Pond and wetland greening up
As I suspected would happen,
the main garden got going before I really finished our greywater
wetland and mini-pond. One of these days,
I'll come back to the project --- channeling roof water into the
wetland, putting rocks around the pond as edging so it's less obvious
the liner is a hunk of plastic, painting the washing machine so it
doesn't rust away, and making another cobbled area for a bathtub.
Luckily, nature has been busy smoothing out the rough edges of the
project despite neglect on my part.
I'll start your tour
with the wetland, which is definitely doing its primary job of soaking
up our sink water and keeping Lucy out of the food scraps in the
effluent. The cattails we transplanted near the entrance are
coming up too! The jury's still out on whether this spot will
stay wet enough to really support wetland plants, but so far so good.
Meanwhile, the little
pond is coming to life very quickly now that we're getting some warm
days. I know at least two of the three goldfish are still alive,
and my various inoculants have done a good job of
introducing more pond life, like the tadpole snail above, a
subterranean striped beetle, and some nearly microscopic
something-or-others. Plus, the water is no longer crystal clear,
but is instead teeming with algae, and the surface is becoming covered
with duckweed. If we do decide to play with aquaponics, the pond is definitely
strong enough now to get a system going.
Or maybe it'll just sit
there through the summer and keep me happy whenever I look out the back
door. Either way works.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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I'm in love with your blog. You guys are such an inspiration. I especially like how informative your articles are.
One quick question. I'm assuming you have to be careful with what detergents you use when using the grey water to fill you pond. What soaps are you currently using?