Tag Archives: Guide

Tips For Setting Up A Backyard Fish Pond

Garden PondDo you have a garden pond? Or would you like one? A garden pond or a water garden does not have to be large to totally change how you make use of your garden. The sound of running water is so soothing and a pond fountain or a waterfall can have a cooling effect on a hot summer’s day. Watching the fish carry out their daily lives is calming too and many gardeners like the chance to branch out into the new realm of aquatic plants.

If your pond is sunk into the earth, your could watch it from above or you could build it above ground and use perspex windows to watch your fish on their own level. Your fish will breed too, so you will have a new, perfect, ecosystem in your own garden.

Select the site of your pond with care. Try to position it on slightly higher ground, so that it is not flooded with all your garden’s rainwater in the course of heavy rains. Beware of putting your pond under a tree or you will always be raking leaves out of the water, which is a real pain. Siting your pond in a location where it is in at least partial shade when the sun is high will also help reduce on algae growth.

However, once the contractor has constructed your pond and you have stocked it, is the time when your work commences. Maybe not work, maybe you will enjoy maintaining your fish and your fish pond. This is not hard and a largish pond will need hardly any maintenance at all, most of it can be mechanized.

One of the first things that you will have to try to do is stop your garden falling into the pond. You do not want surrounding mud dropping into the pond and literally muddying the water. This can be achieved by lining your pond with a butyl pond liner and bringing the liner up over the lip of the pond by a foot or two.

Then you need to keep that in place. This can be done to suit your taste, but many people put a stone or brick walkway around the pond. If you let this overhang the pond by an inch or two, you will almost totally hide the pond liner.

Most people overfeed their fish, because fish outdoor will find a lot of natural food such as flies, larvae and grubs. This surplus food turns into a surplus of nutrients. This super-charged water is a perfect environment for algae, and algae is going to be your undying enemy. However, you can soak up some of these surplus nutrients with other plants that you are keen on.

Aquatic plants such as lilies really make a pond and they will help aerate the water during the day when the water may be warmer (warm water contains less oxygen than cool water). Plants also give your fish somewhere to take cover from predators and strong sunlight, which will diminish stress on your fish as well.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is now involved with water garden pumps. If you are interested in a Solar Powered Pond Pump, please go to our web site now for a special deal.

If you’s like a garden pond but want someone else to build it and you live between Westville and Assagy call Matt on 084 712 5129 and he can take care of it for you.

Koolscapes 400 Gallon Pond Kit with Lighting
publisher: Koolatron
ASIN: B003TO83FI
EAN: 0068462100034
sales rank: 18165

The popularity of backyard ponds continues to grow at a vigorous pace. This Ultimate Kit includes everything you need to not only construct a beautiful water garden, but to beautify it with lighting.

Or if you want to build it yourself and need some advice try this guide:

The Easy Way to Build Your Koi Pond Now!

An easy step by step concise guide to creating block and liner koi ponds. This guide makes it easy, you can print it out and have it by your side.

Guide to Bonsai Tools

To practice the art of Bonsai you must have the proper tools. I am going to list and describe the more common bonsai tools. When you first start out you will not need all of the tools listed and depending on your level of involvment in Bonsai you may never need them all.

Pruning & Cutting Tools
Pruning and cutting tools are used for any cutting that is too heavy to be performed with scisssors.

Concave Branch Cutter: These are heavy duty cutters designed similar to bolt cutters. They are used to cleanly and smoothly remove fair sized branches.
Spherical Knob CUtters: Are similar to the branch cutter except the cutting piece is spherical. These are designed to cut through heavy knobs or knots.
Folding Pruning saw: This is a small rough cut saw that with a blade that folds back into the handle similar to a pocket knife. They are used for cutting very heavy branches or when you need to cut down the trunk of your bonsai tree.
Shears: You use shears for many different medium to light cutting jobs.
Woodworking Gouges: Gouges are used for multiple artistic purposes in bonsai. They are frequently used to remove bark or to score the trunk to simulate natural damage to a tree.

Scissors:
Scissors are a staple tool for all bonsai enthusiast, they come in various shapes and sizes to handle various jobs.
Leaf Cutting Scissors: Just as the name implies these are used mainly for light work like pruning back or removing leaves.
Shoot Trimming Scissors: These are a heavier set of scissors designed for cut small to mid-sized shoots or branches.
Heavy Duty Shoot Scissors: These are an even heavier pair of scissors designed for all the shoots that are too large for the regular shoot scissors but too small for a pruner.

Potting Tools
The pot that you keep your bonsai in is very important for both it’s health and proper development. Bonsai need frequent re-potting and root modification. These are the tools most useful for those tasks.

Root Hooks: These are used to seperate the root ball into a more managable form for trimming and pruning. They are a heavy wire bent at one end and usually sharpened to a fair point.
Potting Trowel: This is just a small garden trowl that will be used to dig and manipulate the soil in your bonsai pot.
Soil Scoops: Are small metal or plastic cups with a handle and the open end is cut into a scoop shape. They are used to remove or add soil to the pot.

Brush: Soft brushes are used to lightly clean and maintain the trunk, branches and leaves of the bonsai.

Wire Tools:
Wires are frequently used to train the bonsai plant into the proper artistic form. There are a multitude of tools used to work with wire most of these are available at any hardware or automotive store.

Common Wire Snips: These are common wire snips that are frequently used by electricians, they should be heavy enough to handle any of the aluminumum wire used for bonsai.
Heavy Duty Wire Snips : These are just a heavier version of the snips listed above that might be needed if you are working with some heavier than average wire.
Pliers: Common house hold pliers are used for bending and twisting the wire into the proper shape and position.
Needle Nose Pliers: These are pliers that come to a fine point and are useful for working in tight confines around the trunk and branches.

Miscelenous Tools
Some general tools that do not fit in any of the other categories.

Chop Sticks: These are perfect for tamping and working the soil down around the roots of the tree.
Gardeners Knife: This is handy for many of the heavy non-delicate cutting you have to do.
Rake: A small rake just like a garden or yard rake except in miniature is used to clean and maintain the surface of the soil.
Tweezers: Tweezers are often necessary to work around the limited space on many bonsai.

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