Images from the Garden












Birds spotted:

• Baltimore Oriole
• Black-capped Chickadee
• Blue Jay
• Crow
• Eastern Bluebird (three chicks counted)
• Grackle
• Mourning dove
• Nuthatch
• Oriole
• Red-headed Woodpecker
• Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Other Wildlife Spotted:

• American Toad
• Chipmunk
• Green Frog
• Grey Squirrel
• Raccoon

Natives in bloom:

• Canadian Anemone
• Columbine
• False Indigo
• Harebell
• Prairie Ninebark
• Rue Anemone
• Swamp Buttercup

Non-natives in Bloom:

• Fuschia
• Tuberous Begonia

Things I should have considered when I originally built the pond:

• How to do it all with one piece of tarp
• Where all pumps, accessories, power cords, and hoses would go, and how they would be rigged and concealed.
• How I planned to hide the pond tarp (on the rebuild, I excavated a submerged shelf for boulders).
• How to better integrate it with the patio/deck/surrounding landscape
• The specific needs of wildlife that might be interested in it (frogs that require oxygen-rich water for hibernation)
• Learned more about fish. Turns out that, given the correct circumstances, you can add a number of fish to your pond, including minnows, guppies, and swordtails.