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| Middle Pond and the canopy on the main
deck that overlooks the lower pond. |
Back yard view. The lower pond is on
the other side of the trees |
Another view from the back side of the pond
that is on the other side of the trees |
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| While the lotus are not visible, this
bed is where we grow the lotus that we harvest every January | |
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| After the collapse of the lower pond,
Rich built a raised brick wall that is faced with some really cool stone work.
The lower pond is on the other side of the wall |
Hard to see the arbor but we will be planting Muscatine grapes in the bed that
now houses a small garden of strawberries, blue berries and red raspberries |
This is the view that I see when I look out my office window |
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| This the lower pond where my collection
of fish live. To the left is a raised deck where we can view the fish from
above. The green canopy seen in other pictures is on this deck |
This is the middle pond. Even from the
distance you can see the bottom drain in the pond. This shows how clean you can
keep your pond by keeping plants potted in dirt out of the pond. The NO
Fish'N sign was made by a good friend before we moved from Michigan to North
Carolina in January of 2000 |
This is just another angle of the middle pond. |
This is the deck that comes off the back of
the house and you can see the upper pond, part of the 30' streambed and the
bridge that leads to the deck where on can over look the lower pond and the fish |
The middle pond is about 3,000 gallons of
water. The upper ponds, 2000 gallons and the lower pond is 10,000. I
have no idea how much water is in the streambed and the 3 waterfall basins and
and the miles of underground piping. Everything is out of the pond: the
pump, the filters, and skimmers. The only thing in the pond is the 5
bottom drains |
The bottom of the photo is the middle pond.
If you look close you can see 2 huge waterfall basins that lead to the lower
pond. The 2 horse power pump allows about 10,000 gallons of water a hour
to go over the water falls. |
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| I have had this Jade tree 30 some
years. It winters in the greenhouse and comes out every summer to sit by
the stream bed. It blossoms every winter all winter long. For size
reference it is planted in a 20" container. |
This is the middle pond looking towards the bridge that goes over the 30' stream
bed. The back of the photo is the main deck that over looks the lower pond |
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| This is a cedar arbor that over looks
the lower pond. The photo is a little dark to see the bench on can sit on
to enjoy the fish in the lower pond. Wisteria vine covers the arbor from
the back side and in front are 2 huge pink Mandeville that winter in the
greenhouse but come out in the summer to sit in front of the arbor. The
plant in the lower left corner is a huge gardenia that also winters in the
greenhouse and spends the summer outside. |
This view is from the other side of the
arbor. The pot that you see is a desert rose I have had for every. It also
winters in the greenhouse and summers outside near the arbor. | |
Backyard winter of 2000 This
is our house when we bought it in January of 2000, no trees, no pond, no
landscaping of any kind. Just a few weeds where there should have been
grass. Looking from the same angle as most of the photos below do, you can
barely see the house during the summer. My goal was to create a tropical
paradise in our back yard.