Jon's Diary. Vale of Glam, S Wales.

Home Town:- Vale of Glam. S Wales.
Pond:- Raised formal.
Position:- Full sun.
Now in it's second year.
Have 1 waterhawthorn. 2 lillies. Being a formal pond I think to many plants would spoil the affect.
Fish:- 2 Koi, 2 Blue Orfe, 2 Shubs, 1 Goldfish.

May 13th - 20th:-
Re did my waterfall. Placed a large 600mm X 900mm Natural stone slab on top and fitted a new shoot for the waterfall. Was a great sucess. Had no leaks.
Had lots of rain over the last few days, which topped up the pond. Fish don't like the wind very much though, not seen much of them, but are feeding ok.

May 25th
Rain has finally stopped and water temp up a bit more.
Made a small bog garden along side the waterfall and have planted some Pickeral weed, Irises and Marshmarigold I had from Jenny. Will be adding more when I get them.

Will put up a pic soon, when I can get the camera back of the missus.........lol


May 27th 6pm
just completed a water test.
All is fine, with no problems.

June 7th 2006
Now it's getting warmer and the fish are feeding well.
I have noticed now, that on the hot sunny days, I get a slimy scum on the surface of the water, almost like blancket weed, but when you touch it, it just "crumbles" to nothing. Weird. Not too bothered about it as it's not much and when it cools it disappears.
Over the next few days now I will be watering all my plants and back wash the filter.
Off to Jersey for  a week, so my dad will be keeping an eye on thinks while I am away.


June 17th 2006
Just got home from a week away on hols. My dad has been looking after the fish and done a good job too.
Not much to do, just back wash the filter and do a top up.
Plants have grown too. Lilly buds out in full bloom now too.

28th May 2006
This is my pond  8)  ;D

First flower from my water hawthorn I bought from Paul Bromfields.

Another of my pond from a different angle. Notice the bonsai. Was a lucky find. I pruned it to shape and repotted it.

The bonsai I found  ;D

Here's a pic of one of my lillies.

This is nice. The first time in the 2 years I've had this lillie.

July 4th 2006

Been a while since the last update.
The weather over the last few days has been really hot, pond temp up to 25c, but the fish are looking good with penty of air getting into the pond.
The water went all green and murky, I thought ooohhhh no the new UV filter is not doing it's job, but them though, well maybe it's because the filter needs time to mature. Low and behold over the last few days the water is now clearing and looking good again.
The lillies are looking good as you can see from the pics. Bought a Brandy bottle lillie and that to is taaking off, but no flowers as yet.
My new addition, a baby Koi, well no so baby now.........lol, is looking really nice. Must try and get some pics of him/her and the other fish too.

7th July 2006

^-^ O0 ;D ;D ;D  banana banana

My pond has now cleared. oh it looks nice and the lillies are in flower too. One yellow and 2 white and more on the way.

I must be doing something right. banana

July 16th.
Hot sunny day.

Pond is still doing ok, but a bit cloudy. I'm putting that down to the fish rummaging on the bottom and in the plants.

Had a nice surprise too. I saw 3 baby fish swimming in amongst the lilly leaves. Now to be honest thats got to be luck. Because I have 2 orfe, 2 Koi, 2 shubs, 1 black fantail goldfish and 1 big tench. So they could only be either koi or shubs. My guess is shubs, but to be luck and have a female and male, well blow me down. I'll be keeping a close eye on them from now on.
The lillies are doing fantastic this years, flower after flower. So i'm pleased about that.

25th July

Pond looking nice and crystal clear.
Discovered I have more baby fish. 7 in total now.
Put some water lettuce in today that was given to me.
My latest Koi that I put in a few weeks ago is growing fast and looking very nice. Must try and get some pics of them all.

Not be around for a while, PC is going to the doctors to be repaired.

August 6th

Pond still looking good, nice and clear thanks to the filter.
Loads of lilly pads and flowers and still buds coming up too.
Finally managed to get some pics of my fish. Not very good, but it's a start.

30th August 2006

Not updated for a while.
No much happening now. Everything is slowing down.
No more buds on the Lillie's, but still the odd leaf pushing up.

Been down my dads helping him set up his pond. It's bigger than mind, but I'm not jealous..........much..........lol.

19th Oct 2006

Not been here for a while. Been busy else where.
Got masses of water lettuce still, keep scooping it out, but more still comes. Put some in my fish tank and it's going mad in there too. So hopefully summer next year I will have some to put back in the pond for free.
All fish are going great and counted around 8 baby shubs. will leave them in there now until next spring and then take them out and give them away.
Lillies, well they are dying off slowly now the water temp is dropping.
So all in all had a great summer with a crystal clear pond.

Taken today 26th Oct 2006