A Three - NO Four! Frog Day

A Three – NO Four Frog Day!

            We have a water cascade in our garden.  It has been covered up for several years as the owner of the house filled it in when his children were little.  We stumbled upon it when we were pulling out a particularly large weed and the gardener stepped into the deep end.  Long story short, the pump still worked but there were some holes in the membrane and we’ve been busy caulking and patching the stone work and concrete so we can run it and stop losing water.

            Today was the day to replace the membrane.  I have two fish living in the bottom waterfall pond section so that they can eat the mosquito larvae.   My helper (he does all the work but I have the money so I get to be the boss LOL) arrived and we gathered some buckets.  The best way to fix the holes and leaks in the membrane would be to just take out the old and put in a new.  Luckily the owner had provided me with a large hunk of fresh membrane.  So he starts pulling out water.  I warn him that there are two fish in there and he is able to catch one.  I also saw a frog in there this morning so he’s looking for the frog too.  He catches the frog and I take it and put it in the bigger fish pond on the lily pad.  By the time I got back to the waterfall, my helper had found another frog!  OK, it goes over to the bigger fish pond as well.

            By now, the water level is getting low.  I swipe the net through the water a couple of times and come up with the other fish.  He joins his pal in a bucket and later I put them in the one part of the waterfall/cascade that doesn’t have a leak and has enough water for them and enough mosquito larvae to keep them busy for a few days.  There is maybe 6” of water remaining in the lower pond.  My helper suddenly spies another frog that is decidedly unhappy with the dwindling water.  We fish him out of the pond and he goes to join his pals in the larger pond.  I set them all on a lily pad but by the time I return, they are gone.

            Wow, three frogs.  I knew there were two in the yard but didn’t realize they were both in the cascade.  Finally, we are almost out of water in the basin when my helper says, OMG, here’s another frog, a fourth frog!  He was hiding in the mud at the bottom.  He’s lucky we didn’t pull out the membrane with him in it and throw him onto the yard.  We caught him and he gets put on a lily pad too. 

            So four frogs!  My helper thinks they were living at the bottom of the basin in a layer of mud.  Quite possible and now we’ve put in a new membrane and there’s no mud there.  Well, they are in the bigger pond with most of the fish and I hope they are happy there for a while because I don’t think I can find them and catch them to put them back.  Wish they would do a better job of eating small insects though.  If they had done their job, never would have had to put the fish in the basin with them. 

Mucking out the Waterfall

Mucking out the Water Feature

June 10, 2012

            Sunday – we were supposed to have a driving lesson today but our instructor texted in sick – after we were already at our pick up location and ready to go.  OH Well, gave us the Sunday free for other things.  We decided that we needed to practice our barbeque skills on some good British Beef since it isn’t always cut like we know it in the States.  A quick stop at Waitrose to get the main dish and then home for some good hard gardening. 

            We have a gardener.  He comes every other week and does as much as he can in the allotted time but it isn’t always enough.  Imagine our surprise when last week he pulled out a big weed and it appears that there is a water feature in our garden!  Who knew!?  So we decided to clear it out and see if we can use it.  I have always wanted a water feature and sometimes have tried for some piddley little ones that don’t amount to much and aren’t very satisfying but this one looks to be a nice big waterfall. 

            Hubby started shoveling out the muck and wet leaves and such and realized almost immediately that it was going to take mucking out by hand because the bottom pit is covered with a membrane and we have no idea what kind of shape it is in and certainly didn’t want to put a hole in it.  He keeps shoveling out with his hands and shoveling and shoveling until he finally is close to reaching bottom.  The pit is about 2 ½ to 3’ deep.  He did find the pump which was buried in all the dirt and leaves and also a switch on the side of the falls to turn on the pump.

            I went to the top and started working from that end.  He’d already cleared some of the ivy and we knew that the water was supposed to run from cement basins to the bottom pit and then be pumped back up to the top.  I couldn’t find where the plastic hose was coming back into the top at first but after I hacked out some more ivy and then cleaned out the first basin, I found it.  It is full of dirt and we will probably have to pressure hose water into the whole thing from the bottom to blow it out but unfortunately, our hose isn’t long enough and we might be on a hose pipe ban anyway.  Not sure about that.  We’ll figure out some way to do it without messing up any bans.

            We keep hand shoveling and trowel shoveling and got the fish net for some more shoveling until we had everything cleared.  It is a delightful run from the top into 3 basins and then into the bottom pit.  With some of the ivy cleared away, we found some other blooming flowers.  Have no idea what they are either but they are pretty.

            Now for the big moment; my husband went and flipped the switch to give power to the pump, we thought.  Of course nothing happened.  Oh well.  Didn’t really think it would.  But the important part is that we have a water fall!  How exciting it that?  Might take us a few weeks to get it up and running but we are trying.  Hopefully the hose that runs from the bottom to the top is not broken anywhere otherwise it might take a lot longer to fix.  Can’t wait to see it in action.