Help me Mr. Bacteria! The little pond is suffering from severe pea-soup-itis. We thought the pond was looking a tad murky the other day so thought a little water change should fix it right up. Mr. Landscaper thought that emptying it out through the biofilter line would be faster and might flush out some waste. I thought adding a little algaecide would be helpful as well. So instead of sparkly water and the ability to see all of our little koi frolic – we totally threw off the bacteria balance. It’s now a green pond until the bacteria can reestablish and keep everything in line. The internet articles state that patience is necessary since it could take a few weeks 🙁   I’m sure we’ll try to mess with it some more. Right now we overdosed the pond with some bacteria and barley straw extract. Maybe tomorrow morning we’ll start seeing some improvement – fingers crossed! 

On a more pleasant note, I noticed my little Tamukeyama Japanese maple is doing well. It’s one of the few maples advertised to Zone 4 hardy. I found it online at the Sooner Plant Farm. Online nurseries are a good way to get some plants that you can’t find locally. For example, a large local nursery chain in the Twin Cities does not sell any azaleas that aren’t Minnesota winter hardy. That leaves about 6 selections to choose from at the nursery. I really want to get a pinkshell azalea (rhododendron vaseyi) even though it’s not meant for our area.

Up top, the big koi are doing well as usual. They are a strange bunch though. They will often spend time hanging under the waterfall. I’m not really sure what the attraction is for them. The internet postings indicate that perhaps it’s an oxygen issue (but we have two aerators going). Maybe they’re sick – no symptoms yet and they’ve done this from day one. Perhaps they’re just weird.