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Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Tuesday Garden Party - Where Did They Go?

Last summer we put a pond in our backyard. It's an above-ground pond, and we've really been enjoying it. We planted periwinkle around the rim of the pond, which has helped to keep out any critters. We added fish to the pond - we started with 12 feeder goldfish (a hefty investment of $2.00) and 5 of them lived and grew to be 6 or 7 inches long.  We also added a water lily, and saw our first flower just this week!

The periwinkle has grown up and filled in the spaces just as we had hoped.

And our our water features make the backyard sound very peaceful.


Then, last weekend, we went outside to feed the fish.... and they were gone!  Apparently, something had knocked over a rock in the pond, which dislodged a hose from the pump, which caused the pump to pump the water out of the pond, at least down to a fairly low level.  The fish could have lived in that amount of water, but something took them.

Our top suspects are either this guy...


... or this guy....


... or potentially a rat.  I couldn't put a picture of a rat here.  They've made me too mad this year.  

I suppose it could have been a combination of the above suspects as well.  Either way, all that was left of our fish was a handful of scales and a couple of unidentifiable bones.  Whatever it was, was very thorough.

We took the scales and bones and buried them in with the roses.  No waste here!



And then?  Well, we cleaned up the pond, refilled it, re-positioned the rocks and the pump so this couldn't happen again...


And bought another bag of feeder fish.  We got 20 this time.  20 little tiny goldfish.  Hopefully we'll end up with a half-dozen or so big, beautiful goldfish next summer.



And maybe next summer the circle of life won't have to include our pond.  Just saying.


For more garden adventures, check out An Oregon Cottage for her weekly Garden Party.


What's in YOUR garden this week?


Zentmrs
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3 comments:

  1. Good luck with Goldfish round #2! I like to think that the kingfisher got them..much better than a rat! The pond looks great by the way.

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  2. Oh dear---I'd never have guessed a koi pond would become a wildlife buffet!

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  3. I would love to have a garden pond! Yours looks awesome. Good luck on your fish.

    ~Lynn

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