Every spring we usually spend a substantial amount of time and effort manicuring our backyard pond. This involves one of us stripping down to our underwear in the backyard (thank goodness we have no close neighbours) and struggling into Ian's hunting hip-waders. The unlucky gardener then eases themselves into the frigid, murky waters of our chest deep pond. Once in, we arrange the pots of lily pads on the bottom, cut back the cattails and trim the water irises. This spring we did none of the above. For some reason this rather unpleasant yard work task usually falls to me (Ian says he doesn't do flower gardens - only veggies) and I was too pregnant to fit into the waders - besides I was afraid the ice cold water might induce early labour. As such, no hipwaders, no wading and no pond plant pruning.
Would you believe that the pond looks the best it has ever looked? The plants are the healthiest they have ever been and we have had more flowers on the irises (a spring flower so no photos of these), spikes on the cattails and water lilies than ever before.
We may have had to undergo a forced eradication of our garden lilies in order to battle the Japanese Red Lily Beetle; however, we still have our water lilies! Finally a type of lily the beetles don't like!
I guess sometimes a pond just needs the freedom to run wild. In this case a little neglected yard work has worked out very much in our favour.
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