A few days of weather in the low 70s and we can get a lot done.  The pond builder installed the FlowFriend pump that we purchased last year from Koi Acres. It’s made in Germany, runs quietly and supposed to be energy efficient – not sure if it’s going to make a dent in the notices that I receive from the electric company that states we use 150-200% more energy than  our neighbors.

The lines have all thawed and we started the waterfall. Everything running also means we’ve cleaned out many of the leftover leaves and little oak buds that have been falling. Next weekend we’ll PP the pond .

We did have a small casualty of pond work. Another pond builder’s Apple watch destroyed.

I have been gardening all weekend and today we put in a new Velvet Viking Japanese Maple. (A good name for a plant that can survive in Minnesota.) It’s a specimen from Monrovia that just came out this spring. Japanese maples are generally zone 5-9 and this is the first that is rated for zone 4. I have a japanese maple that has survived the last three winters wrapped up and I’m sure this one will survive as well. It’s a dwarf variety and will not get much larger than it’s current size. I have wanted a weeping maple near our waterfall and so very glad to have found this at the local nursery.

I was planning to turn the old gravel filter pit area into a little deck but after the pond builder dumped 20+ wheelbarrows of dirt in, it seemed like a garden would be nicer. I had hoped to buy another Swiss pine today but the evergreen delivery is about a week away. I did pick up the new rhododendrons for the area.

Other little garden projects included two new magnolias, the front box and my very little starter trees.

Meanwhile the koi have been very hungry. I hope we can get them out to the ponds soon because they are quite rough with each other doing feeding in the pool. They swim over each other and push each other out of the way.

They are as impatient as I am to get outside!