Sitting here going thru old pond posts and ran across this one. Wondering if you ever came up with a plan for your Florida pond. I live in IL but have a vacation home in south Florida on the Gulf side. The house was purchased pre=foreclosure in 2007 for use as a vacation home. Like your house, it was a mess, covered in weeds and filled with junk. It also has a pond in the backyard that was icky. One of the first things we did after closing was drain the pond so we knew what was living in it. It's not a big pond - about 12' x 6' oval shaped and 24" at deepest point and also made of concrete painted sky blue. Lots of leaves, pine needles and tadpoles plus a few mosquito fish which I scooped out and saved. After refilling I put in a pond pump and the tads and fish. We were there for 4 weeks that time before we returned to IL. The pump was removed from the pond before we left FL. Next time we went down, put the pump back in and netted out what debris was in there but water was back to icky. What I did was find water hyacinth plants - can import them to FL and they are not sold in the stores near me. So I found a local guy who had some in his pond. He gave me about 12 large plants for free since he had an overabundance in his pond and was tossing them in his burn pile. It's been over 2 years since I added the hyacinths and pond remains clear even without the pump going. Only filtration is the hyacinths. Pond life is abundant. Neighbor tells me she can hear the toads at night. We only go down to the house a few times a year so when we put the pump with a bubble spray in while we're there, it's only for the sound of the water bubbling. Hyacinths are all over Florida in ponds, swamps, creeks, etc. If you're willing to harvest some yourself, you can get them for free. I would get emough to cover 1/4 of the surface because they will multiply like crazy. When we visit our house, the whole surface is covered so we have to pull out at least half of them and burn them. Hope that helps.

Thanks both for your comments. I had koi/goldies (mules) in my old pond but they didn't look like these. At least the ones in my old pond were different colors, these are a drab gray. There is one that is black but has the shiny iridescent scales. I do have a male koi with the shiny scales. The saying goldfish are the rabbits of the pond is an understatement!!!!! Didn't realize a free one-eyed shubunkin could produce so many babies!!! See what I get for rescuing it from being fed to a snake. Jenny

If you own a pond which is vulnerable to invasive plants, shallow profile, fertile water, invasive plants will be a bane up to the day when the pond silts up and is no more. It's what many aquatic plants do to survive, they colonize the niche and spread to others It could be time to dredge it to a more stable profile if the water supply is good enough to keep a permanant body of water going all year round

Hello, I recently moved into a rental that has a big, wonderful deck with stairs down to the garden. This is how my dog goes outside. We had plenty of wasps and bees around through the spring, and we all ignored them, and they ignored us. Then a couple of weeks ago, my dog and daughter were both stung, so I went under the deck with spray and destroyed 3 nests. Thinking we were in the clear, life went back to normal. But the survivors kept circling around, and I had to spray again, as they seemed to be rebuilding under the stairs. The dog and I were stung one day for no reason (except being on the stairs.) Now, it seems that every other day there are wasps going in & out between the boards on the steps. I will spray as often as I have to, but I'd really love to figure out how to keep them out of the stairs. I have been stung 3 times so far, and each time I was minding my own business. As someone who gardened peacefully for 20 years without being stung by anything, I deeply resent this! The house is old, so everything is holey and crumbly. And I dont' want to spend too much money on this, as I hope to move out this winter. But I don't want the wasps to ruin the rest of our summer! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!! Ann in Virginia