It is officially the shortest day of the year, but you wouldn’t think it on this warm, sunny June afternoon. It’s been a strange year weather wise. Despite a few wild storms it seems like we’ve had more mild sunny days than rainy ones, and I think the plants are confused. My Ceylon lily is in full, fragrant bloom, the Winter Pink Heliconia is blooming as if was in sunny Queensland and quite a few Oncidium and miniature Cymbidium orchids are blooming or sending out spikes.
It was the perfect day for a Cornish cream tea under the patio. I did manage to do a few jobs in the garden as well, including prune and repot some indoor plants that I had accidentally drowned, and plant up a new pond plant.
I keep my houseplants in cache pots, so hadn’t realised that a couple hadn’t been drying out fully as they do in summer. The result was some severe cases of wet feet. Although wet midriff might have been a more accurate description for one of my poor satin Pothos. I hastily evacuated them outside, unpotted them, gently washed away the stagnant mix, pruned all the rotted roots and potted them back up with a perlite-heavy potting mix before watering with dilute Seasol solution. They should recover soon enough. If not, I did make a few cuttings as insurance. As I was in a pruning mood, I also cut back my neon Philodendron which was beginning to get unruly.
The pond is looking good. At the start of the week the water was looking a little green, and we realised that we hadn’t activated the UV clarifier in the filter when we first set it up. After a few days the water was crystal clear again, and I can see that the minnows have settled in nicely. The males are flitting in and out of the weeds, sparing and trying to entice the females to spawn. I also noticed that one of my 4 original leopard danios was looking extremely full in the belly, and assumed that they are also ready to spawn. After reading that they prefer to spawn over pebbles, I bought two perforated seedling trays and filled them with a thick layer of Carnarvon gravel. I haven’t seen them making use of them, but at least they now have the option. I also noticed my first dragonfly nymph in the pond. I’m not sure how I feel about it. I love dragonflies, but I just hope he doesn’t decide to wipe out my fish before start reproducing. The pond is brimming with bloodworms and other aquatic critters, so hopefully he has enough to eat without going after the minnows.
The pond needs more plant life, but I am stuck until September-November when water lilies come back into season. In the meantime, I have been trying to add more submerged or “oxygenating” plants. Today I picked up an overgrown red Ludwigia (Ludwigia repens) at City Farmers. Grown as a bunch plant in a dinky pot of pebbles an rockwool, I transferred it into a repurposed black Halloween candy bucket. I split it into individual stems and lay them around the rim of the bucket (half-filled with aquatic planting mix), topped up the soil and capped it with a layer of river sand to stop excess nutrient leaching and any organic particles floating away.
I haven’t grown this plant before, but it is reputedly quite weedy, so assume it will fill out and reach the surface in no time. Like the other plants, when it matures I hope to divide it and plant more out for fish habitat. I have positioned the submerged plants against the southern side of the pond where they are receiving full, all day winter sun. I’m not sure if the shaded side will be able to support plants over winter, but when I get a few more I can experiment.