Mission Bathtub 2016

[mort]

Wish my dog would protect the garden from pests, rather than be one, she eats all the ripe strawberries, tomato's and the apples she can reach. She did used to eat snails but luckily grew out of it. She also has a thing for pulling plants out of the pond which is why I had to build a prettier wildlife pond in the front away from her

 

[zozo]

Are you sure it's a dog?? sertainly doesn't sound like one..

 

[mort]

Are you sure it's a dog?? sertainly doesn't sound like one..

She's into everything (well she is when I trim her fringe so she can see, then its look out pigeons) and a real trouble maker but has the nicest playful nature.

 

[zozo]

She's into everything (well she is when I trim her fringe so she can see, then its look out pigeons) and a real trouble maker but has the nicest playful nature.

And a real cutie.. Is it a Doodle?? 🙂

 

[Greenfinger2]

Hi that is one cool looking dog Mort 🙂

 

[mort]

And a real cutie.. Is it a Doodle?? 🙂

She's a cockapoo and we got her for her nature (proper follow you around lapdog) then found out they are fashionable at the moment which we certainly aren't.

 

[zozo]

She's a cockapoo

Awsome, i thought i knew dogs, but never heard of that breed.. Cockapoo?? Eating fruit, vegtables, plants and snails, does she talk too, sound like a mixed parrot breed..
Realy cute lovely looking dog, didn't look it up, but the name? Is it a spaniel mix??

 

[Andy Thurston]

Isn't it a cocker spaniel cross poodle?

 

[mort]

Awsome, i thought i knew dogs, but never heard of that breed.. Cockapoo?? Eating fruit, vegtables, plants and snails, does she talk too, sound like a mixed parrot breed..
Realy cute lovely looking dog, didn't look it up, but the name? Is it a spaniel mix??

No but she hops on her back legs like a kangaroo when excited and walks upright occasionally. All in all she's a bit mental but in a good way. As mentioned above its a cross between a cocker spaniel and poodle, so they don't shed, but it was the nature not the none shedding that drew us to her. We then found there are dozens around us, all quite quite mad
But she has taken up enough time on your beautiful thread

 

[zozo]

No but she hops on her back legs like a kangaroo when excited and walks upright occasionally. All in all she's a bit mental but in a good way. As mentioned above its a cross between a cocker spaniel and poodle, so they don't shed, but it was the nature not the none shedding that drew us to her. We then found there are dozens around us, all quite quite mad
But she has taken up enough time on your beautiful thread

Thought i saw a poodle in there, these are anyway the most underestimated dogs around.. Poodles are very sensitive and intelligent dogs if not the most of all. That's why if there where dogs in a circus it are usualy poodles.. In a way their heritage as aquatic hunting game retrievers (hence their named poodle) can't be more suitable in a pond topic. Thanks for introducing her to me.. Lovely pretty dog with a even more lovely story..

 

[zozo]

In all those years i grow this plant i never had it do this..

A flowering Elodea


In the whole garden barely a flower to find, cause the sun and temps were held back so long.. And now an Elodea flower?



🙂

 

[kadoxu]

Wow! Awesome!

 

[zozo]

Nothing much goin on, the summer is much to inconsistent this year, if it's not cloudy and rainy it's a darn heatwave burning the hell out of everything..
It still is fun, but very limited, with more drawbacks than succes stories.. I'm not expecting any flowers anymore from the more delicate spieces, it probably is much to late for that. Only the weedy ones are flowering a bit.






I do not run the waterfall all day long, they assured me the cut in half wine barrel beeing water tight. Well it is, but not 100%, it starts to leak higher at the top a bit and spoils water. On a 24 hour periode filled to the top so it flows over, spills to much water.. I only run it a few hours a day to get everything splashed wett, but it still aint enough. Need to think of something to seal it copletely for next year.. Some kit in the seams or epoxy coating, dunno yet.. 🙂


Repaired an old cracked pot with silicone and filled it with pond soil and water and some aquatic plants to see how it holds on.. It holds on pretty good it all day long in the sun and still water tight. Especialy the Myriophillum brasiliensis likes it in there and grows realy well.. I'll take this pot inside for the winter and try to grow it on..


Some how without noticing a little bit of hygroryza aristata which i have floating in the pond also ended up in this pot. They must have been so small in the beginning not to obviously show, didn't know it was in there. And it happily grows on, it likes to grow emersed with its roots in wet soil as well. Actualy didn't think of that before.. This could be a very nice plant to also grow in emersed sections of an indoor setup. Nice accidental discovery.. 🙂


🙂 So despity the shitty summer, still learned some new things, to improve next year..

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Only the weedy ones are flowering a bit.

Nymphoides peltata is nice.

Especialy the Myriophillum brasiliensis likes it in there and grows realy well.. I'll take this pot inside for the winter and try to grow it on..

It may survive outside, it is probably a form of M. aquaticum.

cheers Darrel

 

[zozo]

Hi all, Nymphoides peltata is nice.It may survive outside, it is probably a form of M. aquaticum.

cheers Darrel

Yes the Nymphoides peltata indeed is, few weeks a go i had to take out over half of it.. It grows very agressive, but this year with very few flowers.

That myriophyllum i bought last year as a Brasiliensis on the name tag.. Had it in the aquarium for some months, then emersed above the tank, but took it outside to the pond this summer.. Also got aquaticum, which is larger and other kind of green not having the red stem. If it's a true brasiliensis i do not know.. The aquaticum was indeed a leftover from last year surviving the winter even with a short but rather cold period when it was fully in ice for several weeks.. Still want to take the pot inside, already placed a plantlet in it from the Echinodorus kleiner bähr which grew on the flower stack from the one in my tank. Want to see how it takes of in wet pond soil.. There are multiple spieces in that pot. Started it a bit late and not all realy show yet.

That Myriophyllum realy took of in the organic mud, also got it in the wine barrel on gravel, not growing so fast, i'll see how it holds on in the winter there. 🙂

But i hope this pot stays water tight, it completely cracked in half as you see the crack filled with silicone, but it also has a silicone film inside. So it's a double experiment.
The pot actualy cracked in half last winter because it was full with water and frooze..

 

[zozo]

This morning i was hunting for snails in my wine barrel.. 🙂 The helophyte swamp bucket and filter basket behind it grew into a nice jungle by now, where Cyperus is realy dominating the scenery. Very nice plant actualy and very willing to cary seeds, collected quite a few by now.


But in noticed a rather large and long strain of some kind of eggs in my filter basket.


From what amfibious animal would these be? Doesn't look like frog or toad, tho i found some toads in the garden lately. And this time of year also sems a bit odd to me. But they are there.. Realy wonder what will come out of it.. I'll keep track of it to see how it developes if it doesn't get eaten by something along the way. Maybe i should take a few inside and put in a jar? 🙂 Does anybode recognize this? Also seeing the amount of eggs it aint a small animal like a salamander or something. It aint frog nor toad as far as i can find out i guess..

Edit:
I think i found the answer.. Lately found a very huge and ugly slimey Leopard slug crawling around my garden. I suspect thats the culprit.. Also have many helix pomatia snails around.. Darn and i was hoping for something beautiful and interesting. And probably end up with a ton of rather hidious little plant eating monsters. Remarkable if it is snail or slug that they cary such a large amount of rather large eggs.. If it was from one and the same snail. Never found some like this before.. Probably snail, but not the one i was hunting for..

 

[kadoxu]

This morning i was hunting for snails in my wine barrel.. 🙂 The helophyte swamp bucket and filter basket
From what amfibious animal would these be? Doesn't look like frog or toad, tho i found some toads in the garden lately. And this time of year also sems a bit odd to me. But they are there.. Realy wonder what will come out of it.. I'll keep track of it to see how it developes if it doesn't get eaten by something along the way. Maybe i should take a few inside and put in a jar? 🙂 Does anybode recognize this? Also seeing the amount of eggs it aint a small animal like a salamander or something. It aint frog nor toad as far as i can find out i guess..

Edit:
I think i found the answer.. Lately found a very huge and ugly slimey Leopard slug crawling around my garden. I suspect thats the culprit.. Also have many helix pomatia snails around.. Darn and i was hoping for something beautiful and interesting. And probably end up with a ton of rather hidious little plant eating monsters. Remarkable if it is snail or slug that they cary such a large amount of rather large eggs.. If it was from one and the same snail. Never found some like this before.. Probably snail, but not the one i was hunting for..

I think you are right... I believe Frogs & toads' (and probably salamander) eggs need a bit more water. If you google 'slug eggs' you'll get your answer right away...

 

[mort]

As soon as I saw the picture I thought "why the picture of slug eggs, something must have been munched", then I read your thoughts below and unfortunately we both had the same conclusion. Coming from someone who lost a lot of seedlings to slugs this year and isn't a fan of the little beasties, I'd deposit them somewhere else.

 

[zozo]

Coming from someone who lost a lot of seedlings to slugs

I had i nice lobelia cardinalis in the swamp bucket, it grew up to 80 cm and then, it went back to 40 - 20 - 10 and now is about completely munched away. 🙁
I took the eggs away already, they went in the trashbin, so when the slug babies emerge they can do what they do best, eat trash.. 🙂

 

[mort]

Luckily that's one they haven't touched (at least yet) and I have three in the pond. We actually added the pond in the hope of attracting frogs and other slug munchers as they were getting a bit much. We can't use pellets as we have so much wildlife around there. So far frogs are croaking in there so here's hoping next year is better for us and yourself.

 

[zozo]

I know the feeling, we have a swampy floodplain of a creek few yards from the house down hill. Slugs all over the place, there is a paved path next to it, walking slaom not to tred on slugs.. 🙂 But they actualy also do good things, they eat dog poop.. Ive seen it, they seem to love it. Not a fan of chemical warfare anyway. I even do not spray for weeds etc, rather wait and see what it is what grows before i pull it out. I'm still hoping to find a Cymbalaria muralis for once.. In the garden i actualy see more edible snails than slugs, only noticed a very fat Leopard slug at the pond lately, never saw such a big one. It kinda scared me the first time i saw it, but then i thought the uggly bugger had kinda beautiful markings... Still left it alone all tho i suspect it grew so big from my lobelia and probably dumped the eggs as well.

They have as much right to be here as we do.. 🙂 If you can't fight it enjoy it i always say.. Next time i plant my lobelia as i did the first time, on an island surrounded with water. There snails can't get to it. 🙂 Was my own ignorance, not knowing and planting it where it is vulnerable.

Next year more changes and learned something again.

 

[zozo]

Btw the baby goldfish are all doing great, for now i know i got about 20 of them. A few are still living in the wine barrel, 8 are living indoor in a my small plant bin tank.. And about 10 i introduced to their parents.. 🙂 They are one big happy family now munching around all day long in the bathtub.. So the sounds you might notice is not me sucking a lolipop, it's them. 🙂.. A few of already developed some nice color paterns too while the others still are simply, black if seen from above throught the surface. The biggest of the adults all definitevely is a female, so probably also a mama this year. And of the white ones also is a female, probablt the mother of the lighter colored babies.

Unfortunately, not much flowering going on in the plants, no lilies no lotus and no many others.. As said already a lot in this topic. In a way can't get over it. Tried so hard.. 🙁

But they are happy 🙂 what more can i want.