Winding Down the Season

Here it is - almost October - and as expected, life at Totalily is starting to wind down. One of the most noticeable changes is that the employees (whom we consider to be dear friends) are all gone for the season and we miss them dearly. Their energy and enthusiasm truly keeps us going during the busy days of summer.

The silence is almost deafening, not only because it's quieter without them around, but we now occasionally turn the pond pumps off on the ever-cooler nights. With the cool rains and blustery winds these last few days, we'll also need to think about putting the temporary net over the pond someday soon. It never looks very nice, but it does really help cut down on our Spring start-up work.

Not sure what we're talking about? Here's a picture of our set-up (and you can also read more about it in our Autumn and Winter Maintenance handout). We'll take it all down once the majority of the leaves have fallen.

Another noticeable difference is that the greenhouses are completely empty now. The remaining marginals and lilies have all been moved to the rear propagation ponds to sleep away the winter months. It always looks so barren around here at this time of the year. What else can we expect?

We do still need to remove the MANY water hyacinths though before the frost hits them super hard and they sink to the bottom of the ponds. If we don't, they can actually give off a toxic amount of methane gas as they decompose under the snow and ice. We learned that the hard way one year when our fish population took a "hit" when we didn't remove the hyacinths in time. Please learn from our mistake!

Some folks try to overwinter their hyacinths inside under grow lights and/or in a warm room. We've tried that too, but it usually costs more to keep them toasty and happy than it is to simply replace them next year. Plus, they usually die just about the time Spring arrives. Sigh....yet another lesson learned. Such is the life of a ponderer, right?!?

However you spend them, we hope your Autumn pond days are enjoyable ones. If you need us, we'll still be here on weekends until the end of October. You can also always call during the week and leave a message and we'll get back to you ASAP. If you're on our eNews mailing list, keep watching your inboxes as we'll be sending out a notice someday soon announcing the details of yet two more great sales we'll be having before the end of the year.

Until we chat again......

Finally......

They say good things take time. Here at Totalily Water Gardens (or as we like to call it - TWG), we seem to always be putting that concept to the ultimate test.

We first opened for business back in 1997. Here it is, twelve years later and we're just now getting our blog up and running. Having waited that long, one would certainly hope that this will be a darn good blog!

Anyone involved in water gardening knows that constructive criticism is part of the creative process, so feel free to let us know if our work here falls short of your expectations. We simply want good ideas and information to flow from these pages. If it EVER comes across as being more of a stinky, algae-filled, mud puddle, please leave us a comment and we'll be happy to redesign it - much like we've done time and time again with the waterfalls on our numerous display ponds.

One of the other tasks we really dragged our feet on around here was the removal of the GORGEOUS apple tree that graced us with its' presence near the front entrance to the shop. WHY, you ask, would we even consider doing such a horrific thing???

Sadly, the tree was dying from the base upwards. Anyone who looked closely at it during the past few years would have wondered just how on earth it was even still standing. The truth is, we had "cabled" the two main branches together years ago simply to keep it around for as long as we could.

The risk was always there though that one day it would come crashing down - and hopefully that when it did, it would NOT be on one of our dear customers or employees! This past November - with barely a tree trunk left to hold it up - we finally scheduled the appointment for it to be removed.

What had taken sooooo many years to grow, came crashing down within a mere hour or so. It was truly heartbreaking to watch.

Sure - there are no more falling apples hitting people on the head and there are no more buckets for the employees to fill with slimy, squished apples before someone twists an ankle on them or has a flat-out fall. The void was just too large to leave unfilled for too long though.

To honor the special spot it once grew on - and to provide a peaceful resting site for any and all who wanted to sit a spell - we erected a gazebo there just this past June. It's not the same, but it is blissfully shady and there always seems to be a cool breeze blowing through it.

So yes - good things really do take time. We hope you'll hang out with us every now and then to share some of that time - whether here on these pages or under the peaceful protection of the new gazebo. Until next time.....