Freecycle Friday

Happy Friday!  In my gardening adventures I have found that my local Freecycle group has come in very handy.  A project I have been itching to tackle has been a small water garden.  Years ago, we bought a nice blue  water pot with a bamboo fountain, plants and some goldfish.  It sat on our back patio, (when we had one), and I loved it.  Well, it didn't take long, oh, maybe 2 days, for the raccoons to find the fish in the pot.  Every night became a battle of wills to keep our little fish from becoming raccoon sushi.  The raccoons won that battle, ripping out the fountain to get the fish, it was quite a mess. My lovely pot sat idle in the corner of the Ugly for many moons, until this week!  A trip to the garden center to price water plants ($5 to $30) had me on Freecycle with requests for two water plants.  I didn't dare ask for water lilies, because they are the most expensive, I would have been delighted with water hyacinths and iris.  The first response was from a very nice woman with water lilies!  When I picked them up she had loads growing in her large pond.  They were healthier looking than the ones I had seen at the nursery. Huge green leaves and beautiful white and yellow flowers.  I took a smaller plant and can't wait for it to bloom.  The second response was for a water iris.  This sucker was over six feet tall when I went to pick it up.  The owner of this great plant suggested I cut it way back when I put it in the pot to stimulate root growth.

Here you can see the clipped iris and my new water lily.  They look a little stressed from the transplant process, but I'm hoping they will fill out in the next couple of weeks.  

Here is the water pot in my herb garden.  My herbs are growing like crazy.  It is the only thing I seem to be able to grow.  Next week I will go up to the local vector control office to pick up some mosquito fish.  The county gives away these fish to pond and pool owners to help keep the mosquito population down.  Hopefully, these fish will escape the raccoons.