. Probably a good thing we don't speak squirrel.

One day, i went to let the dogs out and said "what the he//?" There was this huge, huge, huge Thanksgiving turkey platter like thing standing up against the inside of the fence. Craig went out to see what it was, a snapping turtle. How it got in the yard we have no clue. The courtyard had concrete walls and a metal gate that was closed, then a 6 foot wooden privacy fence with a closed gate, then the back yard chain link fence (fastened to landscape timbers because of the big dog's propensity to push out the bottom of the fence to go walkabout) with closed gate. Craig picked it up and carried it down to the edge of the lake, where it happily swam off.
 
Oh, i forgot a funny about the pond. DD had left home and took her pug to go live with gram and continue her education, long-term romance ended and she wanted a change. Craig had gotten me a pug puppy since he knew I was going to be upset. She was a sweety, but very clingy, followed every single step I took and I was the only one who could take her out. So, we decided to get another pug puppy. This one was outgoing, mischevious, always happy, etc. Well, the second one liked to go outside and run around the yard, so much so that we often had to chase her down to catch her and bring her in. One time, she was leading daddy on a merry chase, had him running around all over the yard. She then decided to go flying through the fern bushes. Only thing though is she forgot what was on the other side of the ferns - the pond. Craig had to fish a wet and cold pug puppy out of the pond, then she got to have a bath after that, but at least it was warm.
 
The Velvet Curtain said:
The footings for the deck are levelled and cemented in. Hopefully now the weather has improved I can actually get the job finished.
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Can't wait to see it!

We used to get the occasional turtle up from the pond, I'd always collect them with the scoop shovel and walk them back.

Not pond-related, but dog-related, we got Kate in November, and by the following summer, she was starting to feel at home. She would lie out on the back deck, watch the birds, and occasionally get up, stalk one, and chase after it once it flew off.

Field setters are very athletic and very fast in their prime, and she was doing the stalky bit, judged it was a good time to spring, flushed the bird, leapt, snapped her jaws...and clamped right down on the bird, mid-flight (for both of them), then looked at me with a "What the f*** just happened?" expression. She was more surprised than I was!
 
medtran49 said:
We had a pond for a while. It had a waterfall and a fountain. I couldn't have any fish though, as we lived within blocks of the eastern edge of the Everglades and had hawks and other predatory birds, even eagles at certain times of the year, a nesting pair. You even had to be careful with tiny dogs going out to do their business. One time I happened to be looking out the sliding door when a hawk swooped down and snagged a squirrel in our fenced backyard.
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Man that's some backyard action, I'd sit inside all day waiting for something to happen.lol.

Russ
 
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