I realize that I haven’t posted in about a week, which is quite a long time compared to my normal rotation. We’ve been blessed with wonderful weather outside, and I’ve been afflicted with a drive to take every available second of my time, and spend it working in our garden. Yes, the aquariums have suffered a little bit, so for now, I may as well update you on the garden.

I’ve started putting a few things out in the raised brick pond, with the most prominent being a severely trimmed back onion plant that I got from another GWAPA member. I potted the two stalks in their own pot with some fresh aquasoil, and planted Marsilea quadrafolia and Riccia fluitans around it. Unfortunately, I think the tannins in the aquasoil has stained the water a bit brown for the time being.

Elsewhere in the garden, I’ve prepared a number of beds, transplanting some plants into the soil, while in others, I’ve planted seeds, such as the Okra seeds above.

I’ve setup my usual tripod for pole beans, but this time, am experimenting growing some grape tomatoes underneath the same tripod, which should hopefully act as a nice tomato cage. I also added some everbearing strawberries in the bed around the tripods, which hopefully should be fully established by next spring.

The grape vine has new growth shooting out all over the place, with countless little grape clusters starting to form like the one above. Last year, nearly all of the grapes were enjoyed by birds (or possibly neighborhood kids), so we’ll just have to wait and see how it all pans out this fall.

Also leftover from last year, the collard greens have all gone to flower, sending up 6 foot tall shoots, covered with pretty yellow flowers. The blooms have really added a nice touch of color to the garden while most of the other plants are just starting to get going.

We’ve got a vast array of herbs in the garden, which eventually end up in some wonderfully seasoned, fresh meals throughout the summer. So far, this years’ herbs should include parsley, oregano, rosemary, dill, sage, lemon grass, lemon basil, Thai basil, Italian basil, lavender, marjoram, catnip, spearmint, cilantro, chives, and chamomile.

Finally, I’ve hung up some beautiful baskets of purslane from a great local nursery near us. Hardy, ever-blooming, and drought-resistant, they’re almost the unkillable, beautiful flower. And did I mention that they’re pretty?

Now that most of my garden plants are in the ground, I’m hoping to get back to my aquariums. Aquarium updates coming this week, I promise!

Since the weather is getting warmer, I’ve been working outside in the garden a bit, and part of that includes getting my raised brick pond ready for plants. Last fall, I pulled out most of the plants, drained the pond, and stacked most of the pots, bricks, and trays that I used as aquatic planters inside the pond for the winter. Of course, shortly after doing so, we got some rain, and it wasn’t long before the pond was full again. Instead of fighting mother nature, I just let it be, and as winter came in, the pond turned into one solid block of ice.

So, today when I start pulling out some of the pots, I’m quite surprised to see something green in one of them, all the way at the bottom of the pond. Somehow, Glossostigma elatinoides has managed to overwinter. Forget for a moment, that I don’t even remember putting this plant out in my pond last year, but I guess it was planted as a tag-a-long to some other plant, and managed to establish itself. Being at the dark bottom of the pond, the growth is pretty leggy, but I’m impressed nevertheless. Perhaps I shouldn’t be, however, as Glossostigma cleistanthum is known to inhabit waterways north in New Jersey. All-in-all, I’m going to allow it to continue growing, and allow it to create a nice carpet in this pot.

I promise that this is going to be my last post about Pogostemon yatabeanus flowers for awhile! I previously showed how the flower pod itself grows from the top of the plant. Now, that pod is bursting open with these very feathery, purple flowers. They’re very pretty with multiple plants starting to burst open.

And, the flowers are attracting plenty of nectar-loving insects to the pond. If you hold your nose close to the flower, you can smell a very sweet aroma that’s much like the flowers in your typical grocery store bouquet.  (Sorry, I don’t know which flower it smells like, but it’s familar.) I may try to collect seeds at the end of the season, just for the sake of growing them again indoors in my very small emersed setup.

You may think that lately this has been a flower blog, but I guess it’s just that time of year because today, I noticed several stalks of the Pogostemon yatabeanus have produced flowers. I’ll admit that this is the plant I’ve most anticipated seeing flower because these stems were the first to eagerly shoot above the surface in emersed growth this past spring.

Each P. yatabeanus seems to produce a single flower, coming directly out of the top of the plant. The flower itself looks very much like that of an anubias flower, except that it has purple sections alternating throughout. I suspect that those purple sections will eventually become seeds.

Currently, the flowers are all still mostly hidden by surrounding leaves. I’ll be sure to post new pictures if it grows into anything more than a larger version of what’s in this post.

I’ve been wondering for some time whether my frogbit (Limnobium laevigatum) would flower in the pond, since it’s virtually taken over the entire pond surface, and even has leaves towering above some of the stem plants. This weekend, I was sitting down by the pond, and started thumbing through the thicket of leaves, looking for our resident frogs, and I started noticing quite a few of these pretty little yellowish hairy flowers just above the water’s surface. As I looked closer, I noticed them all throughout the pond.

It appears that the frogbit has been flowering for some time under the cover of it’s own leaves, unbeknownst to me. As you can see, the flower itself extends on a short stalk, directly from each nod. The stalk itself is only about an inch tall, and flower not much bigger. I lifted this particular plant out of the water slightly to be able to get a better picture. I suppose the next step is to see if any seed pods develop. I haven’t seen any yet. Not that this plants needs any seeds; it’s prolific enough of a grower for my liking.

Along with the Ludwigia that’s flowering, my Limnophila aromatica has been flowering for almost a month now outside in my pond. Each stem sends out a number of flower buds at each node. Then, the buds open to reveal these pretty little purple flowers. The flowers themselves are only about 3/4″ long and about 1/3″ from petal to petal, with the tiny little hairs that you can see in the picture. I often see some of the smaller bees visiting these flowers.

While in Peru, the pond foliage has absolutely exploded in quantity. The frog bite has claimed 100% of the water surface, while what I think is Ludwigia brevipes is creeping along the edge of the pond. Much to my delight, it is also flowering with these pretty little yellow flowers.

The flowers themselves seem quite delicate and don’t last more than a day or two, especially with the rain we’ve been having the past couple of days. To give you an idea, these flowers are probably smaller than a U.S. dime in size. I’ve never had a Ludwigia flower underwater, so I’m quite pleased to be able to see it emersed. I hope you enjoy the photos.

As I’ve mentioned this spring, I put frogbite out in my pond to help cover the water’s surface. An interesting thing happens out in the pond, that doesn’t usually happen inside in my aquariums — it gets huge! The roots burrow into the substrate, which when supply all the nutrients it needs to propel the leaves off of the water’s surface, and into the air. Usually, in the aquarium, the leaves have very little stem, and form a tight circular group at each node stretching across the surface. I’ve got stems that 4-5 inches long, standing upright with huge leaves on the end out in the pond.

Also, on the water surface, the underside of the leaves has a bulbous growth near the stem. When out of the water, this seems to disappear somewhat. There are still leaves growing across the surface, but as they age, they appear to extend toward the sky.

This, of course,  doesn’t seem to bother our newest inhabitant shown below, as he uses them for cover. Unlike his larger bullfrog cousin who is commonly seen sitting on the pond’s edge, he is a smaller frog, much like the ones I used to catch and release when I was growing up.

I walked outside this morning to water our garden, and for the first time this year, a frog had come to visit us by our raised brick pond. Last year we had a pair of frogs that stayed with us all summer long, but I think they were a different variety than this guy. We have a fairly large runoff pond, full of cattails and bullfrogs in our neighborhood, but due to this years’ drought, I suspect that this little fellow decided to seek out a different watering hole.

As soon as I saw him, I ran back inside to grab my camera, and I must say that he was a very obliging photo subject. Originally, he was sitting on a fallen purple Torenia flower that was very distracting in my pictures. To my surprise, he allowed me to pull the flower out from under him, without him moving a muscle.

I’ve always been somewhat fascinated with frogs, ever since catching and releasing them from a small stream near my parent’s house growing up. They’re such colorful creatures, with an amazing life cycle. I hope you enjoyed the pictures!

My small brick pond has been progressing quite nicely this summer. I’ve added quite a few plants than I didn’t have last summer including Pogostemon yatabeanus, Riccia fluitans, Pogostemon stellata var. ‘broad-leaf,’ and a few native Polygonum, Ludwigia, and Lysamachia species that I’ve collected locally. Endlers and cherry shrimp are the main occupants of the pond this year again.

I’ve got frogbite growing quite well, with extensive root systems forming below the increasingly large pads on the surface. I’m hoping that they’ll soon transform into large plants resembling water hyacinths. Hydrocotle is growing nicely, both above and below the surface. The most prolific grower so far this year is definitely the Pogostemon yatabeanus, which seems to thrive regardless of fertilization or water current.

The solar pump is still operating, but is opposed by the large mass of plant matter occupying most of the water surface. Nevertheless, while some algae is present, the water is very clear, and by and large, the plants are doing well. Now, I’m just waiting for the sun to induce some of these plants to start flowering. I may start dosing extra phosphate to try and encourage the same thing. No doubt, the Endlers are producing plenty of ammonia to feed the plants.

I’ve only dosed a small amount of PMDD fertilizer roughly once a week, instead topping off the water in the pond a few times each week. The pond seems to have attracted a fair number of wasps and yellow jackets this year, which I haven’t yet been able to explain. Fortunately, none of these bugs have bothered much with me yet. As usual, birds enjoy bathing in the pond, and stealing the occasional Endler. So, for me it’s provided a great center of attraction for me to watch plants grow, birds play, and insects bugger about.