Spring Cleanup, Pond draining, landscaping and koi karnage...

Well we went about our usual spring cleanup of the pond with Tommy draining the pond, donning waders and scooping the fish out to a large trash can filled with pond water. Since we were able to drain, clean and refill the pond in one day we didn't think we needed to put the air bubbler in the trash can with the fish. Boy were we wrong. This is the second or third time we've watched as our poor fish make it through the winter under the ice, greet us in the spring ready to be fed and have the algae and sludge cleaned out of their home only to be  carelessly handled by us in that endeavor and sent on their way to fish heaven. Man we felt really badly about that. Part of the learning curve I suppose and we now know never to move them without adequate aeration even if only for a short time. We lost our largest two koifish but the smaller guys survived. We also decided on Mother's Day weekend that we needed to dig up the grass alongside the bamboo fence that the dogs had peed into oblivion with no real chance of ever looking like grass again. We have made that into a nice perennial garden of sorts with some Japanese flair.

This is an idea of how nasty the water and algae are in the spring

can't really see all of the algae blooms and string algae but it's rampant!

getting prepped with the power washer and the trash can of death... :-(

Tommy scooping fish. Those are some mighty fine lookin waders! 

There's the big guy...last we saw of him alive sadly

power washing the pond

yitch

now onto dealing with the dog pee dead grass...

digging up the sod and replacing it with some landscaping like these cute little bonsai's, some perennials and Japanese Flame Grass

We moved the Japanese Maple next to the fence

Our awesome neighbor Tom came over with his wife Kris and our other neighbor Nancy with bloody mary's for Mother's Day! He ended up getting put to work! Thanks Tom!

we supervised...

Tom and Tommy digging up dead sod

and here we have the after effects of all of the hard work!

no more algae!

flowers planted and pond plants coming back

 the fence behind the pond will be finished this summer to match the rest of the cedar/bamboo picture frame fence around the yard

the Belizean hammock is up and some azaleas and rhododendrons planted this year!

outdoor living room and Zen area back in business!

Wow! What a difference from before and after!

It took us a month of digging up, cleaning up and replanting but it's all worth it in the end! We can finally enjoy our backyard and the summer months of Zen Garden time! It's a vacation right in our backyard! Come on over... the Zen is OPEN!