Glug, Ponds have pests. We have already spoken of weeds and that they are both beneficial and damaging. Animals are the same. The reason you have a pest is because you do not have control. Froggie, you are a better predator than I; however, it is my responsibility to be the TOP top predator until … Read more
Gluggiest, lookee I know you are worried that I am getting a little far afield from the pond. Glug, while PonDocing I saw that the pond extended far outside its shore. Many ponds were overwhelmed with voles and gophers. Deer ate everything around the pond. The absolute best top predator is a raptor. The common … Read more
Glug, I know you have lived in bad frog houses. Your cousin, the newt often is the first inhabitant in mud bottom dead ponds. How do you make a good frog house? PonDoc has very easy methods to restore a pond. I have touched on each of these methods in previous blogs so will link … Read more
Glug Froggie, Ancient Chinese written 3,000 years ago on bamboo describes birds being good for ponds. Birds normally roost over water and their droppings fall into the water. Speculatively, because birds eat mainly cellulose, the microflora of birds has cellulose digesters. These are natural pond bacteria. The pond bird ecosystem is extremely complex and requires … Read more
Herbicides Don’t Work! Dear Froggie, I know you love the weeds. Native pond weeds although unsightly are wonderful. They provide habitat for many of the pond inhabitants. However, they do get out of control. There are basically two kinds of weeds, the natives and invaders. Both require the same treatment: replacement. You want to eradicate … Read more
Dearest Gluggy, I bet you have had the impudence to sit on her highness’s barge. It is a wonderful craft. She tows it to the sun and basks for hours diving occasionally and chewing the grubs from her throne making it perfect turtle furniture. It is an honor to have her highness come to live … Read more
Dearest Green Gluggums, Most ponds are built by fishing enthusiasts. It is always the first question I get, “What kind of fish can I have?” Because a pond fishery is so much more than fish and water, this is a difficult question as most ponds are little more. A fishery needs a balanced ecology to … Read more
Dear Glug, Solar energy powers the pond. If you build a pond, you can provide planting beds for water plants constructing the pond’s engine (see Pond Physics). The engine is a river run rock shelf completely around the shore edge. This shelf should undulate so as not to have wave action. And it is at … Read more
Gluger, Have you ever wondered why things are shaped as they are? Why do trees look like trees? Or mountains look the way they do? There is a reason. Everything we see is made of either polymers of carbon or silicon. They both have exactly the same symmetry forming perfect cubic bonding. We are seeing … Read more
Froggie, I know you lack the ability to control your temperature where some hard-hearted call this cold blooded. You gain all of your energy directly from the pond. We need to understand how the heating/cooling system works so that you are not too warm in the summer or too cold in the winter. Excess heat … Read more