Pond Keeping on Long Island New York... A Lovely Story
I got this story from Fran today. Take a few minutes and be inspired... I hope she sends me a picture
Hi Anthony.
I thought I'd add my few years of experience with ponds, fish and water plants.
What I would like to convey to the ponding public is the building and
maintenance of small ponds. I came to ponding with a 45'x75' concrete lined 36"
deep former ice cutting pond. This pond was on the property I bought in Oyster
Bay Cove, long island, mostly zone 7 but some areas of zone 6.
I drained the pond to clean out the debris, saved the fish, repotted the water
lillies and then refilled the "pond" with tap water, this took many days. That
being said, I went to the local fish hatchery to inquire about feeding the fish.
The expert there said do not feed. They will fend for themselves.
Then I had the electrician install an outdoor outlet for the water pump which I
snaked out to the middle of the pond through pvc piping and balanced on cinder
blocks. it was Gerry built but it still manages to hold over 20 years. I did
hook up a heater to try to keep an opening for fresh air during the cold
northeast winters, and it worked until we had an unusually harsh winter, then
sadly I lost quite a few of the older fish. That was when the water froze over
for more that 4 weeks.
So that's how I came to ponding, maintaining this huge concrete pond with fish,
plants , an aerating pump and a small heater. Then I sold my property and moved
to a 65x100 sized plot which included a rather large house, so the backyard was
miniscule. I actually had no thoughts of a pond, but there was a back area which
was always wet from the slope and the sprinklers. Then the only solution to this
wet area was to dig a pond and surround it with moisture loving plants, like Joe
Pye weed, french weeping willow, liatris (yes I know the dangers), phlox and
local water loving plants which I transferred from the golf course and a few
other wet areas.
I went to Suburban Water Gardens (on the web) to research fish, filtration,
liners and whatever info I could get from Bob. He is incredibly knowlegable
about fish and pond maintenance for very expensive koi. We dug out the pond,
about 42 inches in diameter and 18 inches deep.
We followed the formula to figure the amount of thick vinyl liner to buy.
Since that was my first pond I think I had to piece two liners together. I sort
of followed Helen Nash, "The Complete Pond Builder". It was very helpful
especially about leveling the pond. I suplemented that with Sunset Press "Garden
Pools" . I bought my surrounding rocks from home Depot, they were actually
walkway stones, but they worked very well around the edges and look very
natural.
I put in water from my garden hose and let it sit for a few days. I actually
built two levels, the middle being deeper than 18", the surrounding ledge about
12 inches.
Here's the decision I had to make.
I had seen herons go after my fish in the big pond, and I knew the danger of
birds going after the fish. I didn't have the stomach to lose fish to birds so I
decided to buy "feeder" fish.
These little guys were already sentenced to death as food, so putting them in my
pond gave them a second chance. They were goldfish so they are hardy.
Then my true love was water plants, especially waterlillies, water lettuce,
hyacinths, underwater aerating plants, iris, and whatever the local garden shop
offered as water plants.
Also I never fed the fish.
That was all I did.
The fish thrived, the plants were beautiful, and to winter them over I dug the
hardier ones into the ground. This pond was so successful I went and dug a
second pond 36" deep by about 42" diameter.
The same drill, liner, stones from Home Depot, feeder fish from Petco and water
plants from the local garden store. No extra feeding, no pumps, no aeration, no
filters. The water is fresh, there is no smell no algae. In the larger pond I
have 10 feeder fish. The other smaller pond I decided to dedicate to dragonflies
and damselflies. I'm still waiting for them to appear. I also got frogs last
year but so far this year they haven't appeared.
Hope this helps other pond and water plant lovers.
Fran Walker, Town of Oyster Bay, Long Island
