More Pond Progress

 

Digging is in full swing for our new koi pond! It' supposed to be rainy and wet for the next week, so my husband worked really hard over the weekend to get as much done as he could. The basic shape and depth are complete. It's almost time for the liner to go in. Then it will seem like a real pond instead of just a giant hole in the backyard!

 

New Backyard Koi Pond

Finally! The snow has melted and my husband was finally able to get started on his long awaited Spring project. . . a new backyard koi pond. Hopefully the weather will start to be a little more cooperative and he can make steady progress on this big project.

The plan is for a 14 feet by 14 feet koi pond with a liner. He will be building his own filter system for the water, about 3000 gallons!

I'll share photos of our progress.

Weekend in the Garden

We are really enjoying the new koi pond and the water plants in it are thriving. The water lillies continue to bloom every day and the lotus are putting on quite a show!

 

The huge pink lotus buds and blossoms tower above the tall, round, upright leaves.

Each new bloom last for about three days before the petals fall off.

The gorgeous flowers are pink when they first open, then fade to a pale pink, almost white, when the petals are ready to fall.

Once the petals fall off, the center seed pod continues to grow!

I hope to be able to harvest and save the center seed pods, dry them and use them in dried flower arrangements.

Saturday Morning Field Trip

All winter, my husband has been working on his plans to install a koi pond in our backyard patio area. He has measured and calculated gallons of water. He's done a lot of online research, made lists of possible plants to include and sketches of the the pond to be.

Now we already have two small garden ponds full of water lillies and goldfish, but we want a larger, deeper pond just for koi. So for a little inspiration, this morning we took a drive to visit a water garden center - Aquatic Design and Supplies in Monrovia, Indiana.

Some of the beautiful koi in the large display pond.

This is a small, shallow pond with a pretty moss covered waterfall. It's smaller size would make it perfect for most backyards.

It was fun to watch the colorful koi as they followed us as we walked around the edge of the pond.

Such a beautiful variety of colors and patterns. I like the orange guy with the whiskers!

This is the large display pond at the garden center.
You can see the big waterfall at the far side.
 

Another view across the large pond. Such a pretty natural setting with the mature trees in the background and the smaller plantings closer to the pond edge.

This was great inspiration for our upcoming koi pond project in our own backyard!

I'll be sure to share our progress with you here.