# Pond w/ "El Natural" Elements



## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

Here are some pics of my pond that I've been meaning to put up. I know, it's not exactly an NPT, but the potted plants do use garden soil w/ gravel so I felt there was a little relevance. In any case, hope you enjoy!

About the pond, it's 60 gal w/ a homemade filter. In it there are some small swords, anacharis, vals, water lettuce, water hyacinth, and many other submerged plants whose names are not coming to me due to the fogginess in my brain caused by my hang-over. :drinkers: Oh yes, and there's a water lilly!

The pond sits in our little veggie/herb garden. For those who are interested, the garden flora includes: eggplants, sweet basil, purple basil, creeping thyme, purple string beans, bee balm (potted), a morning-glory like ground cover that's still coming in, chamomille, cayenne peppers, and a spider plant (potted).

Two views of the whole pond (one from above)



















Some pics of the pond itself, you'll see it's completely covered by water lettuce, I've thinned it out quite a bit so the water lilly can get some sun and hopefully flower...




























Here're a couple of pics of the frog that has made his home in the pond. He spends his time in the pond or in the thicket of thyme behind the budha. That's a chamomille flower in the first pic.



















Buddha and the frog's terrestrial home...










That's all for now....

-ricardo


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

flagg said:


> Here are some pics of my pond that I've been meaning to put up. I know, it's not exactly an NPT, but the potted plants do use garden soil w/ gravel so I felt there was a little relevance. In any case, hope you enjoy!
> -ricardo


It's beautiful! Love the statue. 

It's amazing how much you've packed into such a small space.


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## snowy (Jun 6, 2006)

That's a great little pond, nice to see the water hyacinth flowering. If a frog has taken up residence then I think it's safe to say it has been officially blessed by mother nature


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## Minipol (Jul 4, 2006)

wow it looks very nice !


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## Miss Fishy (May 13, 2006)

What an adorable little pond! It fits in perfectly with the surrounding garden. What kind of frog is that? 

By the way, water lilies often don't like water movement, so you might consider moving it away from the jet of water if you want it to flower. 

From Alex.


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

Thanks everyone for your kind comments. Yes, Diana, there's A LOT packed into such a small space (you should see our veggie garden out back, can barely make my way through the string beans and cucumbers!). I wish I had pics of when we first set it up, it looked so barren!

As for the hyacinth flowering, we bought it that way. The flower died w/in a week of the pic and it hasn't flowered since, don't know why....

Alex, thanks for the tip on the lilly, I will def. move it since part of my goal was to have it flower. I'll put it on the other side and surround it w/ the water lettuce to keep the water movement to a minimum. I did a little research on the frog and best I could tell it's a green frog. However, it doesn't appear to have the large external eardrum characteristic of green frogs. Haven't seen the little feller in a while though so I can't confirm or get a new pic.... Hopefully he'll pop his head out soon!

-ricardo

PS If anybody wants any thyme, please let me know, I've harvested way more than I can use!


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

Got some more, better pics and confirmed that it is indeed a northern green frog, female I think.

-ricardo


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

Hello all! I have a question about my water hyacith... You'll see it in the pics below... It's turned yellow and the leaves are starting to brown... any idea what might be causing this? I'm wondering if it's the cold weather that we've recently had or if it's a nutrient deficiency. The plants turn yellow then start to brown, but only the hyacinth. There's cabomba, valisneria, anacharis, hygrophila, water lettuce, and small swords (oh and a lilly) that all appear to be doing just fine (the cabomba in fact has grown like crazy since going outside!) so I'm at a bit of a loss as to the problem w/ the hyacith.

You'll see amongst the plants one of our resident frogs. Two more have moved in for a total of three lovely little froggies. Don't know if there're any tadpoles. I haven't seen any swimming at the surface. There're quite a few guppies though, the goldfish is doing really well as are the mountain cloud minnows.

So anyway, if anybody has any ideas on the hyacinth, lemme know...

thanks!
-ricardo


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Cute frog!

The water hyacinth is one of the fastest-growing plants on the planet, so it would probably show a nutrient deficient before other plants.

For aquariums, fishfood will do fine as the fertilizer. Ponds are different. Pond plant demand for nutrients will be much, much greater.


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## neonfish3 (Feb 12, 2004)

Hi flagg, 
Your pond and surronding areas look great! 
What part of the country are you from? How cold did it get? I have a pond with water hyacinth and it hasn't showed any signs of slowing down yet. In fact it's really starting to bloom like crazy. I bought one plant, now the surface of my 200 gallon pond is completly covered with them.
Do you know if they are cold winter hardy?
If not, what do you plan to do with them (or any other pond plants) in the cold months.


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## czado (May 26, 2005)

Great little garden and pond! Cool frogs too. Do they just hang out in there? Do they wander away from the graden?

edit: Sorry, already answered by flagg in the first post: "Here're a couple of pics of the frog that has made his home in the pond. He spends his time in the pond or in the thicket of thyme behind the budha." Your pond is even better the third and fourth time around


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