4Real Forums: perhaps a pond in the backyard??

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Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
4Real Forums : Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science

Topic: perhaps a pond in the backyard??

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hereinantwerp
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Joined: Dec 17 2005
Location: Washington
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Posted: Sept 06 2006 at 2:31pm \| IP Logged

has anyone ever made a little bitty pond in the backyard?

I was thinking this might be a neat opportunity for nature observation/journaling, and maybe that way we could welcome some water-friendly creatures in--like a frog, for my frog-loving son, if I could figure out how--

so I just wondered if anyone has tried this. or would it just breed mosquitoes and be mucky and gross?

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Angela Nelson

Mother to Simon (13), Calvin (9), and Lyddie Rose (3)

my blog: live and learn

MacBeth
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Probably at the beach...

Joined: Jan 27 2005
Location: New York
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Posted: Sept 06 2006 at 7:30pm \| IP Logged

I have. You need a liner (or container), a pump and a filter. Get fish if you like, or just let what grows grow. Mosquitoes are usually not a problem if you use a filter, but you can get "mosquito dunks" to keep the larvae out. Unfortunately, these also kill dragonfly larvae.

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MacBeth in NY
Don's wife since '88; "Mom" to the Fab 4
Nature Study
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ALmom
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Joined: May 18 2005
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Posted: Sept 06 2006 at 9:16pm \| IP Logged

Someone told us to have a fountain to keep mosquitos down - they like still water. But I don't know how true that is - check with someone like MacBeth, she seems to be the local expert. Mosquitos are a huge problem here - still have the mosquito spray truck that comes around in the evenings.

Janet

hereinantwerp
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Location: Washington
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Posted: Sept 07 2006 at 3:39pm \| IP Logged

hmmm, I'm interested--

So a simple fountain wouldn't do it? I always liked those ones that looked like a simple rock or sphere with water coming down the sides . . . I'm wondering if a filter is an expensive thing? And then probably you would need some kind of power? Just wondering how complicated this would become!

I was thinking of something quite small. Not as small as a dishpan, but--small. So I was wondering about finding some kind of simple, shallow container (am also thinking of safety for our toddler). We don't have money to put into a big project, & it seems like when you go to the garden stores, everything costs a ton! This is our first garden or lawn of any kind, BTW, so I'm excited about it but it's all greek to me--!

If it is too complicated I suppose we could do a temporary pond in a dishpan for a while, and then just dump it!

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Angela Nelson

Mother to Simon (13), Calvin (9), and Lyddie Rose (3)

my blog: live and learn

MacBeth
Forum All-Star

Probably at the beach...

Joined: Jan 27 2005
Location: New York
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2518

Posted: Sept 07 2006 at 6:35pm \| IP Logged

Oh, you can even buy complete small fountains, if you are just going for the sound of running water, but a bit bigger will attract wildlife. A fountain will cut down on mosquitoes, but I have found that they still find little areas to lay

their eggs. Hey, you can always drain the water and start again. I highly recommend having a pond, at least for a while. We found so many interesting things would just show up--daphnia, copepods, seed shrimp...fun!

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God Bless!
MacBeth in NY
Don's wife since '88; "Mom" to the Fab 4
Nature Study
MacBeth's Blog

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