It does snow in North Carolina

Early December 2024 we had a light dusting of snow. It’s kind of pretty and usually disappears in a few hours. My kind of snow event.

January came in with the coolest winter weather temperatures we have experienced since moving to North Carolina. This snow lasted a few days. Our koi pond temperatures dropped below 50° F for about seven weeks. We had a stretch of three weeks where the evening temperature would drop as low as 13 degrees. I realize I shouldn’t complain compared to the years we lived in Minnesota but I’m just expecting a more mild winter in North Carolina.

Winter koi

In late October we enclosed the pond area with some clear tarps. Water has stayed around 50° F except for the really cold three week period where it dropped to the low 40s.

Inside, the ambient temperature can get quite warm. I am not sure if we will do the same set up next year. It ‘s pretty easy to set up, materials are cheap – so maybe it’s okay. It is a little bit noisy in windy weather and you have to check that the weights on the bottom edge stay in place. I also think that the covering I had last year which was closer to the water surface kept the pond warmer.

I really haven’t been paying too much attention to the koi. I check the temperature reading from the house, check the camera and if it looks good, no need to feed.

I do enjoy seeing how the koi look at this time of the year because their color plates are brighter and crisper. The white portions tend to be at their whitest in cold water.

I generally check that everyone looks healthy and no one is injured.

Once the pond reached 50° degrees again, I gave them a little Manda Fu from Kodama Koi Farm. I don’t know what’s in it but the koi love it and it seems easy to digest. I will continue to feed a wheat germ based feed for the rest of winter.

Then there’s always someone who has an issue. This year my larger shiro utsuri has an unusual lump on the lower left side. I’m guessing it may be a tumor. She is not injured, swimming around with the rest of the koi, so we’ll see how she looks as the weather warms up. 😩

Charlotte Koi Club

I belong to a really nice koi club in the Greater Charlotte area. Two of our members run a koi rescue program. Carol and Leo happened to have a lot of koi on hand in early November and we decided to hold a sale event to move as many koi as possible into ponds before winter arrived. Koi were sold at very low cost – just enough to cover the electrical, water, food and medicines for the koi rescue operation.

Our club members have some complementary gardening interests in addition to their koi ponds. We visited our local MapleWalk Garden just as many of the japanese maple leaves were turning. It was our own little maple leaf hunting, momijigari , in Charlotte. My tree planter was very interested in the cool Japanese pruning ladder made by Hasegawa. We definitely need one or two around here.

Our final club event for the year was a holiday party at Felicia and Carl’s home. The club does not meet the months of January and February. I’m looking forward to visiting new member ponds this year. I’m also hoping we might get a few more new members!

Japanese Maples

This year we really got into Japanese maples. The pond builder is retired and Tony is now the tree planter. We put in over 40 Japanese maples into the ground and still have about 8 in pots. We have had to relocate some maples and a few that will be relocated soon. New trees are always a little stressed and our late summer conditions did nothing for the maples. I did get a small preview of what I might see in future years.

You have to use your imagination and think what the garden will look like when there are many large trees changing into all sorts of colors at different points.

My maple dealer Robbie Beam of Grove Creek Maple Farm delivered a mature Manyo no Sato. It can hold its own in the sun and seems tolerant of many soil conditions. In spring the leaves are purple and lime green. In the summer, mostly greenish, maybe some red. In the fall , bright orange and red.

We extended the maple garden to an area where tree planter can look out the window and see maples while he’s doing his day job. This required us to take down an annoying black walnut tree but the tree planter loves to use the chain saw. Not sure how many maples I will buy this year, not as many as 2024 (but I have big eyes)!

Cutting down trees and replanting trees

Early winter is a great time to replant dormant trees. We have moved all the fruit trees near the barn area to the small pasture. The ground seems more fertile and the fruit trees that were planted here originally have grown better than the ones by the barn. Peaches and Plums.

We moved the apple trees from the small pasture to the treehouse area. The small pasture has some cedar trees edging it and it creates some kind of fungus that attacks the apple trees. We’re hoping they will do better in the middle of our western hayfield. I’m very lucky that Tree Planter is so patient with moving trees around the farm.

We always like it when company wants to play with chain saws. This Thanksgiving, we had a friend who planned specifically to visit and help us with our never ending tree and understory clean up. As fast as we clean up forest areas, a storm will come along and a few more trees will fall down. The work is basically endless. Not sure what this tree was but I didn’t like it here.

Normally we would put some straps around the tree and use the tractor to pull it down. I suggested to the two guys that they could probably just tug on some straps to pull the tree down. We should probably review some safety protocols on the farm…

Late Fall Garden

My garden did well through October. Fewer choices and uglier specimens but they all tasted very good.

We have a lot of broccoli and Brussels sprout plants still producing. I thought I was not a fan of cauliflower but the ones I grew this year were delicious. I am going to put in some more cauliflower this weekend to harvest in early spring.

Before winter, I found the praying mantis that I had transferred to the garden early spring. I am hoping she has laid some eggs around for more praying mantis in my garden.

I’m a little behind starting plants (this seems to be a bad habit each year). However, I am enjoying the start of planning the 2025 garden. Seeds have been ordered and I need to decide what garden beds are going to be planted and in what order. I enjoy researching companion plants and looking for interesting things to grow and cook. I am also putting in a new raised flower bed near my beehive. Last year’s beehive was a failure – maybe this year I’ll be successful.

Other Garden Projects

Gardening is endless. I have just finished pruning fruit trees and japanese maples, need to move the peonies, and plan for more Japanese maples. I believe I may need a few more camellias in the garden. We also need to finish this drainage project in the japanese maple garden. We’re using rocks to direct some of the water flow faster into the gully, ensuring the maples don’t get too much water or washed away.

The moso bamboo is thinned each year to keep it in check. It is one of the chickens’ favorite spots to hang out. Tree planter noticed that the moso bamboo keeps annoying weeds out.

Soooo we have a new experiment. We are making Moso Bamboo Grove #2. The chickens will love it, it’s close to their coop, and we want to see the battle of invasives. The area where we have planted a few bamboo is home to English ivy, privet, something like japanese wineberry, and smilax glauca (catbrier, greenbrier). We are hoping the bamboo will prevail.

Chickens

The chickens are very cold hardy but have not loved winter. Their water would freeze at night during the chilly weeks and they were very suspicious of snow. The first day they would not come out of the coop. Once it started to melt a bit and they could see ground, they began to walk on it.

Our flock is down to 18 hens and one rooster. We gave two of our hens away because they were not laying eggs (and they tend to be brooders). They went home with the gentleman who cuts our hayfields. His wife does not mind having chickens as pets.

I love my chickens but I don’t love them once they stop laying eggs. We finally had our one dozen egg day about two weeks ago. I was planning to stop counting eggs but decided I will need to track them to help me decide which hens have to move along and when to buy new chicks. You want to have hens at different ages so that you are still getting eggs when some of them are molting, during wether extremes when chickens lay less, and because you want to move along hens that are past their peak laying.

Most hens have two good laying seasons and then it’s downhill in production. I keep track of my hens and have recorded when I thought was their first Point of Lay (POL). After two seasons, if their production seems markedly down, they will go home with the hay farmer. Only one hen gets to be a pet on our farm – Beth, the Queen Bee of the flock.

In a few weeks, I will be back at Rural King (kind of like a Tractor Supply store) to pick out six new chicks. They are so cute. I am a little worried about the Rural King supply because four of the six chicks we purchased from them in July did not do well (different store, different town). Maybe we will be luckier this time.

San Diego Koi Show January 24-26, 2025

Last weekend I had the great honor and pleasure to be part of the judging team for the San Diego Koi Show. I have always wanted to judge this show – always a number of high quality koi entered. It’s also great to fly to San Diego weather if you live somewhere cold. The beautiful 70° weather was a little cooler than usual but still nice. The photo above includes all of the club volunteers that put in a lot of hours for a successful show.

Here’s the judging team with Kelly the Koi 😂 Left to right.. Pam Spindola (CA), Katy Shanafelt (ID), me – Lori Vertin (NC), Kelly the Koi, Troy Head (KY), and head judge Steve Zimmerman (NC). I loved judging with such a knowledgeable team. Every time I judge I learn something new about koi and koi keeping.

Koi clubs like San Diego do a great job with hospitality for the judges. This was our Friday night dinner with the primary organizers for the show.

I thought this was just great – a family out to support a novice koi keeper. They were taking a series of group photos and I love the poster. This was the first time that Zhi (holding the little boy) showed koi. He did great – not only receiving the novice award (out of five novices) – but also won several other major awards. It’s not that our families don’t support us but many koi keepers love all things koi, are geeky about pond and water maintenance, like to talk about koi … and our families may not share the same level of passion. I think I’m pretty lucky that Pond Builder/Tree Planter likes the pond building side of the hobby and is interested in koi. He’s not into showing but supports my purchases and being in the judging program.

Spring is around the corner…

Finally we are at the end of this rather long blog entry. We are enjoying some beautiful weather this weekend and I can definitely see spring is around the corner. I found a patch of daffodils that will bloom soon and my Japanese apricot (ume) trees are sporting some nice buds. In a few weeks our outdoor tasks will multiply. Another year on the farm is ahead. ❤️