WOW!!! Beautiful!!! Wonderful arbor!!!! Kudos DH!!! My friend just showed up tonight, we are making a game plan for tomorrow, to get the capstones on the pond...Today I planted my bog garden...is a dirt bog/moisture loving plants, and have the base for my castle in place, redid pond plants(14!) I hope I can sleep tonight...I'm like a kid on Christmas eve!!!lol!I was just given a gnome who looks like he was a fisherman one, sitting like your boy...he is old and needs a bit of work...I may have to clean him up(he needs a nose-addtomy too) and put him by my pond...wish I had a nice hubby to build me such a wonderful arbor to sit on!!! My pond is in a raised garden bed so no bridge for me..BUT I will have a stone tunnel for the water to come back into the pond...!!

Your pond area has tremendous charm, and is sooo inviting!

Calamity, you are amazing. Can't wait to see pics of yours too.

Kathy

Pond area shaping up wonderfully! Love you resting angel, so sweet on your DH's great looking arbor. Lower back part almost looks like it was a headboard of a bed. Love that weathered gray color. Have you got some heavy weight plastic sheeting(by roll at Home Depot- garden dept. I think) comes in 50 ft or 100 ft rolls.Not too expensive but is good weight & I think you could run it under the bridge & weight the edges around pond with stones so suspended mostly above water so you could sand/scrape the bridge) it's 6 ft wide so would cover quite an area & could duct tape 2 pieces together. Jan

Jan that was a great idea for the sanding for Jeannie.

Jeannie, you must have an enormous backyard. Are all Iowa yards like that...here in so cal..you only get so much unless you have a real old home or a mini mansion that has some large landscaping or out in the rural cities. One day I am going to visit Iowa! Home of capt. Kirk..lol.

Your fisherboy looks 'very' vintage was he a find? You don't see those anymore unless you find some specialty garden shop has recreations of vintage. Are your fish Koi? Did not know they could tolerate the icy cold.

I always wanted a pond..perhaps I can have a small one one day.

Your water garden and accessories look BEAUTIFUL!! Love the bridge and all of your statuary, etc. Your pond is so pretty..I'm thinking we're going to have to put black dye in ours this year...the fish keep digging out the gravel in our newly repotted plants and the water is so murky. Yours looks so clear!

Thanks for your comments, GJers!

calamity...I'll be looking forward to more pics of your pond! Sounds so intriguing! And with your mosaicing skills, I know it will be a work of art! Glad you got your blog in now...keep posting pics, please!

sunny...plastic sounds like a great idea (except for when I have to take it off the pond...DH will help, of course, but I can just see me dumping the paint chips in the water! Ugh!

socallie...nah, not everyone in Iowa has big yards. We live on an acreage that had nothing on it but 6 acres of trees, mainly. We've been here 40+ yrs & made it our own...(but there's ALWAYS work to do!) You know Kevin Costner's (my fav line), "Is this heaven? No, it's Iowa." (Field of Dreams, 1989) We love it here!

Marlene...our pond cleared up recently...we buy start-up to help get it balanced...and we do using "blu-ing" in it for shade until we get more plants growing...should be able to buy floating ones now. Thanks! Jeanne S.

Whoops, socallie...forgot to answer your question about fisherboy...he's a keepsake to us...we bought it 15+ yrs. ago at DH's parents' estate sale. DH's Mom had bought him (cement) & painted him. He used to sit fishing at a galvanized tub when we first got him. But here's a pic from Aug. last summer with the elephant ears grown up around him. Jeanne S.
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I swear Jeanne, your pond looks like a postcard, perfect. And the arbor looks wonderful too. I know what you mean about the ponds being a lot of work, I spend a lot of time on my little pre-fab one.
Frou

I'm soooooooo JEALOUS. The one thing hubby actually says NO to is a pond. He used to say the grandkids would drown in it, but now that they're 10, 12 and 15, he just says "let's not make a pond." He's great about everything else I do, so no pond is my compromise...but then I see a beauty like yours and.....

Your pond is beautiful, Jeanne. I still can't get over Mr Troll! He's the perfect accompanyment for your darling little bridge! Your arbor bench is wonderful too.

Every so often I think about a pond or some sort of water feature in one of my gardens, but end up contenting myself with the brook that runs through our property. We too have acreage that we're slowly converting to gardens and lawn after 30 some years of use as pasture, now that our horses have all gone to greener pastures, except for one old pony (our pasture ornament.)

Jeannie...I wonder if you know when DH's momma bought that cute fisherboy just as a cement feature? It looks very vintage..you do not see them unless an Antique shop found one as well at an Estate sale. I wish more statuary was modeled after old. It's probably out there...dang I miss shopping at all the cement statuary vendors down in TJ.

Jeannie, was there ornamental cabage behind the fisherboy?

Gmthyme..you can still have a garden pond..it can be tiny or as big as you want it. Just make a small one with duckweed at least like I did. I have a glazed ceramic snail shell planter that sits inverted (no hole in it) and have a handful of duckweed and another teensy pond plant in it (grabbed from the nursery in town..it was growing over the edge of it's own container and spilling out)

Jeanne,
Gosh, woman, you've been holding out on all us Holiday Forum people. I just came over to this forum on a lark - and I found your posting! You're right about ponds. They are a lot of work. But if you love them (and I do) they are a labor of love.

The little fisherboy is super. Glad I discovered your post.

Wonderful pictures as always, Jeanne! I kind of like your bridge just the way it is. lol! But then I'm a rusty, peeling paint kind of gal. I really like how you "tuck" things in amongst the greenery. Makes it seem as though it naturally found its way there.

Thanks, GJers...and OA, you, too! Glad you hopped over here for a bit! Gets to be a busy place this time of the yr!...lots of good ideas here!

socallie...I think my MILaw got the fisherboy locally here probably back in the 80's or so...yeah, he's a keeper! I've only painted him once since I got him...so may have to touch him up a bit again.

The plant is sedum (some call it Live Forever) behind the fisherboy...not ornamental cabbage...I did plant a small o.cabbage in the egg basket with my iron chicken...LOL.

g'thyme...barrel ponds are fun & don't take up much space... I think I posted one just awhile back...but ck out the pond link on purplemoon's GJ site for all of us GJers...link below.

luna...hope you get a yard! Jeanne S.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ponds & Fountains in GJ Inspiration Album