The pond

The pond was the real start of the whole thing. My son wanted a natural pond that would attract frogs and dragonfly larvae to it.

First my son researched and we decided on a rigid plastic form since we have 3 dogs and if a dog fell in a pond made with just plastic liner they might rip it. Since one has fallen in it twice, that was a good idea. One weekend my husband and my son dug a hole and put it in the ground. They filled it, and we put some pea gravel in it the next day. First mistake, we didn't clean it enough, it was loaded with sand. We had to take it back out of the ground to completely clean. Of course this meant draining it, Luckily only 125 gallons and we had a pump.

After filling it again, and using well washed gravel, we needed to think of plants. At first my son didn't want a pump, he later learned we needed one in it to keep it clear, and that it didn't disturb the wildlife he hoped to attract.

Our trip to the local water garden store, we came away shocked. Water lilies cost fifty dollars and unless we wanted to spend a few thousand dollars, they weren't really interested in helping us.

The next stop was a local pet store where we found some aquarium plants for a few dollars. We later found some at Lowe's, even a water lily for ten dollars. The best place we found was a mail order place called Tricksters, they have great stuff, good prices and quick shipping. We buy a biological clearing product from them that doesn't harm the snails that hitched a ride into the pond on our first plants.

I surprised Ian one day with three dollars worth of feeder guppies, despite a really cold spell the day after they went into the pond most survived. We now have a breeding population and any mosquito larvae that happens to hatch is history.

After 5 months we are still learning how to mantain it, we have had two episodes of algae but now it seems to be staying clear, the plants are growing like crazy, and we are seeing lots of frogs around it. One day we even saw a huge heron, but it didn't come back since our guppies were not worth eating.

Here are a few pictures of the frogs and eggs in the pond.