Pond Diary -- July 2009 (at the end a photo from July 4,
2010)
The above photo was taken on July 3. June was a rainy month with
about 5 inches of rainfall (1.5 inches above normal) and heavy rains during
the first two days of July. The creek has overflowed three times. In the past
the water has gone over the bridges, but these overflows were only as high as
the bottom of the bridges. I think many tadpoles and little frogs may have gone
down-stream, but no problem, there are thousands left. Along with the great
numbers of tadpoles there are many snails -- in fact I think it may be the summer
of the snails.
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For a primer on snails go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snail
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July 3: Just a photographic record of the garden; the garden
flowers and "squash ridge" the day after a creek overflow. We ate
the first small yellow squash today. The garden pictured above is the tilled
side; the other side had carpet laid down between the rows. The carpet make
it difficult to maintain the raised rows; although no weeds grew where the carpet
was laid, the weeds along the edges were difficult to pull; the ground seem
more saturated with water than the tilled side; and in general the plants didn't
seem to be doing as well on the carpet side. So, I rolled up all the carpet
except for the carpet on "squash ridge" which is doing a good job
controlling the weeds and as the ridge is higher than were the ones in the garden,
the drainage seems much better (even though the ridge has been flooded at least
three times).
July 10: Started a new round of mucking (that means dragging
mud from the pond bottom onto the islands or the of edge of the pond). To do
the whole pond will take about 4 hours of hard work for about a week. This is
how the pond and islands have been built. In about two weeks the mucked island
will be green again! In this round of mucking I'm also pulling tons of milfoil
out of the pond. Photos below shows a mucked island, a non-mucked island and
a shot of the heavy milfoil in the pond. I could see many minnows swimming in
the clear areas of the milfoil.
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July 10: Dragonflys and damselflies were quite active today.
Below are two shots of whitetailed dragonflys (male) and the female on the right.
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July 11: Dragonfly lecture at the Albany Pine Bush Discovery
Center. Jason Bried, preserve ecologist, says that the pond plant is not milfoil
but Elodea (waterweed), possibly Elodea nuttali
July 23: In a walk around the edge of the pond this morning,
nine large frogs, well-spaced, jumped from the land into the pond -- no doubt
each with its own established territory. The pond and frogs are ready for our
August 9th "Frog Frolic."
July 4, 2010 -- Islands have gone "wild" and I'm in
the process of harvesting milfoil for garden mulch.
For a milfoil mulch primer go to: Milfoil
Harvesting
Back to Pond Diary -- June
2009
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to Pond Diary -- August, 2009