The last two days have been just gorgeous, sunny and warm with enough of a breeze to keep the black flies away. Yesterday I continued working on the beds, fertilizing everything and alkalizing and acidifying those picky plants. I also did a bit of weeding and pruning as I went by. Actually it rained in the morning, which gave me a chance to shop for that fertilizer and other stuff.
In the late afternoon we went down to the Connecticut River to see cousin Caroline row for her school against Hanover High in a crew regatta. It was very exciting to watch them win their race.
Today I finished the bed fertilizing and did the blueberry bushes. They needed weeding, acidifying and fertilizing and then re-mulching with peat moss.
In the late afternoon I treated the pond for problems of clarity and algae, using ClearPAC Plus. It contains PondClear™, Muckaway™ and EcoBoost™. They are all packets of beneficial bacteria, like Probiotics, for the pond that are supposed to improve clarity, remove bottom muck and remove excess nutrients. They’re all safe for animals and plants. I also added barley-straw pellets as an algae preventer. As the straw breaks down, it releases small amounts of peroxide. I also added blue dye that comes in the ClearPAC kit. The blue dye darkens the water and prevents sunlight from reaching the bottom of the pond as another algae preventer.
New blooms: star magnolia, pulmonaria.
Bloodroot. The roots have red sap, perhaps that explains the name. The flowers are short-lived, the leaves have a unique shape and the whole season is over in a couple weeks.
Wild Ginger. You can see the reddish-brown flowers on the ground at the base of the plant. Who do you suppose pollinates these flowers?
Turtles catching rays, two on the far left and one on the point at the right. Compare the greenish-brown color of the water above to the image below.
I put blue dye in the pond to prevent some sunlight reaching the bottom and to reduce algae growth. It'll be gone in two weeks if we decide we don't like the look. For now, the blue tide is in. It's harmless to people, other animals and plants, except, we hope, the algae.
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