Water lilies are coming up.
Tag: water garden
Bath time!
It tickles me to pieces when I see this.
Moving day!
And we are never moving that bench again. This is its forever home.
Yesterday evening, I drained the water garden and moved it back about 2/3 of its former footprint. Then, I reloaded and refilled it.
This afternoon, I moved the amaryllis bulbs that were getting crowded by the butterfly bush to the newly opened spot in front of the water garden. Then, Chuck and I moved the bench from the ring bed to the patio.
The amaryllis will have finished blooming before the monarda get busy in the summertime.
We put sunflower chips in the Squirrel Buster feeder because they make less mess than safflower seeds and they don’t sprout.
I picked up a 20 lb bag at Efland Farm and Garden on Monday. I’m curious to see how long it lasts. Our avian buddies have been having a festival.
Colocasia progression
When I brought my colocasia in for the season, I split off a couple of babies to share with my cousin and my nephew. As they sat by the back door, new growth happened and, because they were in the shade, they grew green. They need light to get black. When there was a stretch of warm days, I put them on the stoop and watched them turn. I thought you’d get a kick out of this.
I brought them in last night because we’re having another temperature drop. This is the final photo.
(I thought I posted this a month ago 🙄)
Evening water garden
I’ve been playing with the water garden a little bit. I moved the corkscrew rush after I took the alocasia out. (It needs to come in Friday before temps drop.) And I adjusted the deer-preventative solar light for giggles.
I really do like sitting on the patio as darkness happens,
Perhaps
This may be why we aren’t seeing tadpoles.
Water Garden!
In January, I had a gardening chat with a woman on Post about using 100 gallon water troughs for raised beds. She said she has one in the middle of her garden that is a water garden with fish in it to help keep down mosquitos. I was immediately entranced and dashed out to buy another trough.
For the record, January is not the time of year to buy water plants. But. Southern States did have a couple of plants loitering in a corner, waiting for Spring. I bought the 2 waterlilies and a corkscrew rush to get started.
Since my colocasia/black elephant ear is a water plant, I decided to use it when it warmed up enough to take it outside. I’ll still have to bring it in to overwinter. But, that’s the only plant I plan that requires special treatment.
The waterlilies are expected to bloom pink and purple. I wanted a third to balance them and found a white one at Soviero’s in late April. Soviero’s had a zebra rush, too. I really wanted the tall, striped rush to go next to the corkscrew.
After looking at how-tos about fish in outdoor containers, I decided I don’t want to have to look after them. Instead, I got a little, solar powered fountain to (hopefully) keep the water moving enough that I don’t breed mosquitos.
I have all the pots at different heights to fulfill individual plant requirements. And I had to change the pot I had the zebra rush in because the plastic one I started with wasn’t heavy enough to keep it situated. The wind could blow it over.
I learned to put sand on top of the dirt to keep the more nutritious soil from floating out into the water. And a large bag of playground sand is the same price as a tiny box of ornamental beach sand. It is not as light in color but is just as effective.
I’m tickled that the waterlilies have 3 types of leaves in addition to 3 colors of flowers. The speckled ones are from the plant that is supposed to bloom white. I think the purples will have a dark purple flower and the solid green leaves will have pink flowers. I have no idea when to expect them to bloom. Or even if they will this year.
The fountain usually sprays taller. But, today is cloudy. Sometimes it drifts to the side and sprays out of the trough. So, we get to add water every once in a while if rain doesn’t help us out. It really is lovely to hear when I’ve taking a break outside.
I broke bad…
…and Chuck enabled me. I got another 100 gallon water trough and this time it’s going to hold water.
As a water garden.
And I found 2 varieties of waterlily (‘Madame Wilfron Gonnere’ and ‘Almost Black’) and a spiral reed at Southern States.
I haven’t finished putting it all together to be lovely. But, they are in the trough with enough water to stay healthy until we decide how to arrange things.
We’re debating adding fish.
I am the Audience 