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If you were to ask which occupant of the fountain is
the most important, that would be impossible to
answer. It depends on your point of view.
You can pick your favorite. It doesn't matter.
Cindy favors the fish. They are boisterous,
comic and active. With plenty of food and
heavily oxygenated water, they have lots of energy and
are growing very fast. I, believe the fish are
just there to make nitrogen fertilizer for the plants.
(That's why I can sit for hours watching the
rascals.) I can't deny that their antics at
feeding time are very entertaining. We have
watched them "beach" themselves in order to
get at a morsel of food that has drifted between the
stems of the reeds, in water so shallow that it
requires that the fish flops along on its side to get
to the reward. Once captured, the food is
quickly swallowed, followed by one or two hard flips
of the tail, plopping the acrobat back into deep
water. If they detect food on the upper size of
a lily pad or water lettuce leaf, they will first try
to reach for it, then bump heavily into the plant stem
or roots to try to shake it off, then try to knock it
off by spitting water at it and if all that fails,
they will turn broadside to the obstacle between them
and the food and throw water on the leaf with their
tail, so as to wash it free. The only problem
with the last technique is that the fish doing the
splashing usually has its hard worked for morsel
stolen by one of the other fish. When not being
fed, the goldfish dart around the pool, chasing each
other and watching the surface. Woe be to the
insect that lands on the water. It has about a
second and a half to escape before becoming lunch.
During the summer, I have been "harvesting"
four to six of the floating water plants per day, in
order to maintain open surface area for viewing and
feeding the fish. I have given them to my neighbor and to my
brother for their ponds. My brother feeds excess
lettuce to his rabbits and water hyacinth to his
sheep. They relish it.
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Ground Level View Of
Pond
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I hope you have enjoyed this tour or our garden.
I have had fun putting it together for you.
If you have any questions about anything, do not
hesitate to drop me a line at:
Gary W. Sherwin
sherwin@bellatlantic.net
Well, that's about it. I developed this tour for
multiple purposes. To share the joy our garden
provides. To pique your interest in
Micro-environment Gardening. And, to encourage you to
send us some pictures and a description of your own
favorite garden. Hopefully it includes a few
violets.
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