Craig Hall, retired teacher from
Montezuma, sent us a disc of these pics of his family’s four-acre pond --
actually a very impressive water garden. Right now, he says he’s more into
plants than the fish. He says the cash flow from selling the plants help
support his pond (which has progressed way beyond the hobby stage).

Driving in the Montezuma area, you'll spot
this sign. What's up with this?
Lotsa Time. It all started four years ago when Craig and his father
dug a great big hole in their front yard. If we did this in Des Moines, we’d be wrapped in so much red tape
we’d never escape.

Look how deep it is. Eat your hearts
out.
Lotsa Water.
How’d
you like to pay the water bill for filling this
“little” pond?
You don’t fill a water garden like this with your hose. You need a better
way.

So you add this handy dandy windmill to
pull water into your pond.
Lotsa View. And
you add some grass seed, a little rain, a little time and working on your
pond every day.

and you get something that looks like
this. Still a work in progress.
Lotsa Sweat. From
this far back, you can’t totally appreciate everything that's here. Let’s
take a look at some of the highpoints of this
“little” water
garden. We’ll start with that area on the right.

All the Halls got involved in the rock
walls.

Today it looks like this. Still a
work in progress.
Lotsa Rocks. The
Halls used heavy equipment to help move the rocks, still each rock had to be
laid by hand. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Neither was this rock
wall.

Smaller white water lilies.

Larger white water lilies.

Fancy white water lilies.
Lotsa Lilies. You’ll see more than white water lilies.
Here’s some more color for your
eyeballs.

Lotsa Irises.
Water iris also grow well in Iowa. Here’s some of the varieties Craig
raises.

Water iris grow much taller than regular
Iowa irises.

Lotsa Other Plants.
Now we’ll see some of Craig’s other pond plants.

Parrot's feather. Just starting out.

Pickerel
plant with bloom.

Water hyacinth with lotsa blooms.
Lotsa Lagniappes.
Look it up. Craig says he nearly always gives away goldfish or koi when he
sells you a plant. Thanks for the pix, Craig. LA
......................................................................................................................
Epilog. The saga
continues. We visited the Halls April 12. We just happened to be in
the neighborhood. And just happened to have a camera to take a few pix.
LA
Pic
We visited Craig's pond April 12 -- not near as lush as last summer's pix by
Craig.
LA
Pic
Lots of lilies still lurking below. We'll try to visit again later
in the year. Craig's toes.
Hall Monitor Report.
We stopped past the Hall’s homestead on the way back from judging the
EIAA Show in Cedar Rapids. We’d hoped to discover some Iowa
salamander larvae but the water and air were too cold to enter (just right
for the eggs). We kept our collecting equipment in the car but had a
nice tour of the homestead anyway.
In spite of the below
freezing nights, their water lilies were popping to the surface eagerly
seeking the sun. Craig showed us his private shooting range where he
hones his competitive skills. We picked up some empty brass from the
modified M-16 he enjoys. We met their dog and numerous cats plus a
three-inch long nearly new wild bunny. We found out how his pond
water source works. He can use the three basic forms of energy to
fill it: wind power; fossil fuel power; sweat power. Actually, the
sweat power looked sorta fun (for a while).
Craig lost all his
lunker-size koi during our fairly mild winter. Except for the smell
he said he was glad to get rid of them. He likes his lilies much
more than he liked the koi. Koi can wreck water lilies fairly
fast. LA.
©
2004 LA Productions

3600
Sixth Avenue
Corner
of Sixth & Euclid Avenues
Des
Moines, IA 50313
515
283-0300
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