Green, Green, Go Away!

If you've visited us anytime in the last few weeks, you've seen the "green liquid monster" that was once our nice clean main display pond. Usually, at this time of year, you'd be able to see a quarter at the bottom of the three-foot deep pond, but NOT this year. Sigh.....what a mess.

It's actually hard to capture in a photograph just HOW green it is. If you look closely at the water coming over the waterfall though, you can see the pea-soup appearance that's been haunting us for the last month or so. The beauty of the Wood's Blue Goddess waterlily that's in the photo below is completely ruined by the green backdrop, but it does serve to show you how bad the problem has become.

What to do, what to do? You'd think a water garden center wouldn't have such a problem, but yes - even the "experts" get it wrong sometimes. The problem is - we don't yet know exactly WHAT it is that's the problem. We've been running the pump and filter 24/7, adding bacteria, working on increasing the amount of surface coverage by plants, and even relying on algaecides to help (something that's ALWAYS been a last resort for us to use), but nothing seems to be working. Tim even strapped on his chest waders one day and went scooping to see how much "litter" we might have built up on the bottom of the pond, but there wasn't ANYTHING!

Tim seems to think it's probably a combination of perhaps having too many fish (or at least ones that are too large for the system to handle anymore) and/or the odd weather that we've been having (it got way too warm too early in the season for the plants to get a good foothold on the amount of sunlight hitting the pond, as well as the constant influx of nutrient-rich rain that keeps "feeding" the algae).

Regardless of WHAT it is, after giving it a lot of thought, we've decided to do some renovation work to upgrade the mechanics of the pond. Sometime in the next few weeks, we'll be draining the pond down a little, ripping out the old skimmer box, and installing a new skimmer system that will allow us to use UV lights to help get the green under control (another last ditch effort, but one that should solve the problem once and for all).

Until then, we apologize for not setting the best example of how to create (and keep!) a nice crystal clear water garden. Some folks really don't mind the more "natural" appearance and we're happy about that, but we do realize that it's not the most popular option. We'll keep you updated on the progress of our renovation by blogging about the process as it unfolds. Hopefully, it will all be good news!

For now, we'll try to stop focusing on (and freaking out about!) the green monster. Instead, we'll leave you with a few photos of what we think are some of the pretty sights you can still enjoy if you visit us in the near future.

It's About Blooming Time

It's that wonderful time of the year when flowers are starting to pop out all over the place around here. Not just aquatic plants, but those in our 'landlocked' plant beds too. Of course, we're biased, but we think Totalily is such a beautiful place to visit. And no - you don't need to have a water garden or plans to put one in to stop and see for yourself just what we're talking about. Feel free to simply wander around or have a seat in the shade and enjoy the sights and sounds. We'll be happy to just let you linger in your own thoughts. Until then, we hope you enjoy some of the recent photos we've taken. We'll let them do the talking for us. For those of you that are curious though, that's a Pink Grapefruit hardy waterlily in the photo above.

Water Forget-Me-Not

Golden Candles "Alexander"

Poppies

Ribbon Grass

Snow-On-The-Mountain

Charlene Strawn Hardy Waterlily

Multiflora Rose

It's A Good Time To Be A Frog

It only seems appropriate that we would re-open for the season during National Frog Month. We also love the fact that the very first "frog-related craft or activity" that's mentioned on the eHow website to get people in the spirit of Frog Month is to "make a frog pond to attract frogs to your backyard."

Sitting here at the end of TWG's first day for 2010 - just lazily listening to the heart-lifting, high-pitched chorus of the peepers that have chosen to hang out in the natural wetlands on our property (and that are located waaaaay out back, far from the commotion of the shop) - I can't help but think that it's a really good time to be a frog. As goes the water-gardening world, so potentially goes the way of the frog, right??? Knowing how dedicated our TWG pond pals are and how the popularity of water gardening continues to grow, I truly do believe that the frog community is 'safe' from a major population decline, at least for a little while longer.

We also like to think that, somehow, the blood, sweat, and tears that we've poured into making TWG what it is today, has somewhat benefited the planet, if only in a teeny tiny way. Maybe we're just dreamers though. Oh well - it's a nice thought. One that really does help us get through each busy pond season.

And here's to yet another great year - chatting with fellow pond lovers and enjoying the company and appreciating the never-ending hard work of our employees - all of whom we really do consider family and friends. We sincerely hope that this pond season provides you with many opportunities to just kick back, relax, and revel in the sound of the frogs that have chosen your life-providing pond as their heavenly habitat.

Yep - it's a good time to be a frog. It's an even better time to be in love with water gardening.

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.....