le jardin...part four...pond life

In my fourth "le jardin 2015" post I am featuring our two ponds...we have an upper pond with a waterfall that flows into a lower pond (with yes...another little waterfall)...the bridge you see below separates the two ponds...

More English china makes it's home among the climbing hydrangea...along the back fence above the upper pond...

another view...

I love planting the bridge with a pretty pink display every year...and getting the largest hydrangea I can find for the center of the pond!

For over a decade we've had koi.. they are fabulous pets..they require so little and are marvelous to watch...at one point we had over 20...

Last Fall a mysterious mink...stealthily removed every single fish...heartbreaking...there was nothing to do...mink can hold their breath for up to 20 minutes under water and will clean out a pond in a matter of weeks...which is exactly what happened...

These pictures aren't even the most recent...we had very large koi that would greet us each time we came near the pond..they get used to their owners and we could feed them by hand...

"Tiger" was my son's favorite..."Lemon Drop" was my daughter's...they had had them since they were very little...a little memorial to Tiger below...he was our oldest and largest!

 I wasn't sure I wanted to "invest" either financially or emotionally in getting fish again...because the "mother in me" feels responsible for them...(just in case the mink was still around)...so I found these pretty pink glass balls that I thought added nice color in the pond instead...it is very pretty to watch them float around in the breeze...

I gave in a month ago though and bought a few new koi...now named after Game of Thrones characters...oh how times change! So far so good...NO MINK! Keep your fingers crossed!

This is my second annual "huge hydrangea" centerpiece! I'm loving it placed in the center of the pond...thanks to my hubby for getting it in there in one piece!

The climbing hydrangea are just beginning to bloom on the arbors...but the roses are slow to show  this year...

The wisteria on the roof line of the folly really felt this Winter's wrath...it used to wind it's way over at least half of the roof...

I was happy to see a few blooms...hopefully it will be back with gusto next Summer!

The honeysuckle is starting to bloom too...but this arbor is full of different bloomers...autumn clematis, roses, and climbing hydrangea....it took a beating too this Winter so I will soon clipping away at all the dead stuff as you can see here...and doing a bit of replanting/replacing...some of these climbers were over 10 years old!

The hosta and ground cover are loving all the rain...

A view from the back of the garden looking towards the house...

If you missed the first three installments of our garden tour this year click here. Otherwise I hope you are enjoying some outdoor time where ever you are...                                                                                                                                              


XO Emily