There are many varieties of fish that work well in backyard ponds, but the two most popular and easily kept fish are members of the Carp family; Koi and Goldfish. Both brightly colored and friendly, these fish make lively additions to a backyard pond, but their needs and behavior in the pond make them suitable to different environments.

While the immediately obvious difference between Koi and Goldfish is the relative size of each mature species, there are many different aspects of water gardening that should be taken into consideration when choosing the correct pond fish for your garden pond. These are the top five points I ask my clients to consider when they are selecting fish varieties for their garden ponds and fountains, and they will help you identify the best fish for you and your water feature.

Pond Construction:

The average backyard pond holds a few hundred gallons max, and is either a prefabricated form, or a hand dug pit covered by pond liner. For a pond to hold any fish, the middle of the pond should have a depth of at least 3-4 feet, to provide the fish with hibernation room, and places to hide from predators and hot summer weather. Goldfish can thrive in a pond of this approximate size and depth, while Koi breeders recommend a pond to hold a minimum of 2000 gallons for schools of Koi, a dramatically larger size than the average homeowner can fit in their yard.  Another rather unusual problem that Koi can have is the issue of sunburn. A deep pond is necessary for housing Koi schools because the fish are prone to sunburn in shallow water, and can die from too much exposure to direct sun rays.

Fish Size:

Both Koi and Goldfish can be long lived fish, growing to large sizes within the confines of a natural pond setting.  Goldfish varieties fed on a quality diet can grow to be 10 inches long, and live to an average age of ten years. They grow to fit their environment, and naturally stop growing when the amount of fish in a pond, or the environment itself no longer supports large fish.

Koi have been known to live for up to fifty years, and average between ten to twenty years of age in backyard ponds. They grow several feet long regardless of the confines of the pond they are kept in, and are notorious for outgrowing small backyard ponds rapidly, often ending up for sale by homeowners who didn’t appropriately plan for the needs of their growing fish. Unfortunately, unlike Goldfish, who can be relocated into interior fish tanks, in the event of any large scale pond maintenance, Koi need cold water and large amounts of room to thrive. Even young Koi often die when relocated into tanks that are designed for warmer tropical fish, so they are a fish that will need careful planning around as they grow, to protect them from damage if anything should happen to your pond.

Diet and Habits: Another one of the main points to consider when choosing the pond fish for your water garden is the amount of actual water gardening you want to accomplish in and around your pond. Garden centers and aquatic supply chains hold many beautiful selections of plant life that can fill and surround your pond, creating a natural looking ecosystem in the middle of your backyard.  Not all fish varieties will appreciate your efforts in beautifying the pond space though, and will either eat, or constantly re-arrange your plants as long as they are accessible from the water line. 

Goldfish are mid-range water feeders, and eat vegetation, mosquito larvae and almost anything else that falls into the pond.  While they spend much of their time individually checking over each pebble on the bottom of the pond for food residue, they are unlikely to upset any water plants you pot, or incorporate into the shallow regions of the pond.  Koi are largely bottom feeders, rambunctious swimmers, and religiously voracious eaters.  They are on a constant quest to eat whatever is planted in their pond, and take great delight in uprooting, and swimming around with plants that may have been painstakingly potted to beautify the water.  Unlike Goldfish, who are rather opportune eaters, Koi are more strictly vegetarian, and a well planted pond is too great a temptation for them to eat and demolish.  If you desire to plant anything in your ponds, save yourself time, energy, and plant replacement money, by forgoing the Koi in your pond regardless of the size of it, you will thank me down the road!

Breeding:

The appearance of young fish fry in your pond is always exciting.  The sense of accomplishment when you see your pond ecosystem thrive makes all the hard work in the maintenance process well worth it!  Both Koi and Goldfish are easy to breed in ponds large enough to accommodate them, and can provide you with the potential of income if you desire to sell the juvenile fish to other pond enthusiasts.  Goldfish are self sufficient breeders, who can avoid eating their young when provided with enough food and some plant life for the young to hide in. Koi, breed easily enough, but need to have their fertilized eggs removed, and moved elsewhere or they will eat them.  Some supervision over the breeding process will be needed to identify the fertilized eggs in a timely fashion if you intend to save them as your second generation of fish.

Price and Quantity:

Virtually any type of goldfish is available for resale in most pet stores for under $10, but garden centers may have the best variety of older and larger fish that will be healthier, sexually mature, and more easily visible in a pond setting for the same basic amount.  Shubunkins, Sarasa Comet, and Comet-Tailed Goldfish are among the most popular Goldfish due to their size, heartiness and color varieties.  The chunky Fancy Goldfish varieties do well year-round in ponds as well, but should not be mixed with Comet varieties, as the sleeker fish will often harass and kill their slower cousins, leaving you with little to show for your investment. Goldfish should be kept in groups of no less than five, so they can school properly, and eventually breed.  Because of their size, you can get away with large groups in a standard form pond, but as a general rule, do not keep more than  10-20 small goldfish, or 10 medium to large goldfish in a pond three to four foot square.

Koi are available through garden centers, aquarium supply stores, and through online breeders.  The price for a young Koi can be anywhere from $5.99 to $200 depending on the fish’s breed, so use caution when purchasing, and shop around to make sure you are offered a competitive price.  Two of the easiest and most recognizable are the Yamabuki Ogon, and Showa varieties. These fish should be kept in groups of no less than five, as they interact a lot together, and find particular enjoyment in rough water games with each other. For an interactive pond experience, nothing beats Koi for their friendliness, and impressive size and color variations.

Do your research first before you purchase fish for your pond, and you will be sure to end up with the perfect school of fish to fit your to fill your pond with beauty and serenity. Once you have decided which of the five points of pond fish keeping are the most important to you, the only task left is the enjoyable selection process!

Happy pond keeping!

Casa de Gardenista has been so swamped with rain this spring and summer I’m almost ashamed to show you the healthy growth of weeds and grass I’ve allowed to co-habitate  with my flowers until this point. Suffice it to say that this weeks afternoon and weekend projects will all involve lots of weeding and mulching. The bonus I suppose to all of this rain has been unusually large flowers and shrubs in the garden.  My Bee Balm is about four feet tall instead of the usual two feet tall, and close to outgrowing my forsythia bush.  Mums, which have always grown to mammoth proportions in my yard have had to be pruned back into respectable shape to keep them from completely overtaking their tinier garden cousins.

My forsythia has leafed out completely this year, and it’s hard to believe that only three years ago it was a collection of three sticks I received as a housewarming gift.  I began pruning it immediately as it sent out it’s first shoots to encourage more growth. Over the past two years though I’ve trained it into the mini-tree form that it is now, which I think looks particularly cute from the road. I still hold out hope for the spring when the whole bush blooms yellow and looks like a giant lollypop. Hopefully spring 2010 will be the year for that!

My side porch has become “vegetable central” this year, as I added peppers, carrots, lettuce, and spinach mustard to the canteloupe and strawberry containers. 

In the past I planted two large containers on each corner with strawberries surrounding one pepper plant in the center.  This year I may repeat that late in the season, or in the fall, but for now the fruits and veggies remain segregated and out of the reach of “Confucious,” my city ground hog - who is happily eating the clover blooms in the backyard for now.  Regardless of the weeds thus far, we have had several handfuls of home-grown strawberries to eat with our breakfast pancakes, so all in all, rain or shine, it’s been a great summer thus far here at home. 

Originally gaining popularity with New Englanders after the Lewis and Clark expedition brought seeds back from the Pacific Northwest, this little known plant will dazzle you with it’s unusual shape and year round color and interest.

What You’ll Love:

• Blooms in January! The Mahonia holds on to it’s large clusters of yellow blooms, from January through March or April, adding welcome color to the winter garden.
• In the summer and fall the former yellow flowers become heavy draping fruit clusters in bright blue and purple hues.
• This is a great “go anywhere” shrub, thriving in full sun to heavy shade.
• This plant is almost completely immune to all pest and disease problems, and is one of the top five plants that botanical societies recommend to plant in areas with known Crown Gall infestation, due to its imperviousness to the bacterium.

What It Gives Back To You and Your Yard:

• Evergreens can form the backbones of a garden, and maintain the structure of it through the winter. Oregon Grape Holly’s unusual shape, and textures make it a welcome evergreen choice over more common and shaggy types of evergreens like Yews.
• This is a great plant to place in the landscape if you are looking for birdwatching opportunities. Songbirds are attracted to the Oregon Grape Holly for its long lasting fruit, and will often build nests near these plants in the breeding season to have a quick snack available to them while they hunt for grubs for their chicks.
• Slow growth habits are always appreciated in the landscape, and this is another plant that while beautiful, will not require much pruning over time to contain it. Simple trimming of the feeder stems near the base of the plant will ensure a fuller bush-like shape to the shrub.
• The flowers and “grapes” are great conversation pieces to place out when entertaining as centerpieces with the leaves attached, or in vase arrangements.

The Oregon Grape Holly, or Mahonia aquifolium, comes in dwarf and full sized cultivars, and outshines many more common types of hollies with it’s blooms and fruit.  Much like many hollies, the leaves of this plant are pointed and sharp making it a good hedge or background plant. This particular type looks best when mixed with other plants and not left to stand alone, where it’s thin stems are visible. The Mahonia does not have the same branching habit that many other shrubs have, and tends to grow taller and more “leggy” over time rather than wide. It can be planted safely in areas if human traffic without fear of it latching onto the clothing of people passing by.

For areas of moderate to heavy moisture, and heavy shade to full sun, this is a great plant for your yard. Not only is it beautuful and unique from most common landscape plants, but it’s another great native plant we can add to the yard guilt-free, and do something for the local ecosystem while we do it!

Happy Gardening, and remember to check out native plants for your next gardening project - You might be surprised with what you find!

When I was 5, my kindergarten class spent weeks keeping a sharp eye on two incubators in our classroom while we studied the miracle of life. I can remember how waiting for the chicks and ducklings to hatch seemed to take so long, but I remember thinking it was all worth it the afternoon when I was finally allowed to pick out my own fuzzy chick and take it home. While that original chicken has long been in the happy-pecking-grounds in the sky somewhere over the DC suburbs, I confess, urbanite that I am, I harbor a desire to one day add chickens to my home and garden!

Robin, over at Bumblebee Blog has done just that, and carved out a divine little slice of Maryland heaven not to far from where I live currently.  As a devoted gardener who’s large country property provided a quiet escape from her city day job, Robin’s blog has evolved into a charming conversation over everything from her garden, to new chicken rearing feats, and her Papillon’s never ending struggle to keep pesky deer out of the yard. Her entries are filled with photos of her home and garden, or even the newest recipe she’s whipped up with her garden’s produce, and believe me, everything looks good! 

Bumblebee Blog is a great breath of fresh air in the garden blogging world. She writes with humor and wit, and is a natural storyteller.  Her posts inevitably end up feeling like a friendly visit over lemonade with a good friend, and are guaranteed to bring a smile to your face every time you visit. 

This week make some time to visit Robin’s garden through the link above, and see if she can’t brighten your day, and give you a few ideas for your yard.  You may even discover a fondness for chickens yourself, if not at least an appreciation for one misguided rooster named “T. Boone Chickens.”

Happy Gardening!

Last night I was sitting by a bedroom window, when a neighbor’s dog flushed a raccoon out of the garden, and straight up my front porch columns to the roof, passing me to duck into a nearby rooftop! Aside from my surprise at seeing an unexpected furry object come flying across my porch roof, I hadn’t realized that Raccoons were living in the house next door. While the animals are leaving my own home and vegetable patch alone for the time being, it never hurts to have a back-up plan in case the animals ever need to be removed from my property.

The folks over at the  All Pest Control website  have been writing great how-to articles to help homeowners with trapping nuisance animals with just the tools and supplies common to the average household.  Their step by step instructions for a “fool proof” way to trap raccoons is simple, and can be recreated in your own yard using just a trash can, some water, a board, and form of dangling bait. If  you are in need of a little raccoon assistance yourself, check out their manual on Home-made Raccoon Traps.  

Photo Courtesy of: Harlequeen

Coleus is a colorful annual that is great for brightening up your shady spots. It comes in dozens of different color variations, and it grows to be quite bushy in only a few weeks, so it makes a wonderful pot filler. 

Ingredients:

• One 24 inch pot
• 2 Coleus Plants of differing varieties
• 4-5 Blue Star Creeper plants
• 4 Brown Faced Pansies
• 2 Pale Spiked Lobelia

This design uses two varieties of Coleus, ‘Splish Splash’ on the right, and ‘Granny Smith’ on the left, to fill in the background of this container. The foreground of the pot is encircled with delicate ‘Blue Star Creeper,’ which is actually a groundcover that does a great job of filling in any open spaces around the edges. The mid-ground of the container is mixed with wide Brown Faced Pansies, and the delicately blooming Pale Spiked Lobelia.

Mixing Annuals and Perennials:

This design like many others mixes annuals and perennials, which can allow you to change out the spent annuals seasonally to add fresh and relevant plants to your display every couple of months. Changing just a few flowers with the season can lend you a bit of continuity in your designs while giving you the option of adding fresh colors and textures cheaply depending on what is available in small sizes at your local nursery or grocery store. The Coleus, and Pansies in this pot are annuals, and will not return for you after the fall season - although the Pansies often self seed, and plant themselves in new spots. The the Lobelia is actually a North American native perennial, and will come back for you repeatedly, as will the Blue Star ‘Laurentia,’ which is not native.

Be sure to plant your flowers in a layer of compost or leaf mold, or add a time release fertilizer like  Ozmocote to guarantee fast growth, and lots of healthy blooms.

I was encouraged recently to lead the charge designing and installing a roadside park on an abandoned field for Rebuilding Together. I joined up with Rebuilding Together Baltimore, a national non-profit organization focusing on community revitalization projects, to brighten up the entrance to the community of Dundalk, Maryland.

Working together with community organizers and a county planner, I came up with a design for the field that would incorporate flower beds along the roadside to welcome people to the community, and open turf space for picnics, and play areas for the neighborhood kids.  When I first walked the field to take measurements with the county planner the field was overgrown with ornamental grasses, and weeds up to 6 feet tall, with furniture, and all sorts of other odds and ends dumped in it. The field was about 60 feet wide and 115 feet long, so there was a lot of space to fill once it was cleared out, and only $2000 worth of budget money for the entire project.

The volunteersof Americorps pitched in to initially clear the field, and I set to work designing a flower bed for full sun, that would be drought tolerant, and self seeding.  I broke the length of the field into several sections, and created three beds approximately 25 feet wide, and 10 feet deep, ten feet back from the road.  I spaced the beds 10 feet apart from each other to allow for air flow, and to break up the flowers a bit, creating the appearance of a fuller and larger garden overall.

Since the beds themselves would be very large I chose to focus on mass plantings of only 7 varieties of plants, arranging them in ways that would keep the eye moving, while providing blooms from spring through fall. The perennials I chose were Daylilys, Autumn Joy Sedum, Black Eyed Susans, Purple Coneflowers, Yarrow, Coral Bells, and Liatris. All of these plants do well in poor soil, are drought tolerant, and spread on their own.  En mass these plants will stand out on the side of the highway, and over the next two years will fill in any spaces between each other to create a really full appearance.

The design I created is pictured above, including the Euonymous bushes, and Crepe Myrtle Trees that provide the background to this garden, and the natural privacy fence for the open field behind them.

All together we planted 520 plants, leveled the newly cleared field, planted grass seed, fertilized the area, and covered the field with straw in only a few hours.

I’ll be sure to include pictures soon with the garden filled out this summer, so you can see how it matured! Below is the entire field and garden bed when we finished 6 hours later.

The Delaware Department of Agriculture and the United States Department of Agriculture have published an online booklet for the Mid-Atlantic region, (from New Jersey to Virginia) that will help homeowners, and land managers with the difficult task of differentiting between problematic foreign invasive plants, and their native look-alikes.

The US Government spends billions of dollars each year trying to combat the rapid spread of invasive plants in waterways, national parks, and farmland, and the private industry spends equal that amount from their own budgets to do the same. The trouble with many invasive and rapidly growing plants is that they look much like their native cousins, who pose no ecological threat here in their home environment.  For many land managers, including myself, differentiating between the native (and protected) plant, and the look-alike invasive plant can be difficult.  This guide contains the best side-by-side compairisons between these plants that I have ever seen, including pictures, descriptions, and even reasons why the plant needs to be removed.

For those of us in the business who can’t tell the difference between “Giant Hogweed,” and a “Cow Parsnip,” this guide will help you properly identify the difference between the two, while giving you proven tips on the permanent erradication of the invasive.  I particularly appreciate the hints it gives on handling some of the more noxious plants, for instance warning the reader that Hogweed sap on the skin causes chemicals burns when it’s exposed to sunlight.

The guide can be found online through this link and identifies 20 of the most common invasive plants that keep those of us in the ‘Green Industry’ on our toes. It’s a great link to bookmark on your browser, or to print out and have on hand during the growing season for quick identification.

I chose Sedum reflexium, Sedum turnatum, and Sedum acre for this pot, placing the largest spreading Sedum in the top and alternating the more delicate types around the cupola openings.

All three of these are easily found at your local garden store, or you can mix other types of Sedums to personalize the pot your way. Garden centers will often classify these types of Sedum under the title ‘Hen and Chicks,’ or  ’Stonecrop,’ to differentiate them from the more upright ‘Autumn Joy’ Sedum types, and a quick request at your local garden center to be sent in the direction of one of the above titles will send you reliably to the correct plants.

   Sedum reflexium                         Sedum turnatum                                Sedum acre

Planting Tips:

Small Sedum types are easily divided by hand when the soil is moist, and up to three cupolas in the Strawberry container can be filled with the divisions from one four inch purchased pot. Simply empty out each cupola of original soil, and firmly tuck the divided plants, soil and all, into their place. Once you’ve finished planting your pot, keep it watered every few days to prevent the pot from drying out. Keep in mind that the multiple openings in the sides of this pot will increase the speed at which this type of pot can dry out.

St. John’s Wort is a great accent plant for your garden beds and containers, and it’s one of the least known plants of most gardeners today. The family Hypericum contains both flowering shrubs, and a vine form in many different types and colors. The shrubs range in height from 1-10 feet in height when fully grown, while the vine’s low growing habit makes it ideal for erosion control on hillside gardens.  Grown best in zones 4-8, the shrubs and vines do well in partial shade to full sun, but bloom most prolifically in full sun.  These plants are drought tolerant, with 3 inch wide blooms covering them from June through August.  St. John’s Wort is a natural choice for gardens with poor or rocky soil, so it is a great plant to have on hand if you have large areas that need perennials but you don’t have the inclination to create endless formal beds with all the topsoil and mulch that those require.

My favorite use of St. John’s Wort is in tree rings, or as a mass groundcover.  It’s spreading habit can be best appreciated when it is planted in large groups in a location where it won’t take over the entire flower garden.  As a tough perennial, this plant falls on my “Full Sun, Bullet-Proof” plant list, and once it is established you can keep it fresh by mowing over it every few years to keep it flowering and fresh.

Due to its hearty nature St. John’s wort is a plant that should be introduced only in garden areas where its growth habits can be managed.  The USDA lists these plants as a potentially invasive in the wild, so care should be taken to keep it out of naturalized area for the benefit of local wildlife, and the native ecosystem.