First water garden... 5 months later

It's been over five months since the first water garden was constructed. Let's see how it's doing now.

From the looks of it, the aquatic plants are loving their new home. Much of the water surface is now covered with foliage. In a few areas not covered with leaves you will catch a glimpse of the fishes swimming. The adult Tilapias have been removed from the pond. They found their new home too cozy for reproduction that they started to make baby Tilapias. Now only Kois and Tilapia fingerlings inhabit the pond.

Red Stem Thalia... revisited

Since my last post was about a new water garden and a few pond plants, here's an update on another pond plant which I've already posted last year, the Red Stem Thalia (Thalia geniculata)

This is why it is called a 'Red Stem' Thalia. That glob attached to the stem are the eggs of an aquatic snail.

I ended my "Red Stemmed Thalia" post on a not so positive note. I wrote about how sickly and pitiful they looked after they have been divided, considering that they came to the farm looking very healthy and very proud.

A distressed bunch of Thalias after they've been divided last year.

The picture above shows how they look just days after they've been separated and relocated. The fishpond's water was so turbid because it was the height of a severe drought back then. Now the Thalias (a.k.a. "Water Cannas") are so robust. Below is a picture that shows how the they have grown one year after they have been "manhandled" and moved to their current location.

Unlike the terrestrial Canna, the Water Canna does not produce beautiful flowers. They are tiny and dangles at the end of a very long leafless stem. When they are all in bloom the bunch look unkempt. And the two plant species have nothing in common but the name "canna."

Thalias are not known for their flowers.

Thalias (both geniculata and dealbata) do not produce stunning flowers but for this particular type of Thalia one can certainly appreciate the foliage and the deep red stems. These are marginal or bog plants, meaning they grow well in wet soil or shallow waters. They are tall and elegant, a great plant for a significantly sized pond or water garden.

The Thalias on one corner of the fishpond...

...and on another.

Aquatic plants provide a beneficial function in balancing a pond ecosystem. They absorb nutrients in the water which may be harmful to the fishes. Also, they provide habitat for other creatures. In our fishpond, snails climb up their stems and deposit their eggs there. Except for the unsightly clusters of eggs, the snails do no other harm to the plants.

The Thalias are due for another division. This means they have to suffer stress once again. I know they will survive, still whenever I see any of our beloved plants looking distressed I can't help but worry. But they're in the capable hands of my mother so I know they will be okay.

Our first water garden

Our tubs, buckets and pails of Lotus plants are getting to be like cry babies, always looking for attention. Not that they make shrieking noises when they need something, they just look sad and limp when they need more water.

Since their roots are confined to small and shallow containers, their water requirements need to be checked often especially during hot and sunny days. This situation was brought to my attention months ago and we had to come up with a quick solution if our Lotuses are to survive in the garden.

Ideally I would have opted for a ground level pond complete with water features and landscaping for a more  natural look. Eventually this is what I'll shoot for, but for now the well-being of the Lotus plants must be addressed as soon as possible.

Thus, we decided to build a bigger container in the form of an above ground pond. This is cheaper, easier to build and easier to maintain than an elaborate, natural-looking pond. So, Dad and his crew went to work and built the pond adjacent to the "mother" garden.

The Lotuses are now happily residing in the pond. Since there are room for more aquatic plants, a Horsetail (Equisetum hyemale) and another yet unidentified plant were added. There are also Duckweeds (Lemna minor) which hitchhiked with Lotuses and began to float only after the Lotus containers were submerged in the pond.

We have Umbrella Papyrus (Cyperus involucratus) growing in a place where they don't get any attention so I asked Mom to put some in the pond too, but that's after they've been quarantined to make sure they don't harbor snail eggs. Currently they're in isolation at the back porch. It will be a disaster if aquatic snails get into the pond as I mentioned in my older post "What lies beneath..."

To solve the potential problem of the pond becoming a breeding ground for blood-sucking, virus-carrying mosquitoes, we added some fishes as well. There are a few Tilapias, young Kois and Comets contently living in the pond.

To keep the color of the pond from turning completely green due to algal bloom and the water healthy for the fishes, fresh water is added daily delivered by a hose connected to a spring-fed source.

A pond can be classified as a fishpond, koi pond, wildlife pond or a water garden. So, is this structure a fishpond or a water garden? Definitely a water garden. Although fishes can be added in a water garden they are not the main attraction of the pond but rather the various species of aquatic plants. The plants take the center stage while the fishes are just extras.

Someday, if the forces from above are willing, there will be more ponds and water gardens in different parts of the farm.

Hope floats

Our garden helper holding one of last year's Lotus flower from the mother plant.

My hope has sunk so low with regard to the future of our Lotus Plants. After encountering failure after failure, I have begun to psych myself up to accept that I am about to lose one of my "must have" plants for our garden. But when I remember that this is the single most expensive plant we have ever bought so far, acceptance of failure is just difficult.

I wonder how others are able to successfully propagate their Lotus Plants. Do they say a prayer, offer a sacrifice or utter incantations first before they dare touch this sacred plant?¹

After dividing the mother plant into two, the other half died. After submerging a basin of Lotus plants in the shallow side of the pond, the snails ate them up. Those that are left have weak stems they could not even support their leaves. The leaves are just floating on the surface of the water behaving more like Waterlilies.

The remaining half of the mother plant stopped flowering after it was damaged by the nasty October storm. It was good that it kept blooming before the storm that Mom was able to collect plenty of seeds. Still, we don't know how many of those seeds are viable since some rotted after sowing.

The very first Lotus plants from seeds harvested from the mother plant. Notice the leaves are small but at least one stem has finally managed to break out of the water.

Despite the setbacks Mom continued to experiment with different methods of growing the Lotus Plant and finally it seems like her efforts have paid off. A few of the stems have began pushing the leaves completely out of the water and there are even a couple of stems still with unfurled leaves already protruding past the water surface.

Two of the most recent seedlings are now growing healthy with broad leaves. More stems are propping up their leaves well above the water level. They are only around two months old.

We still have no place to permanently relocate these plants so for now they'll be growing in buckets, basins and other suitable containers. I thought someday I could create a water garden utilizing the ditch water flowing from our neighbor's pond but I was told that too is infested with snails.

Hopefully these plants mature and eventually bloom and produce more seeds so that their survival could be secured. Later on I'll have them transferred into urns and other decorative containers and moved to desirable spots in the garden.

...beginnings are scary, endings are usually sad, but it's the middle that counts the most. Try to remember that when you find yourself at a new beginning. Just give hope a chance to float up. And it will...
from the movie "Hope Floats" (1998)

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¹ Another common name for Nelumbo nucifera is "Sacred Lotus."

What lies beneath...

There's a ghost in my house. I saw her in the water...
(from the movie "What Lies Beneath")

One of the fishponds in the farm, the biggest and lowest in the series of ponds that divides the farm into what I call "lower" and "upper" gardens.

Beneath that still and murky water, life is teeming. There are several species of fish: catfish, carp (koi) and tilapia. Even an unwanted (but tasty) mudfish (snakehead) finds its way into the ponds from time to time. The water buffalos too would sometimes wade in to ward off pesky insects or to cool down.

Our dog Tintin enjoying a morning swim in one of the fishponds.

But other creatures too are lurking under that calm and turbid water. They have been there all along, silently growing and multiplying out of sight, stealthily moving about. They announce their presence only when the ponds are drained of water. Although they can be harvested as a food source, they are not completely welcome guests. While their presence was thought to be benign, their voracious appetite became apparent when I told Mom to put the young Lotus plants in one of the ponds so they could start to grow bigger.

Young Lotus plats growing in separate containers.

It's a good thing that Mom submerged just one container of young Lotus plants into the shallow side of the pond. After a few days, all the leaves of the young plants were gone and the remaining stalks were covered with eggs of these rapacious culprits.

There are snails in the fishponds! Mom said their eggs also cover the stalks of the now gregariously growing Red-stemmed Thalias. The Thalias however, are unharmed. The snails have not ravaged them. Maybe they find the Thalias not appetizing or too tough for them to nibble so they just deposit their eggs on their stalks.

Up until Mom broke the news to me, I didn't know about the existence of these pests in the ponds. Now I have a problem. How can I put water-loving plants into and around the ponds if there are creatures that are more than willing to devour them. My options will be limited now to those that can withstand attack from these snails.

Red Stemmed Thalia

The Red Stemmed Thalia (Thalia geniculata) is a plant belonging to the family Marantaceae. It is an aquatic plant suitable as a bog plant or for a water garden but can also grow in containers as long as the soil is kept constantly moist. It is commonly referred to as "water canna", although it is not a true canna. Others may be more familiar with its peculiar names of Alligator Flag or Fire Flag.

The Red Stemmed Thalias when they arrived at our garden.

Aside from the other water plants we have collected, I wanted this plant because of its beautiful structure. As the name suggests, the elongated main stem of this plant is red in color, transitioning to green as it gets closer to its leaves. The leaves are oval to elliptical shape. Its small flowers come in clusters of either blue or purple color and dangle at the end of a long stem.

The Thalias were temporarily placed on a shallow side of one fishpond.

Compared to how they were when we bought them last March, our Thalias are looking depressed. I thought they would thrive well in our fishponds but it seems like they have been struggling. I'm assuming this was due to the extreme heat they've been subjected to during the dog days of summer. But now that summer has finally said goodbye (for the meantime), hopefully they will soon exude a cheerful appearance.

A very unhappy looking bunch of Thalias with visible signs of shock after they've been divided.

Mom thought their sorry look were also due to overcrowding so she divided the mother plants into several new individual plants. Hopefully this too will entice them to grow healthier and more robust.

All the aquatic plants we've collected so far are scattered all around the garden. Some are growing on containers ranging in size from small cups to large basins, others are currently sharing space in the watery world of the fishes in the ponds. Someday they will all come together and be the main attraction of a future water garden. And when will that be? As the perpetrator of this wild and wacky project, that is a question even I could not answer.

A tough nut to crack

A Lotus flower bud and seed pod.

When Mom told me that the Lotus plant is already forming seeds where the spent flower (the very first in our garden) used to be, I immediately searched the net for info on how to grow Lotus plant from seed. With the knowledge fresh in my head, I called home and told Mom the steps to take to entice the seed to germinate.

First scarify part of the seed using a rough object like a file, until the flesh of the seed is almost visible. This will help the seedling break out of its hard shell when it begins to germinate. Then drop the seed into a container that has several inches of water and put the container in a warm place, preferably where the sun can shine on it. Then let nature take over, just change the water often.

A few weeks later, I was on the phone with dear Mom and she was complaining how hard the seed of the Lotus plant was. It took her almost an hour to scarify the seed with a knife. I told her she should have used a file. She replied: "If a sharp knife could not crack open that seedcoat how can a nail file help? It's harder than the shell of a chestnut."

I could not say anything more. If I were there I could have been the one doing that and knowing that Mom is a very patient lady and she almost gave up, I know I would have given up in a couple of minutes.

The seeds of the Lotus are almost ready to pop out. A plastic bag is waiting underneath to catch the seeds when they decide to come out of the pod.

Anyway, had she used a rasp or wood file, it would have been more effective than a knife or nail file. But, she accomplished her goal anyway (the hard way) and now all she needs to do is wait.

And while she's waiting, she can experiment on the other seeds that are just about ripe for harvest.


This is just another of those that frustrates me about the pictures I get from home. It doesn't help if the person I ask to take pictures just don't care about the quality of the images.

The Lotus position

(Pardon the quality and framing of the pictures, they were taken using a cellphone camera only, hence the poor result.)

So finally, here is the Pink Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) plant we purchased a month ago. If I recall correctly, this would be the most expensive plant we've ever bought so far. It came in one tub but was divided into two small basins so it could be loaded into the van and transported safely without spilling water all over.

Less than a month after it was bought, the Lotus plant in one of the basins sprouted a flower bud. Before the bud could open, Mom had to leave for a week and when she came back the bloom is gone and all that was left was a small saucer-shaped pod.

The other basin of Pink Lotus with a flower bud (upper left corner).

Beforehand, I told Mom to watch out for the seedpod if ever it flowers. Now she is waiting for the pod to mature and see if we can get viable seeds so we can grow our own Lotus from seed. I'm still waiting for the news if they were able to gather the seeds before they get carried away by nature's elements.

I've been reading articles on how to grow Lotus plant from seed so I could tell Mom how to do it, just in case she's able to gather them.

So where am I planning to put this plant? Right now they are still in the basins they came with. And they will stay there, or in bigger basins until a suitable place is found. I'm planning of transforming the unsightly ditch that runs across the farm and turn it into a beautiful water garden. And the Pink Lotus will be one of the featured plants in that garden.

Dull as ditchwater

Used to be, excess water from our neighbor's fishpond would drain into our fish ponds. On any normal day this is not a problem since the water flows like a small stream... until a heavy downpour comes. As water rushes through, the strong current erodes the banks of the fishponds causing significant damages.

To solve this perennial problem, they dug a ditch to permanently divert this flowing water away from the fishponds. This ditch traverses the entire width of the farm in almost a straight line, safely directing the water into another neighbor's pond. But due to the sloping terrain, some portions would drop at a steep angle a foot or more high, causing water to cascade down like little waterfalls. The unintended but delightful result is this soothing and calming sound of water falling and running, which is impossible not to hear when you're strolling nearby.

The ditch, which runs almost forever, however is somewhat of an eyesore. We could bury it like an underground drainage, but then we'd lose the view and sound of running water. There is no danger to health anyway since technically it's clean, coming from a pond full of fishes.

While walking alongside this long and narrow excavation, an idea dawned on me. What if (in the future), we widen the ditch, make it deeper and let the water accumulate to a certain depth. Then throw in plenty of aquatic plants and landscape the surrounding areas with bog plants, other water-loving plants, ferns, moss, pebbles, rocks, etc. Voila! We have a water garden!

Just thinking about the potential of this plain ditch makes me salivate like a child gazing at all the sweet treats in a candy store.

Au naturel!

The natural swimming pool's popularity is sweeping across Europe. It began in Austria, spread to Germany and now has conquered much of Europe. It has become so accepted that in Germany alone there are now over 100 public natural swimming pools.

So what is a natural swimming pool? A natural swimming pool (NSP) is a concept that gets its inspiration from nature. Nature's ability to filter and clean a body of water is combined with man's inclination to swim in it. By incorporating nature into a man-made pool, the use of chemicals to clean the pool's water is rendered unnecessary. In fact, a pool is considered NSP only if it's 100% chemical free.

Why go chemical-free? For one, chlorine is toxic. Its ability to kill bacteria and germs in just a small amount is the reason why it's added to drinking water to remove pathogens. Put too much of it and it becomes harmful to human. In an enclosed system like swimming pools, chlorine must be continuously added to keep the water clean. And more often than not, too much of it gets added. As a result, it emits this distinctive 'swimming pool' smell that you don't even have to see the pool to know that it's there. You might have experienced itchy skin, red eyes, dry skin or chemical smell lingering several hours after swimming. That's the effect of chlorine on your skin. Not to mention are the damaging effects of chlorine to the respiratory system.

On the other hand, natural swimming pool is clean and chlorine free. Aquatic plants like water lilies, water lotus, irises, reeds, etc are employed to clean and filter the water. They derive the nutrients they need from the people who swim in it. In return, they keep the water clean. The pool is divided into two areas, the swimming and regenerating zones. Water from the swimming zone goes to the regenerating zone. The plants' root system and the natural bacteria that reside in them filter and break down the nutrient from the water, absorb them and the filtered water is then returned to the swimming area clean and free of pathogens.

This is an eco-friendly pool concept that is worth looking into. The benefits far outweigh the disadvantages... which by the way is almost none. Now, when dipping your body in a water purified by nature, doesn't that invite you to go au naturel?