Felder Rushing and the Spring Garden Show

Before I sold my pond business and retired, I often did lectures and presentations at the various garden shows in New Orleans. Probably the ones that were the most fun were the City Park/botanical garden Spring garden shows in the spring and fall.  

One spring, the famous Felder Rushing of bottle tree fame was speaking at 11:00am.  I was speaking at 10:00am.  I always had a good crowd at one of my presentations, but was surprised to see standing room only this time.  Folks crowded in.  

I finished my 40 or so minutes about how to build a pond and opened the discussion for questions. There were very few, so at the end of my appointed time, I packed up my slides and got ready to leave.  Most of the time, people followed me out to ask individual questions and I was happily detained for at least another ½ hour.  Not this time.  No one followed me out, no questions were asked.  The audience did not move.

I could not figure out what was going on.   I chatted with Felder for a moment, but time was short and so were our remarks.  I looked for a seat to hear him, but was unsuccessful.  

As I was leaving, it finally dawned on me.  All those people were not there to hear and see me, the pondlady. They were trying to get a good seat to hear Felder Rushing. Talk about being a sobering experience.  I had to laugh.

But like Felder, I have written a book,  A Practical Guide to Building and Maintaining your Pond. You can buy it  here

And for lots of pond info and and interactive forum, check out my website at pondlady.com

Pileated Woodpecker

I thought for a minute we were being invaded by pterodactyls or some strange space creature. The screaming noises from the woods was so loud, it would wake a body up from a dead sleep.  

But it wasn't anything all that strange, although when sighted they were beautiful.  

We have at least one mating pair of pileated woodpeckers and he was making a big play for the affections of the female.  They darted from tree to tree, with her coyly, if something that big can be coy, evading his advances.  What a dance they did.  Wish it had been light enough to do a video. 

I have a photo that I took in another house down in Louisiana where they lived, so that will have to do.  Pictures of this pair as soon as I can get them.

The time is right to build a pond.  Get that digging done before it gets too hot. If you want step by step directions on building and maintenance, my book is what you need.

Pond building help

And don't forget to join us at pondlady.com with your questions.

pondlady.com

Koi and Goldfish eat their babies

Question I received lately: I have Koi and Goldfish. I feed them daily. Why don't I have babies?



Pondladay sez: Chances are the fish are eating their babies. They are not good parents.
You must feed koi. Goldfish can exist and live well eating off the plants in the pond....unless you have koi who will eat them all.

The more you feed them, the bigger they get and the hungrier they get. Sooner or later your bio-load will be too heavy and your biggest fish will die, but in the meantime, your fish will eat every baby they catch.