Adding Some Life To Your Garden

We have fish.

A lot of fish.

They live outside, in our pond, but it certainly doesn't mean we love them less than any of the house dwelling pets we've had over the years.


And trust me, there have been many.

Cats, a dog, frogs, hermit crabs, turtles, a hamster and indoor fish.

But let's get back to those outdoor fish, shall we?

You see, our first house was situated in the back corner of a 40x100 lot of land.

Whatever yard we had was mostly in the front of the house and the majority of that was driveway.

Needless to say, our backyard was small.

So when we moved here and found ourselves surrounded by more space - and trust me, that's a relative term, because our yard is still small by most accounts- we wanted to make the most of every inch of acreage.

Being animal, nature and water lovers, a pond with a fountain was on the top of our list very long cottage garden wish list.


Luckily, we found a super easy way to install one while shopping for patio furniture at Kmart, many, many years ago.

It was a pond kit and it was literally a Blue Light Special. Remember those?

Well, let's just say we came home with more than a wicker sofa that day.

My handy husband installed the pond, which was just a large, plastic tub, like this one, and a pump, finished it with some lovely stones and filled it with fifteen cent, pet store feeder fish.

They were so small, but we were new to pond life and koi were expensive.

Turns out they were a pretty good investment.

With proper care and clean pond water those fish grew. And grew. 

A sly and hearty bunch, they hid from predators under plant cover and in deep water. With the help of a DIY pond cover, they also survived harsh northeast winters under mostly frozen water for months at a time.

The ones we have now are probably a good 5 or 6 years old and bigger than my hand.

One of our goldfish in 2021, he's even bigger now.

Unfortunately, our pond isn't really made for a school of friends that large. Or not that many of them anyway.

Natural resources grew thin with that many bodies in the water, including oxygen.

But we couldn't just toss any of them out. We loved them all, which ones would have to go?

And where would we be sending them?


Honestly, it wasn't really a serious concern until an early morning last summer, when we noticed many of the fish gathered at the surface, in one area of open water by the fountain.

Where lots of bubbles were produced.

Clearly, they couldn't breathe in the depths.

And that simply would not do.

We immediately sprang into action, headed off to the store and bought them an aerator pump.

This one says aquarium, but it was recommended to us at the pond store and it's been perfect.
 
It was a quick and easy fix.

We just attached the enclosed hose to the aerating pump, placed it on the bottom of the pond and plugged it in.

Bubbles were everywhere, problem solved.


Within minutes the fish disappeared back to the bottom of the well oxygenated pond, breathing freely again.

Where they have remained, and believe it or not, still growing larger every day.

We might eventually need a bigger pond, but for now all is well.


Happy fish.

Happy us.

Not bad for a 20 year old Blue Light Special.

😉

Do you have a pond?