We’re forecast to get into the 30’s, and it hasn’t gotten much above 50 this afternoon. They promise us rain, but I have yet to see more than a few stray-sheep clouds.
The longterm forecast is saying we’re entering an El Nino pattern, which will (usually) mean a rainy but temperate winter. And we just bought a snowblower last year! (But we wouldn’t have survived without it. Jane did most of the shoveling, and she was getting exhausted.) So I suppose we could do with a moderate winter, but I do want some snow.
We’re bringing our houseplants in today, so as not to have a major rush when the deep cold hits. We’re going to need to pick up some cedar mulch, and figure out when to trim the roses. In my experience, however, you’re not going to have a day in the high 80’s once you’ve had a night in the low 30’s, not unless the weather goes quite nuts.
Frost warning here tonight. It was 37 when I drove to work this morning at 5:30, I love fall, but it sure was short this year. =)
Western Massachusetts here, and while we haven’t gotten a frost yet (just missed it a couple of times now) it Has nipped southern Vermont only about an hour north. Leaves are really starting to come off the trees but still not much in the way of “color” for the foliage watchers. In any case, the firewood is all in and the woodstove is in use regularly now. The gardens are Almost all cleaned up, the pool is covered, etc. Fall chores are completed. Now we wait for that first snowfall 🙂
We’re bringing the orchids in from the porch. Been having some beautiful fall weather, with cool mornings.
I’d love a snowy winter. We have been dry and warm for the last several years, and I’m ready for some white stuff !!
I win my bet: the forsythia bush is turning, edges of purple. We have been cultivating a moonflower since spring and one place where it didn’t thrive, and now it has several buds ready. We are laying more bets as to whether we will get one flower from it before frost.
The koi are being pathetic: water temperature is 53 degrees, and their digestion shuts down at 52, so they’re swimming around acting a little interested when we appear, but don’t really come to beg for food. Our human stomachs do not understand this hibernation business.
Hmmm. Koi question. I’ve played a bit with various water gardens and ponds over the years, but never with Fish in them. I suspect that the temperatures and length of the winters here in the northeast would preclude the possibility of anything that would Stay in the pond all year.
I rather expect that Koi would not “winter over” where the water froze solid all the way to the bottom of the pond.
Could they be “relocated” into a warmer environment, something indoors, for the winter months? Do they reguire a period of dormancy or hibernation each year?
Probably I should stop someplace and ask, there are garden supply places I know of here that sell Koi and related “stuff”..
Remer, there are 2 ways to solve that problem. One is to put a stocktank indoors, in a basement, ideally, and use a mag 12 pump to lift wastewater to your garden when you’re done with it. It would also serve to humidfy your house during the winter.
A little less ecologically efficient, a pond heater. It comes on at 32 degrees and prevents a small area of the pond from freezing to the bottom. One area of your pond needs to be 3 feet deep, which gives the fish deep cover, provides a small area of the pond to heat to prevent freezing,and gives more water volume. You also need a small surface heater, which floats, and provides a 10″ ring of open water, to allow carbon dioxide to escape. You turn off filtration for the winter, because you don’t want to mix cold water with your warm water.
You need proper pond heating, because if a stock tank heater hits that poly lining, it can compromise it. A pond heater has buffers that prevent that.
You might also install an adjacent bog garden, one of the best ways to recycle water, if you have a natural downhill gradient.
We find that the presence of a 4000 gallon pond in our back yard makes the ambient very comfortable even in summer.
Also if you grow bog plants, they remove the phosphates that promote hair algae growth and make a pond clean. 10 water hyacinths (and a physical filter) have rendered our pond water clear.
Food for thought.
In prior situations the largest “man made” pond I’ve personally created is probably in the 1000 gallon neighborhood. No larger than that, certainly. I’ve never actually done an artifical pond using just a liner, only using the pre-formed molded shapes, by chaining a couple of them together. Easy to do given any grade at all, and it’s difficult to find ground around here that Isn’t. Flat and Level doesn’t happen here in the Berkshires.
Heating such a pond over the winter presents several issues. First is power. Where I would want such a pond would be a few hundred feet from the closest power, and That would be taking it from the barn – itself a long way from the house and main power panel. There’s a severe voltage drop involved because of the distances.
It would take Lot of heater, as well. I could figure it out (the power required) I think (If not I would hear about it from the professor who taught me Heat Transfer in school, I’m sure). We sometimes get low temps in the -10F range, and Very occasionally colder. There will be periods of 3-4 Days of that, with High temps not above freezing. It happens. With those conditions trying to maintain an unfrozen pocket in a shallow pond, along with a Surface opening, will be costly.
Hmmm. Inside the barn might be an option. No horses at the moment (and no plans to get back into That body of work..), and while the thing isn’t insulated or heated it wouldn’t take a lot to do up one stall as such. Perhaps. It would be manageable to maintain a single stall above freezing, say 40 deg or so, all winter.
As an aside that would also solve another problem with this house – a lack of “heated” storage space. I mentioned passive solar somewhere, that also means that the house is built on a concrete slab – no basement. Rather unusual in New England, and limits storage somewhat. The barn, garage and the unheated attic are OK, but not for anything you don’t want to Freeze.
Another thought. I wonder how hard it’ld turn out to be to keep the native predators away from the koi. Certainly we have raccoons around, those would be #1 on the list. Harder to deal with might be the occassional Fisher or Bobcat. I assume they would look with wonder at a handy supply of fresh lunch.. Might have to enclose the pond in a “building” of some sort Anyhow. Sort of ruins the ambiance, in a way.
I think I’m convincing myself that a koi pond isn’t a good idea, afterall.
living in the southeast, we are now having fabulous weather – when it’s not raining for weeks on end and then dumping massive amounts of water all at once – that sorta makes up for the disgusting heat ‘n humidity we endure from may – sept. i do miss the foliage season of new england but am enjoying a long period of “indian summer” here in hotlanta – and it’s not high pollen season either!
my yard doesn’t lend itself to ponds but we have a “crik” which i guess is technically a drainage ditch running thru the backyard – so i periodically have running water to enjoy.
The black wooly worms seem fuzzier than usual this fall, so the El Nino prediction here is colder and snowier. Forty-two degrees here last night. The sumac leaves are garnet, the burning bush bright red and the maples a crazy patchwork of happy colors. Got the smaller houseplants repotted and in the house today, then dumped the biggest one, newly watered dirt and all, all over the cream-colored carpet, filing yet to be done and the geneaology spread out all over the floor. The rest of the plants will have to wait.
One good thing about having houseplants outside for the summer is the shorter day length in fall triggers the orchids and mini mother-in-laws tongue (wonderful sweet perfume) to bloom around New Year’s. The larger MILT will also bloom, but is not as perfumed.
Still picking tomatoes and japapenos, and the butternut squash has loads of fruit. Gotta dry more parsley, basil, mint…time is slipping away.
Tomatoes had a rough time here in the northeast this year. Too wet and dark for much too long early in the season, the onset of the various Blights happened before fruit was even close to ripe. The weather conditions slowed the germination and growth down, as a result the harvest came late for nearly everything. We are Still getting zucchini and yellow squash, as a result, and just did pull the beets and last of the turnip. It could have been worse, we just missed a frost about three weeks ago which would have brought an abrupt end to everything. As it is we still have local sweet corn at the farm stands, and that’s Really late in the year for around here.