Hi everybody, sorry to leave you all hanging for so long, but I've been recuperating from all the cuts I received a week ago, while tying up my ornamental grasses!

Not really, but I did manage to get quite a few cuts, doing this and other weekend chores. You see, I remembered to wear protective gloves while tying up the grasses. However, I did not remember to wear long sleeves! So I must stress to the rest of you, if you're planning to tie up your grasses, rather than cutting them back for the winter, make sure you wear proper protection. The fine blades of the grass can wreak havoc on your skin. And while it doesn't sound that bad, imagine 20-30 little paper cuts all up and down your arms!
Anyway, I choose to tie up my grasses rather than cut them back. Either option will not harm the grasses in any way (it's pretty difficult to kill grass). I like the way they look throughout the fall and into the winter. And as I've stated before, in the spring when I do cut them back, I save the cuttings, tie them together, store them in the shed and viola, come fall I have unique decorations for the front of my house.

As pictured here, they are a economical/ecological way to decorate, instead of buying corn husks.

Over this past weekend, I managed to get a few things on my To Do list done. Like cleaning up the leaves on the patio - this has become a regular chore over the last month. It seems like the dynamics of my patio make for a perfect gathering place for leaves ... so every weekend I go out with my handy-dandy Black & Decker leaf machine and suck them up. With three dogs, I get plenty of leaves inside the house as well, and it all goes into the compost pile with grass clippings from the lawn. The combination of green matter and brown matter makes for a good base for next year's compost. (Of course, I'm still hoping for a good yield of compost, after failing miserably the last two seasons.)
And the leaves don't just end up on the patio ... the pond is full of them too. So Saturday it was time to get the net out! I hate getting the net out, it's my last admission of defeat (that the summer's really over), but it had to be done or the fish wouldn't have any room to swim! Anyway, in preparation for covering the pond, the summer pond plants had to be removed as well. So that means the canna and black taro got taken out to die back from the cold nights, and then placed in the basement to hibernate till next year. The net tends to confuse the frogs too.

Black Taro
And since my neighbors have left for their winter home in Florida and covered their pond already, I have more frogs to tend to. So I can't completely cover my pond, or the frogs wouldn't be able to get in or out. It usually takes a couple of days to figure out exactly where they are comfortable jumping in/out, so I can leave that end a little open. Every now and then over the years, I find a frog early in the morning sitting in the middle of the net, confused, cold and in need of rescue!
Still have to plant the dward rhododendrons my previous neighbors left me when they moved a couple months ago ... time's running out. And I still haven't planted my precious Allium bulbs yet. If you still have any perennials, bulbs or shrubs left to plant, get them in the ground ASAP. Especially since last night we actually had frost.
And most important (because I've been forgetting this one too) WATER! This month's lack of rain has not been kind to our plant life. Especially for any new plantings, get out and water! Just because summer flowering season is over, don't forget your plants still need water ... I can't stress this enough. Water early in the day, if possible, since the temperature has been dipping at night, it's not a good idea to wait until near dusk to water. You wouldn't want to be out there at night all wet ...

What a beautiful weekend it was! Just perfect for working in the garden. However, that's not what I did. Even though I should have gotten up to my elbows in dirt, I decided to sit back by the pond with a couple books and magazines and enjoy the last days of summer.
Yes, aside from mowing the lawn, I ignored all the little chores waiting for me, and just enjoyed the sounds of the waterfall, the warmth of the sun and nature, in general.
And now I'm going to have to pay for it.

This morning started out OK, until I let the dogs out and saw that the waterfall (which looked fine all weekend) was now weakly trickling into the pond. Guess I should have cleaned the filter over the weekend. Of course, I barely leave myself enough time in the morning to get ready and get out the door on time for work, so there was absolutely no time to deal with this!

So I plugged in the bubbler, unplugged the waterfall pump and figured the fish would just have to fend for themselves until later. Yet another thing for my "to do" list. All summer long I was going to get around to buying a piece of pond liner to put underneath the waterfall to catch any backflow of water that might develop if the pump and/or filter got too clogged. Of course, I never got around to it. And every time this happens, I think, why do I keep putting this off?
My latest excuse is, "Well, it's coming to the end of the season and I'll be turning off the waterfall soon, so why bother this year. Let it go until next spring and deal with it then."
I also didn't get around to any fall decorating or planting. But I did manage to get some new bulbs last night. We trekked out to Lowe's before dinner yesterday for some household items and I was pleasantly surprised to find a great selection of bulbs just inside the main entrance.

As you may know, I've been eager to get some Allium bulbs and they had two kinds on hand. I opted for two Gladiator Alliums, at a price of $6.97 each! But hey, they get four feet tall and have 7-inch globe blooms. Then there was a smaller variety where 8 bulbs were offered for the same price. These only get to be about 2-ft. tall with smaller globes. Now, of course, I have to decide where to put them!
Oh well, I guess I have my work cut out for me tonight. And on top of all that, it'll be getting dark right after 7 p.m., so time's limited.
So while we still have a couple hours of light after work, time to think about dividing those perennials. It's the perfect time of year for that. More on this later ...

Well, after spending the weekend knee-deep in the pond, things seem to have gotten back to normal in my underwater kingdom.

All it took was a thorough vacuuming, restructuring of the waterfall, plant rinsing, a multi-gallon water change, adding some new microbes to break down leaves, flushing the hosing from pump to filter and trimming back the waterlillies so I can actually see the fish again.
Sounds like a bit much, huh? Fortunately the weather was warm -- a little too warm on Sunday. August usually wreaks havoc on my pond's eco system, but my being away for two whole weeks was the primary reason for such a sludge build-up. Pond maintenance is usually a lot easier when there's a little done every other day.
Despite all the work, I even had a little leftover time on Sunday to sit by the tinkling waters for some reading and watching the dogs trying to catch the frogs (they never do, the frogs are too fast). So once again, the water is crystal clear, the fish are swimming thru the bubbler with glee and the frogs are sunning themselves on lillypads. Tranquility has been restored in my backyard oasis.

While sitting by the pond, I noticed that the zebra grasses are tufting, a sure sign that fall's around the corner. My zebra grasses are having a great season, most of them are over seven feet tall (without the tufts). The tufts are the closest thing to blooming the grass does. Feather-like fronds protrude from the tall blades standing usually at least a foot taller than the grass. It's a beautiful sight, further signalling the end of my favorite season.
My Ravena grasses have been tufting since about mid-August. Their fronds are different from the zebra's. Long, strong stems emerge from the soft grass and stand anywhere from 3 to 8 feet above the blades, with feathery puffs at the top. My Ravenas are easily over 10-ft. tall this season as you can see here with the lighthouse in the foreground for comparison.

It's a sharp contrast to the fountain grass, which has much softer cattail-like tufts that hover atop the mounds of grass. Now's a good time to buy some grasses for your garden. Many varieties are available at your local nurseries and a lot of them are discounted this late in the season. There's plenty of time to get them in the ground and established before the weather turns cold!

Soon it'll be time to get out those grass trimmings from last spring, which will adorn the front of my house for autumn decoration. I can't bring myself to do it yet, that's the final nail in the coffin of summer and I'm just not ready. Especially with the weather still so nice.Enjoy!
Next up: Fall garden planning

Yes, I finally did it ... those of you who have been reading this blog know that I've been psyching myself up to install a new waterfall on my pond for about 2 months now. Well, I can finally say it's complete.

The waterfall ... I feel as if this should be accompanied by music, scary, horror music, something that might suggest --- Stephen King's The Waterfall! It will frighten you beyond belief!

I guess I can say now that it wasn't that bad ... although the wounds are still fresh. I should start from the beginning.

Yesterday started out with lots of promise (heck, any day I don't have to get up and go to work already has a huge "thumbs up" from me), my dad came up early and we prepared to start the waterfall project. (pictured here is the old waterfall, looking pretty pathetic)


First off, we had to get some new 1-inch piping to go from the pump to the waterfall. We started at Lowe's, but they were all out. So we went off to March Lumber in Limerick, where we've bought supplies before. Along the way on Ridge Pike we came across the new Towne & Country store and my dad remembered a friend telling him that they carried at lot of pond equipment. So we decided to stop there. And I'm glad we did.

They have a large pond set up that's worth the trip. They also had an ample supply of pond plants and equipment. They used to have lots of fish too, but fish-buying season is dwindling and so is their supply. If you're in the area, stop by and check it out!

We got our piping (cheaper than Lowe's by the way) and we were off, fooling ourselves by thinking that dismantling the old waterfall would be the "hardest part" of the job.

While dad read the instructions on the new waterfall, I dismantled the old one ... in about 10 minutes. I couldn't wait to get rid of it and the Bioforce filter that was causing me so much trouble (by trouble I mean having to clean it every other day).

After a little digging, we were ready for the new falls. Leveling a project like this is always fun. Lots of yelling, good thing my neighbors on both sides were throwing parties to drown out the sound, and misunderstood signals from both of us kept the tension mounting. To fully understand this, you have to picture me balancing on a small hillside, facing downward with the waterfalls between my legs, and my father leaning over the retaining wall of the patio trying to guide me into the right spot -- without damaging any of the established plants! I can only imagine what the fish were thinking ...

Next, my sister arrived for some help. "We need sand to level this thing right," my father bellowed. So Kathy was off to Ace to get a bag of sand. "That's it, I need a break!" I screamed and stormed off into the house (air-conditioned, thank God).

Kathy returned (too soon) with the sand, and we were back in business. We got the thing leveled and plugged in the pump to see our beautiful "wall of water." Only we got a trickling back-flow that started pumping all the water out of the pond. @#!!%&* that's not supposed to happen!!!!

So we tried tilting the falls forward -- same result. Great! I waited this long and now it didn't work. Let me back this up 2 months ...

When I bought the waterfall kit at a local pond shop, I specifically asked the pond expert if I needed a stronger pump. Mine's 550 gph (gallons per hour) and I wasn't sure if it had enough power for the waterfall. And let me just tell you, at this particular store, getting advice from the pond expert is not easy. He's only there at specific times and whenever I'm there, he's already got people waiting in line to talk to him. It would be easier getting an audience with the Pope!

Anyway, the pond expert assured me that it would be fine. In fact, the store had a 900 gph pump on sale for $76 (about half price) and I could've purchased it that day ... but the pond expert said, "no, that pump's too big for your pond." (True story)

Well, after many more attempts (including lots of yelling) to get the waterfall to work properly, the only thing I could think of was that we needed more pump power. So off to Lowe's we went ... armed with my $10 coupon for purchases over $50 ... and when we got to the pond area, we found another couple who were having similar problems. We talked it out together and both decided to get the max-flow 1000 gph Tetra waterfall pump. And it was only $74.95 regular price -- way to go Lowe's.

By the time we got home we had already decided that if this didn't work, we'd be taking the whole waterfall kit back to the pond store and telling them where they could put it.

We hooked up the pump, that was half the size of the Titan 550 we had (and supposed to be almost twice as powerful), plugged it in and .... the clouds parted, the sun came out, there was a slight rainbow and ... IT WORKED!!

The wall of water poured out into the pond and it was like heaven. We were all smiles, hugging and congratulating each other, and saying our "thank yous" and "we couldn't have done it without yous" and all the yelling was forgiven. We were a family again and sat sipping iced tea and eating Doritos, toasting our new waterfall!

Oh, and the fish seem to like it too. They swim at the waterfall, like its some kind of jet-propelled exerciser.

We spent the sunset and part of the evening marvelling at our achievement. I added some landscaping and finished planting (I mean it) the few things I had saved for when the waterfall was finished and I think it turned out great. This morning I awoke at 5:30 am and came downstairs and looked outside, hoping everything was all right and the waterfall didn't accidentally pump the pond dry -- it didn't. It was bliss.

And did I mention that per the instructions, the waterfall filter should only need cleaning twice a month ... we'll see.

At least now I can go on vacation this week without saddling my dad with cleaning the old filter daily. Catch you later ...

Sorry, it's been awhile, but when I last blogged, I said I was going away for a couple days. And you know how that goes ... take a few days off and pay for it when you get back. So it's taken my a couple more days to clear the piles off my desks (yes, I said "desks," I wear more than one hat at work).


But work's not the only thing that I needed to catch up on when I got back. Although my family did a great job of watering the gardens while I was gone, things needed to be tended to when I got back ...


Like the pond: It seems that another vacuuming is in order. Unless you experience it yourself, you'll really never know how much waste 30-odd goldfish can make! And there's eggs hanging onto the roots of the floating water hyacinths! Not sure if they're from the fish or the frogs, but I can only hope that the fish are making a smorgasbord out of them!


At least I came home to find a couple of beautiful waterlilly flowers! Aren't these blooms beautiful? And the water Canna are coming up nicely. They'll be blooming in a couple weeks.


Hopefully (and I know I've said this before) this weekend will be the weekend we FINALLY install that new waterfall (weather permitting, of course). It seems that every time I try to schedule this task, it rains or the temp is way too high to be doing it in the hot sun. I'm thinking Sunday might be better since Saturday's going to be a scorcher!!


The "hill" where the waterfall is going is really getting out of hand, since I really haven't done any gardening and/or weeding there. I figured why plant anything new there, it'll just get ripped out doing the waterfall. So it's getting quite overgrown now.


Weeds are invading the stone path and brick patio. This happens every year, yet it always seems to just appear overnight. I'll have to buy some extra vinegar at the store this weekend.


The petunias are in desperate need of dead-heading. And we're fast approaching July, when in my garden the petunias get leggy and the blooms are few. Every year I vow to figure out exactly how all those wave petunias in the professional beds at the malls and businesses, not to mention in the hanging baskets in downtown Pottstown, stay so full and blooming, maybe this'll be the year it works for me!

And if that's not enough, I'm not in the middle of a HUGE computer issue at home ... I can't open any programs. I can already tell that fixing this will take a pretty big chunk out of my weekend.


Well, it's not all bad ... I was happy to come home to a pretty established pepper on one of my plants, and there are also some cherry tomatoes and a couple of early girls on the stems. My cucumbers are coming along great this year. They're really taking to the twine-vine I stapled to the shed for them.


And the daylillies! What can I say about one of my faves? They are a great plant that needs absolutely no care at all! They don't take a lot of water and when they bloom, it's show-stopping! I'll blog more about these fantastic plants next week. But for now ... take a trip to Manatawny Creek Daylilly Farm in scenic Oley.


This weekend will be a perfect time to see most of the daylillies in bloom. The farm is located at 64 Fisher Mill Road, right across the street from Glick's Greenhouses. Or visit their web site www.manatawnycreekfarm.com for more information. Hours are 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday; closed Sunday.


Also next week, I'll be featuring my neighbors fabulous garden ... here's a sneak peak.
Well, it looks like my weekend's all planned, see you Monday.

Way back in March, I told my backyard pond story. If you missed it, you can find it in the archives. Today I'm going to get more into the story of my pond's primary inhabitants -- the fish.

Yes, I know I promo'd this yesterday as "Trouble in the Pond," and I'll get into that later. First a little background ...

We started out with a much smaller pond by buying a kit that included two plants and four fancy goldfish (Red Comets, to be exact). We added four more fish that first year -- fancy Shebunkins. Shebunkins are basically more colorful goldfish. They don't require additional care or specific water conditions like Koi, but they come in color combinations similar to the beautiful Japanese carp. Red, gold, silver, black, spreckled or paint, Shebunkins are every bit as beautiful, just not as expensive.

Anyway, the following year our fish gave us four babies that survived spawning season (the fish tend to eat their young, and since they give birth by the hundreds, this is not a bad thing). But before that, I went and bought four more, never thinking in a million years that they would breed!

So now we're up to 16 fish in a 240-gallon pond. (We upgraded to a bigger pond two years ago, because the fish were getting too big for our original pond.) Our biggest fish is almost a foot long from nose to tail tip (and since, she's so big and white, we call her "Moby"), and the other "original" fish are almost the same.

Well last summer, the fish got really busy in the new pond and as far as we can tell, we have about 30-32 fish now (it's hard to count accurately when they're all swimming around). Don't get me wrong, we totally enjoyed watching the tiny babies last year, especially at night. Our pond has three underwater lights, so at night we can spy on the fish and they don't really see us. When we first discovered them, they were only a few millimeters long. All survived the winter and are about 4-5 inches now.

This is all great, except having too many fish in a small pond is not good for them. We have to clean the filter twice as much (that's twice a week in prime summer months), because naturally, they make more waste. And, over the winter in January, I spotted a tiny white fish that must have been born sometime in December (isn't that against the rules of nature?), followed by the discovery just last month of a tiny black fish (the black ones are really hard to see) that was probably born the same time.

Now on to the Trouble in the Pond -- Just the other day I noticed one of our big white Comets (not Moby) looking particularly huge toward her tail section. I think she's pregnant!!! and it's only April (well, actually it's May as of today). In the past the fish waited at least until June to give birth, which means, this is just the first pregnancy of the season ...

I think I'll be having a fish sale this summer!