Amazing Fish Tower And Water Garden
This 'Amazing Fish Tower and Water Garden' is an update of a post from last year. Here, you can find the amazingly simple directions for your own fish tower. It still delights me when I see the fish swimming up into the tower! One of the little ones likes to float at the top of the tower. At first I thought he was dead but when I came close he swam away. Could he be sun bathing?
Last fall I removed the tower from the pond, cleaned, and stored it in the house for the winter. We completely cleaned the pond this spring and then I set up the tower again. The winter is too harsh here for leaving it up year round.
Believe it or not, the fish do stay in the pond all winter. I have lost a few but I buy feeder gold fish to replace them. The biggest and oldest one I had was about a foot long! He was aggressive toward the other fish so I banned him to the top pond in solitude. Unfortunately, one morning I was looking out the window over the pond and this huge bird was standing in the pond.
I was struck by how big he was and how close to the house he was! I told Dave to have a look at this huge bird and he said, "He's eating your fish!"
Sudden realization set in! I ran to the door and shooed him away, but it seemed all the fish were devoured. It was a blue heron. After I shooed him away, he came back a few minutes later. I saw him again and ran outside as he flew away.
My son, who was in the backyard at the time, told me the heron was flying away with a frog leg hanging out of his mouth!
A few days later, one little fish came out from hiding. After that, I waited for several weeks before restocking, hoping the heron would forget this little appetizer station.
In this picture, you can see the creeping jenny on the right side, hanging down in the water. Although I have had the water lilies for many years, the creeping jenny was planted a couple of years ago.
When I was looking for a new filter for my pump, I met a man who creates and installs water gardens. He suggested I buy some creeping Jenny and I am so grateful to him. I love the way it looks along the edge of the pond. It softens the edges of the rocks and camouflages the hard black plastic. The creeping jenny floats on top of the water and is a good oxygenator, too.
The other thing this gentleman told me was to scrap the mesh filter on my pond pump. The filters had increased in price, so much for this silly little cylinder! It was at the end of the season and the box store was out of them. I was trying to find an alternative to use as the filter.
He must have seen the frustration on my face and struck up a conversation. He said the filter wasn't really needed for my little pond. Since I couldn't find the filter or a workable alternative and the pump was several years old, what did I have to lose?
That was a couple of years ago and the pump is still working strong today. I do have to clean the pump occasionally, because there is a hard plastic filter, or fence, still on it. It is so much easier to clean that!
It is a little bit of work but my amazing fish tower and water garden continue to give me hours of pleasure!
