October Meeting

Thursday , October 20 at 7pm

at Butterfield Youth Services,

1180 Highway WW in Marshall.

The program will be “Create a Paradise” by Aquascape Designs.  The program shows actual water gardens designed for different landscape situations.

Thoughts To Ponder

Eat a toad in the morning. 

Nothing worse will happen to you

the rest of the day.

November Meeting

Part of the November meeting will be our annual photo contest.  You may enter one photo in each of the following categories.

 Water garden views

People in the garden

Flowers

Garden features

Fish and frogs

Most unusual

You could be a winner, so look through your pictures to pick out one for each category.

The rules are simple—the photo must be taken by a club member, but the picture can be of any garden.  Write your name on the back of the picture so we can identify the winners.

 NEW THIS YEAR---Our out of town members can mail their photos to us at PO Box 555, Marshall, MO 65340.  We will enter your photos in the contest for you.  Put your name on the back and the category you want the picture entered in.  The photos must reach us by Tuesday, November 15.

The members present will vote on their favorite picture in each category and the best overall photo.  A gift certificate from Granddaddy’s Garden will be awarded in each category.  The prizes will be awarded at the Christmas Dinner in December.  As an added incentive, we will have a special prize drawing for those present at the meeting.  You will get your name in the drawing one time for each photo entered in the contest.

 The winning photos will be displayed at the Christmas dinner, printed in a future issue of Fins and Friends, and put on our website.  Click here to see last year’s winning photos. 

Thank you from Twillman Family

The club received the following note from the Twillman family for our community service project at the Indian Foothills Golf Course.

Dear Larry,

We can’t say enough how much we appreciate everything you and the Water Garden Club members did to make this beautiful water garden for Earl’s Memorial.  You did a great job.  We thank you for all the time spent planning and doing all the hard work.

                                                            Sincerely,

Jeanelle, Dwight, and Tonya Twillman

Dear Polly,

If we plan on leaving the biofalls running through the winter are we supposed to take the filters out of the biofalls or leave them in?  I also read where someone took two layers of felt and a 1/2" of plywood and put them over the top of their biofalls to help retain the heat.  Is this a good idea?

Pam Anstiss

Berrien Center, MI

Dear Pam,

     I see that you are in Michigan where the winters can be very cold.  Leaving your waterfall running in the winter is fine as long as you watch that the ice does not build up somewhere that will cause the water to back up and overflow the stream.  I would leave the filters in the biofalls.  I have not heard of putting felt and plywood on the biofalls to keep it warmer.  That may work but it will block the sun which is the main source of heat in the winter. You may want to give it a try to see if it helps. 

 You did not say if you have a skimmer with your filtering system.  If you do, that will help keep the leaves off the pond in the fall and winter.  If you do not have a skimmer, the pump is probably on the bottom of the pond.  That situation will pump the warm water from the bottom of the pond and distribute it around the pond.  This is not a good thing since the fish will stay in the warmer water to survive the winter.

 If you do not keep the waterfall on in winter, try to keep a hole open in the ice using a stock tank heater or a heater for water gardens.  This is important only if you have periods of 4 or more weeks when the pond ice never thaws at all.  This will trap gases in the water and will kill your fish.  A winter waterfall can be a beautiful sight with the snow on the ground.  I hope you enjoy your winter water garden.

                                           Polly

To learn more about Polly Ponders and view other Polly Ponders articles, click here.

December Christmas Dinner

The time and place of our Christmas dinner will be announced in our next newsletter.  Start planning your creative masterpiece for the centerpiece contest.

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