The Conservative Cave
The Bar => The Lounge => Topic started by: BEG on June 16, 2008, 11:57:52 AM
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We (or should I say mainly my husband) have been working on our backyard every weekend for quite awhile. I haven't taken a picture of our finished deck and arbor yet as our deck has tons of crap on it right now because we are still working on our pond. I thought I would show you a little of what we have done so far.
There are two types of water lilies, one is hardy and the other is tropical. The hardy variety will live through winter and the tropical might live through Texas winters but any colder than it gets in Texas and it wont survive. You can take it out of the pond and as long as it is covered in water you can keep it alive in a basement or garage. We have both one of each variety. I thought we saved a white water lily when we tore up our other pond but apparently we save the garden variety yellow. Here is a picture of it, I don't remember the name.
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/Foam_Kitty/IMG_1790.jpg)
Here is the tropical variety. It is called "Bagdad" (yes I know there is no "h" in the name). The lily pads are quite large and beautiful in this variety but I didn't take a picture of them.
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/Foam_Kitty/IMG_1803.jpg)
Here are a couple of pictures of our pond. There is still a lot of work to do. My husband still has to cement the flag stone around the top in place. He also has to trim the inside edge of the flag stone so that it looks seamless and curved. We also have to pot or plant the plants in the "bog area". We saved some of the plants from our other pond but we also bought quite a few new ones. The plants help with the ecosystem of a pond by using up nutrients that algae normally feed on. We just went through an algae bloom (every new pond does) and this morning we were quite surprised to see that we could actually see the bottom of the pond. Yesterday we couldn't even see the tops of the pots that are in the pond. It got so terrible that we couldn't even see the fish until they came to the surface to eat. It can take a couple of months to get through an algae bloom so we are quite lucky that it only lasted a couple weeks.
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/Foam_Kitty/IMG_1775.jpg)
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/Foam_Kitty/IMG_1809.jpg)
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Very pretty!!! It looks like a wonderfully relaxing place to hang out!
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Here is "Blinky" our mutant goldfish. He is named after the fish from the Simpsons that has three eyes. :p
(http://www.purplemoon.com/Stickers/sim-fish.jpg)
He has lived through things that have killed all of our other fish. Like a pest control spray that killed all of our other fish, over filling the pond that left too much chlorine in the pond (twice), he was even attacked by a heron and it caused damage to his tail. We saw the bird land on our roof and when we went out to check on the fish, there was Blinky bleeding, we thought for sure he was a goner. The last thing that killed all of our other fish was when we tore apart our pond. We put them all in a tank in the garage. A few weeks after we put them in the tank all of the other fish died (three Koi) yet there was Blinky. He even had some type of fungus or something on his body but after some medicine he came out of it just fine.
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/Foam_Kitty/IMG_1799.jpg)
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/Foam_Kitty/IMG_1798.jpg)
You can see his crooked tail in this picture.
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/Foam_Kitty/IMG_1795.jpg)
Here is a picture of some of our other fish we recently acquired. They are all Koi. We already lost one on the first day. We have no idea what happened to it. We now have a total of 8 fish (including Blinky)
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/Foam_Kitty/IMG_1804.jpg)
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Get a safety rail on the bridge!
Great looking back yard. I love your choice of foliage and plants. The pond is the perfect size and it's obvious your husband has worked his tail off on this.
The water lilies are so AWESOME.......great choice they are really cool....
I have a pond that I get to enjoy, but other people take care of it...it holds about forty fish now...it's huge and very relaxing when I am stressing out....I am a sucker for feeding the fish...almost reminds me of when we used to pond raise catfish out in the country...but here, the water is clear and not thirty feet deep! Who cares if they are just orange carp?
Thanks for posting the pictures, I really enjoyed them. :clap:
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That is sooo pretty!
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He has lived through things that have killed all of our other fish. Like a pest control spray that killed all of our other fish, over filling the pond that left too much chlorine in the pond (twice), he was even attacked by a heron and it caused damage to his tail. We saw the bird land on our roof and when we went out to check on the fish, there was Blinky bleeding, we thought for sure he was a goner. The last thing that killed all of our other fish was when we tore apart our pond. We put them all in a tank in the garage. A few weeks after we put them in the tank all of the other fish died (three Koi) yet there was Blinky. He even had some type of fungus or something on his body but after some medicine he came out of it just fine.
Carp are pretty tough.
Very nice pond. Me and the missus want to put one in sometime.
:-)
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Now I'll post a few other pictures of areas we have been working on.
My son laid the chopped stone around the beds and planted the plants. In this picture all of the plants are new. There is a variegated ginger in the back that will grow quite large. Also there are large Liriope and another smaller vairety called "sun proof" variegated Liriope. Also there is taro and caladium.
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/Foam_Kitty/IMG_1776.jpg)
We already had the Crape Myrtle but I planted some vinca around it a few weeks ago.
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/Foam_Kitty/IMG_1778.jpg)
This bed is still a work in progress. It gets shade for the majority of the day. Don't look at the grass, it has been beaten up over the past few months of people working on it while doing the deck, arbor and pond. I still don't know what I'm going to put around the Japanese Maple. All of the plants were already there but were dug up and replanted except for the caladiums. I still have hosta's and other plants to replant as you can see some of them in a large mound in a couple of the pictures.
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/Foam_Kitty/IMG_1782.jpg)
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/Foam_Kitty/IMG_1781.jpg)
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/Foam_Kitty/IMG_1780.jpg)
And last but not least, here is a bed that was created when we built the pool. We have tried so many things in this area, bamboo included. Nothing seemed right. I have changed it every year. This time I am trying Lily of the Nile. In this area it will come back next year (sometimes). We'll see if it does. It is looking a little wimpy at the moment.
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/Foam_Kitty/IMG_1792.jpg)
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Get a safety rail on the bridge!
Great looking back yard. I love your choice of foliage and plants. The pond is the perfect size and it's obvious your husband has worked his tail off on this.
The water lilies are so AWESOME.......great choice they are really cool....
I have a pond that I get to enjoy, but other people take care of it...it holds about forty fish now...it's huge and very relaxing when I am stressing out....I am a sucker for feeding the fish...almost reminds me of when we used to pond raise catfish out in the country...but here, the water is clear and not thirty feet deep! Who cares if they are just orange carp?
Thanks for posting the pictures, I really enjoyed them. :clap:
LOL we are NOT going to put a railing on the bridge.
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That is so absolutely beautiful. We are in a very long process of redoing our front yard. It had brick steps and a hill. We put in a retaining wall with hostas and a huge wooden deck/stairs that will eventually go up to another deck. I have an area in the back yard where I want to put in a koi pond/waterfall area. The one you did is so beautiful I may just copy it.
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Oh I have to show you our Owl. Don't look at the other plants, I haven't potted them yet. :p
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/Foam_Kitty/IMG_1784.jpg)
Here is another cool plant we bought not too long ago. I can't remember the name of the top of my head.
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/Foam_Kitty/IMG_1785.jpg)
I'm also including a picture of my daughter with a frog. Our dogs chased this frog into the pool while my daughter was swimming. The frog jumped onto her foot. It was so funny. She grabbed his "hands" and was twirling around in circles as though she was dancing. I didn't get a picture of that.
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/Foam_Kitty/IMG_1769.jpg)
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/Foam_Kitty/IMG_1771.jpg)
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/Foam_Kitty/IMG_1770.jpg)
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Lovely pics, your garden looks amazing and your husband has done a wonderful job with the hard landscaping.
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That is so absolutely beautiful. We are in a very long process of redoing our front yard. It had brick steps and a hill. We put in a retaining wall with hostas and a huge wooden deck/stairs that will eventually go up to another deck. I have an area in the back yard where I want to put in a koi pond/waterfall area. The one you did is so beautiful I may just copy it.
Make sure you take pictures as you go along. I've been taking pictures as we have been doing this and I think it will be nice to see the progress in the end. If you do decide to build a pond, I'll be more than happy to tell you what DIDN'T work the first time around and what we changed this time. Also I have a few websites that have a ton of information on what/what not to do.
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It is amazing work. It looks like a fairytale garden.
You have inspired me to send the wife out to pull weeds.
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Lovely pics, your garden looks amazing and your husband has done a wonderful job with the hard landscaping.
Thanks Bijou. My husband is pretty amazing. He literally can do ANYTHING. He has worked his butt off over the past few months. He has done this all by himself for the most part. The deck and arbor was done by someone else (firemen who do this on the side) but the deck was just resurfaced with cedar. My husband built the original deck, they just pulled the old boards up and used the foundation my husband had built about 6 years ago. So the shape is exactly like the original one only better wood (he orig. used pressure treated wood) and stained a lot darker.
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It is amazing work. It looks like a fairytale garden.
You have inspired me to send the wife out to pull weeds.
I pull weeds, want me to come over and pull them?
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It is amazing work. It looks like a fairytale garden.
You have inspired me to send the wife out to pull weeds.
I pull weeds, want me to come over and pull them?
Nah. She needs the exercise.
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Wow BEG, that's just very beautiful. I'm very jealous.
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Damn, that's a lot of work for K... I hope you cook him some killer dinners are payment. :) Tell him when he's done I have a lot of work to do in my back yard... I'll cook him some killer Mac and Cheese.
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Just wait until your next homeowner's audit....that pond will be sealed off with razor wire.
I am sure you can find some climbing vines for the new fence they have you install.
(http://dan.iella.net/theonetrain/razorwire.jpg)
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Damn, that's a lot of work for K... I hope you cook him some killer dinners are payment. :) Tell him when he's done I have a lot of work to do in my back yard... I'll cook him some killer Mac and Cheese.
I'm so far in "debt" with K that I don't think I could live long enough to "repay" him in dinners. :p
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Just wait until your next homeowner's audit....that pond will be sealed off with razor wire.
I am sure you can find some climbing vines for the new fence they have you install.
(http://dan.iella.net/theonetrain/razorwire.jpg)
You don't have to have a fence around a pool here in Dallas so I doubt you would have to have one around a pond. :tongue:
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BEG.... once again, I'm just in love with your backyard! It really has turned out stunningly beautiful, thanks for sharing so many of the pics of the journey to it's current state :cheersmate:
Thanks Vonne, it should be finally finished this weekend. Then I will take a picture of the deck and arbor.
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BEG.... once again, I'm just in love with your backyard! It really has turned out stunningly beautiful, thanks for sharing so many of the pics of the journey to it's current state :cheersmate:
Thanks Vonne, it should be finally finished this weekend. Then I will take a picture of the deck and arbor.
Will the railing on the bridge be wood or wrought iron?
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Gorgeous! That was a lot of hard work! It is really, really beautiful!