Sunday in the garden

 My shade house has become a jungle, I plan to transform it as soon as I am finished with the house renos.

 One of my favorite Heliconias

 Lettuce ready to be harvested

 Scallop squash

 Cucumbers

 Milkweeds (asclepias) waiting to be transplanted for the monarch butterfly.

Jamaica Poinsettia
I am paying more attention to the garden now the house renos are almost finished. On Saturday my hubby and some helpers drained the round pond and cleaned it.

 See the two albino sharks and Moby Dick in the middle swimming together.

It was a right mess and had been so for several months. The pump was not working properly and hubby took it to the repair shop. The shop tried opening it and broke the case housing the pump because the screws were fused together. It is still there waiting to find a similar used housing. So last month Hubby went to visit his mother in Miami and brought back a new pump.  Now the pump and filter are up and running again with a clean pond to boot.
Have a great week my friends!

Pond repairs Jan 2008

Continued from the post "an old year has ended". I got in contact with Junior the mason who came along with the help of Andy got started chipping away the old plaster. Beneath the plaster we saw fine roots from the golden palms that had grown into the stonework and had cracked the pond. I removed what I was able to and mixed a spray can of root kill. I then sprayed the entire stonework with this mixture when Junior and Andy had finished removing the plaster.

All the old plaster has been removed and Junior has started measuring the sand for the cement.

Here I am on the bags of sand supervising the crew LOL

Junior and Andy busy mixing the mortar

Junior plastering the stonework

The plaster had to dry for a week before we started sealing the pond. We used a liquid rubber and applied it with a roller brush.

We did the floor as well and left it for a few days to dry after applying several coats of the liquid rubber.

The gravel was rewashed and dumped back into the pond. That took about two days. The pond was filled and that took a day and a half. The plants and fish were brought back in. We had only one casualty with the fish. We lost a comet and have since replaced it several more.

You can see the mystic sharks enjoying their newly repaired home

This pond repair was a major job and we don't anticipate doing it anytime soon. My thanks again to Richard, my mother in law Barbara, Andy and Anne, and Junior the mason.