Raised Brick Pond: Summer of the Flower

After hearing Sherry’s talk about her pond at the last GWAPA meeting, I decided it was time to post an update about how my raised brick pond is progressing this summer. I’m happy to say that things are going pretty well. I had a few plants come back after being frozen solid through the winter, particularly some Potamogeton and Ludwigia palustris. Neither is incredibly unexpected, however, as they’re both native plants.

After a few seasons, I’ve had to replace the solar pump as the old one just wouldn’t turn anymore. I think detritus got into the motor, but unfortunately, it’s sealed tight, so I can’t get inside to service it. Fortunately, I had a spare, so that’s going right now.

You’ll notice that I have several bricks lined up along the front edge of the pond. This is to keep a certain dog, Bella, from constantly trying to take a drink from the pond water. She’s got a huge bowl of water just up the steps in the house, but she loves the pond water for some reason. I guess it must have a more complex flavor, but nevertheless, I don’t need a sick dog on my hands, so hence, the barrior.

Without the barrier, it looks like this. Notice the large zucchini plant to the left of the pond, which is producing lots of tasty fruit already. I also have a couple cucumber vines growing which I’m trying to train up, over, and along the pond. In back of the pond, you can just start to see the tomato plants, which should eventually form a solid wall of green as a backdrop.

In the pond, this year, I’ve placed every species of plant I have that I don’t know the true scientific name. I have a good friend in GWAPA who does a lot of research into trying to figure out that Limnophila sp. ‘Mini’ is really Limnophila repens, and similar cases, but it’s nearly impossible to do that without seeing the flowers. So, I’m hoping that all of these plants will convert to emersed form and flower, so that I can help him identify these plants.

To accomplish this, I’ve propped up a few pieces of eggcrate on bricks, and set some tubs of substrate just below the water surface. I already have a number of species converting to emersed form, but only my large Crinum americanum has flowered thus far. As for fish, I threw in a few zebra danios to control mosquitos earlier in the season. Big mistake! I’m going to end up pulling out tons of these fish if the number of fry present are any indication. I’ve also put a few Threadfin Rainbowfish out to hopefully breed. Comments welcome!