Wow, what a great tropical-like summer we’ve had! But now it’s time to really enjoy it by turning off the A/C unit and listening to your waterfall through the windows. It seemed to take a long time to break through the heat, but for the lack of bugs, it just may have been worth it!

Our team at the Lily Pad enjoyed working with all the great customers in selecting the perfect plants and fun fish for their ponds. Seeing all the people that joined us in the construction of our new display pond and talking with all the attendees at the seminars has made it a great summer season!

The construction team is looking forward to building ponds in the few open spots that we have left. Building a pond during the late summer/early fall has always proven to help the pond come awake earlier in the spring. There’s plenty of time left for your water feature installation project, sitting around the pond, and watching the leaves change color while you enjoy toasted marshmallows from the fire pit. Now that’s paradise at home!

Pond Professors is currently working with Rotary Gardens in Janesville to improve and transform the ponds in their gardens. Starting this summer and working thru the next few years you will see Pond Professors involved more and more with the local community gardens.

This summer, we have really enjoyed helping the Humane Society, the Pond Tour for charity and now Rotary Gardens. We’ve also been busy transforming our new location, which now has 5 display features! Look for our upcoming newsletters, which will have more details on some of the changes that we have planned for this coming spring.

Come by and check out our new selection of Fall/Winter products including pond heaters, winter de-icer, and cold-water bacteria. We also have a beautiful display room that’s open year-round and is full of aquatic plants and Koi fish. If you would like a better idea of the peace and tranquility that our ponds bring, please feel free to stop in, relax in the gazebo and enjoy the beautiful view.

Make sure to visit us soon and watch for big events in the next few months!!

Happy Pondering!

Pond Professors

• Duckweed: Koi and goldfish both love this treat!
• Grapefruit Cut it into quarters and they’ll float! Don’t feed your fish too much though, or they’re lips might turn a pale pink color. It doesn’t harm them at all, so if you see this happening, just cut back to feeding them grapefruit once a week.
• Orange Slices: Big fish may eventually take mandarin oranges right out of your hand! Larger, seedless oranges can be cut into quarters just like the grapefruit.
• Night crawlers, and Earthworms: These slimy creatures are a popular snack, also!

The July 9-10 Janesville-area Pond Tour North America, sponsored by the local chapter of the North American Water Gardening Society (NAWGS) pond club and Pond Professors, Inc., raised over $800 – more than double the 2004 dollar amount – for its charity of choice, S.M.I.L.E.S. This non-profit charity offers therapeutic and recreational horsemanship lessons to children and adults with disabilities.

This year’s Parade of Ponds featured a self-guided tour of more than 20 backyard paradises that included landscapes with multi-tiered ponds, cascading waterfalls, themed cottage and alpine ponds, meandering streams, intricate bridges, and more. Also this year, for the first time ever, a ticket to the Janesville-area tour was good for free entrance to the Madison-area NAWGS Pond Tour, and vice-versa. By working together, both clubs were able to increase ticket sales to record numbers, thereby donating more than ever to their charities of choice.

Scott and Kim Story, owners of Pond Professors, Inc. and The Lily Pad pond superstore, are members of the local pond club and were the 2005 corporate sponsors. “We are always thrilled to support this annual event. The local pond club is made up of this amazing group of people, and together we’re able to raise money for a charity we all feel strongly about. We’re so excited that this year we were able to raise more than ever before, and we’d like to thank everyone who participated,” says Scott Story. For more information please visit www.nawgs.com/pondtour/. Or www.pondprofessors.com/wscapes.

Fall is nearing and football is about to make its debut. Mother Nature will begin backing off on the temperatures. What a phenomenal time of year when the leaves start changing colors providing us with an absolutely breathtaking array of panoramas.

Whether your pond is a Do-It-Yourself, an Aquascape Design, or any other professional kit, now is the time to start thinking about how these seasonal changes are going to effect the way you will care for your water feature. As the weather starts getting cooler and you’re able to enjoy the outside without sweating, you’ll want to stop fertilizing your plants so they will know its time for them to get ready for winter.

At the height of Autumn, when the winds pick up in late October, and those beautiful leaves begin falling to the ground, a significant percentage of them will inevitably be drawn to the surface of your pond. Left unchecked, leaves that fall by the bushel into your pond will eventually float to the bottom and cause problems for you and your fish. If you have a skimmer that draws them into an awaiting net/basket, you will probably have to empty it daily to keep up with the influx of leaves. Adding a pond netting elevated over the water will make it easier to keep the leaves out of the water. Then all you will need to do is blow them off the netting for disposal.

Clean up from the fall is inevitable in this part of the country. Debris left to rot in the pond will eventually decompose, producing gases that can be harmful to the fish. It also adds nutrients to the water for algae to feed off, creating an outbreak of algae next season. Did you know that algae are the only plants that do not freeze and actually continues to grow (although much slower) through the winter? It is also the first plant growing in the spring. Too much organic material left in the pond may cause your pond to start looking like a glass of sweet tea. If this happens, don’t worry! Remove the excess debris and add activated carbon. This should clear it up right away. A little general maintenance now will go a long way come next spring.

In the Late fall and before winter, start by removing as much debris as you can from the pond. Cut back aquatic plants. This should be done right after the first hard freeze. Cutting back plant material in the fall will prevent organic debris from decomposing in the water over the winter. Hardy bog and marginal plants should have all of the dead leaves and foliage trimmed down to just above the water level, and hardy lily leaves and stems should be cut back, leaving approximately 2”-3” at the base of the plant. Annuals/tropicals should be brought inside for the winter before the first hard freeze, or replaced next season. Floaters and submersibles will not winter over outside and do not do well inside, therefore you should just plan to replace them next season.

IMPORTANT: With the cooler weather, you may notice that your fish are spending more time on the bottom and are slowing down. Remember to stop feeding your fish once the water temperature is consistently below 50 degrees, no matter how hungry they appear. If you continue feeding them, you could cause major health problems for these little guys.

Before the snow flies, start thinking about whether you want to keep your waterfall and stream running through the winter or shut it down for the season. A pond can be a beautiful addition to your winter landscape. As well as creating a natural watering hole for wildlife, the falls create beautiful ice sculptures.

Here are Some things to ponder when making your decision:

• Will you be vacationing for more than a week at a time?
• Do you have a busy schedule?
• Do you have easy access to water for your pond when the temperatures are below freezing?
• Do you have multiple features?
• Is your stream long and/or slow moving?

If you answered yes to any of the questions above, you may want to consider shutting your waterfall and stream down for the winter. Follow us in our next issue as we walk you through this next phase of your pond and the process of preparing your water feature for the winter.