CP-garden pond

[shartmeyer]

To protect the plants from snails I placed them in our garden pond. At the moment that looks very nice, so here are some photos. The plants are: Darlingtonia californica, Dionaea muscipula, Drosera rotundifolia, Drosera tokaiensis, Sarracenia minor "Okefenokee", Sarracenia purpurea ssp. venosa and a Sarracenia hybrid.

[brokken]

Wow. The setup is gorgeous. My main concern is: What are those pond stones made of? If it's lime or some other calcareous material and it's not been sealed off, it could be leaching minerals into your water.

[glider14]

nice! what are the steaks for?
Alex

[shartmeyer]

Brokken, thank you for your compliment. Yes, you are absolutely right with your concerns. To avoid such problems the whole pond including the margin has been sealed with synthetic resin. The gravel on the slope is granite, therefore also harmless if falling down. The pond exists like this since 1987 and is also a home of several lurches (Triturus alpestris), and diverse dragon flies which live natural (!) in our garden.

Alex, the sticks are there to avoid the destruction of the plants by Blackbirds. Especially in spring, when they build their nests they can cause serious damage, trying to get the Sphagnum, or grubbing for worms in the wet soil.

[ICPS-bob]

shartmeyer said:

Alex, the sticks are there to avoid the destruction of the plants by Blackbirds. Especially in spring, when they build their nests they can cause serious damage, trying to get the Sphagnum, or grubbing for worms in the wet soil.

Great idea. I am going to try it. I have a problem with blue jays digging in my pots of Dionaea. Just today, I again found several plants pulled up and laying in the sun.

[pinglover]

My big problem is English house sparrows right about now. They are busy breeding and long ago discovered they could shred my plants to get free meals. Between the English house sparrows and the chipmunks tunneling in my pots... I could just about scream.

[jm82792]

You may want to try to give them what they want like some tree moss in a wodden bird feeder and scare them from your plants by using a weak airsoft gun . It might just work who know ?

[pinglover]

I'm in the United States where both the English House Sparrow and the European Starling are introduced. They are invasive species. Not only do I have carnivorous plants here but I also have a Purple Martin house as well as Blue Bird, Screech Owl, and Woodpecker nesting boxes. I used to have a great Screech Owl nesting cavity and two Wood Duck nest boxes. We dispatch both English house sparrows and European starlings in an attempt to reduce their numbers which in return reduces their negative impact on the environment. The decline in numbers of our Norh American native bird species has been directly related to the population explosion of the European starling, the English house sparrow, and the domestic cat. The chipmunks are an indigenous species, we leave them alone.

www.sialis.org/hosp.htm

[jm82792]

Okay so you would basicaly be needing a pellet gun to take care of them.
I never knew there ws that type of problem with birds.

[pinglover]

My husband uses a competition air gun with a high quality laser site. Ground traps can work quite well also but one must be able to check them a few times a day. Best to use ground traps on the weekends when one will be around to monitor so the birds aren't unduly stressed.

It's disheartening to have to dispatch them however they are really taking a toll on the cavity nesters in my area.

[jm82792]

In hawaii there are these horindous toads that we shot with a pellet gun hundereds of non natives that are deadly to people(MY baby brother) and animals : news.mongabay.com/2005/0417b-tina_butler.html I don't live there anymore but those were horrible disgusating pests.
We had a pond that our house gutters drained into so we could not get rid of it but this was 2 years ago........