The September Pond.

Earlier this year I started taking pictures of my pond around mid month to show what's happening around and in it. It's been a great way for me to notice things happening that I otherwise probably wouldn't notice. When you see something everyday you don't always see the subtle changes happening.

The water lily pads are yellowing and not many new ones are appearing, a sign of fall in the pond. A lot of the foliage on the pond plants are beginning to die back. My poor mini cattails were beat up by the raccoons and so never formed catkins this year. I need to repot it in a bigger container weighted with rocks.

This is a new water garden container I just put together this week. I bought these plants, Miniature Golden Sweet Flag 'Minimus Aureus' (Acorus gramineus), thinking they would like growing along the damp side of the pond, only to realize there isn't space. Oops. I like them in the container better anyway.

Hardy fuchsia which hangs over the pond. Every once in awhile an idea I have in mind really works the way I imagined. I love the idea of plants hanging over the edges of the pond to soften the rock edging.

'Sioux' has slowed way down with the flowers.

Blue Pickerel Weed has more blooms coming which surprised me.

Amazing to see the difference in lighting that really shows between this picture and the first in this post. The "sun" or bright area under the clouds was behind me. Here the picture is taken through the new Japanese Blood Grass 'Red Baron' (something I've been admiring on Frances' blog lately) is a hint of what was planted in the new area behind this space that I've been working on this week. Lots of digging and moving plants around.

The plantings around the pond are still looking pretty good, although the growth has slowed down quite a bit. The apples are getting nice and red and more are ready to be picked. The fish are still very active and looking for food, but as the weather begins to cool they will spend more time at the bottom of the pond. The good part is that the birds are visiting the pond and feeders more right now. That's why I love this pond, there's always something going on around it or in it.

The pond in August.

A few months ago I started taking pictures of the pond mid-month. It's been fun to see what is blooming in and out of the pond each month. The only thing I wish I could've figured out to do is what to plant in the planter at the top of the pond, right behind the waterfall.

Along the side of the pond the dead looking groundcover is Blue Star Creeper that didn't seem to tolerate all the sun we had. It will probably come back eventually as we get closer to fall. The red plant in the background is a hardy fuchsia.

The red Cardinal (Lobelia) flower has been attracting hummingbirds. I'm glad the raccoons didn't knock it in the other night. The tall plant on the right in the pond is Pickerel Weed, this its the first time I've grown it, and it's had quite a few blooms on it. Around the pond Echinacea, Rudbeckia, Phlox and Agastache.

Another of the long awaited Water lily blooms. I just realized the Koi managed to get in the picture near the bottom. We've started calling it "Big Daddy" since it's by far the largest fish in the pond.

'Sioux' blooms are smaller than when they first started blooming in Spring.

I noticed earlier this summer that there didn't seem to be much going on around the pond because so many flowers were late summer bloomers, now it's looking really nice and should for at least another month or so.