koi pond & water gardens 2002

Views of the pond from various angles after the excess liner has been trimmed and camouflaged.

The retaining wall between the main pond and plant pond is topped by two potted ivy plants.

After replacing all the boulders, river rock, flagstone, and perennial plants, we've run out of steam and are calling it quits for this year. The waterfall will be faced with stone next spring and we'll also refine the landscaping a little more.

The humans have run out of energy, but the fish haven't! The koi have spawned several times and the goldfish are reproducing like crazy.

These pictures are from late July, 2002.

Overall, we're satisfied that the design looks as good in real life as it did on paper during those long cold winter months we spent on drawing and redrawing this plan.

Our koi were always timid and shy in the long, narrow design of pond #2. In this pond, they seem much happier and friendlier. We've trained the fish to eat from our hands!

We've learned that koi need to be at least 8 inches long to spawn. Three or four have reached that size and have reproduced prolifically. The eggs get eaten almost as quickly as they're released, but quite a few have survived.

A mystery: There really is no way for a fish to be able to get up into the top plant pond. Even an egg would have to travel through the skimmer filter, through the UV light, and up through three layers of filter padding in the waterfall. But there are several baby fish up in that pond, blissfully swimming around the plants. How'd they get up there?

One baby fish, who we've named Baby, is a pure white butterfly koi with a perfect round orange spot in the middle of the top of his head. It's a thrill each day to see him dart out from under a lily pad or swim out of a hiding place in a rock crevice.