There are pros and cons to pond water recycling this nutrient-rich water as a home brew of fish fertilizer. Unlike commercially available fish emulsion and hydrolysate fertilizers, your recycled pond and aquarium water has not gone through a process to preserve nutrients while removing impurities and contaminants. ‘Pond water is less than ideal for vegetable gardens,” according to Simplify Gardening. ‘The water can host microbes and potentially harmful pests that can make your plants sick, so it is imperative to check it before watering your plants. There are some advantages of using pond water, including nitrogen high water.’
The safest way to recycle pond water is to avoid using it on fruits and vegetables intended for consumption and use it instead on non-fruit-bearing trees, tropicals, ornamentals, and flowering annuals and perennials.
Commercially available Fish emulsion is an older process that relies on heat and creates a smelly product. In contrast, Fish Hydrolysate is a newer process involving the cold processing of fresh fish and fish byproducts.
‘Our unique cold process protects heat sensitive nutrients naturally found in fish, providing you with the best fertilizer available,’ according to Neptune’s Harvest. ‘Unlike fish emulsions, Neptune’s Harvest doesn’t remove the proteins or oils during processing and has no unpleasant odor.’ Earth Works Gardens shop stocks Neptunes’ Harvest Hydrolyzed Fertilizer.

Additional advantages of the hydrolyzed fish fertilizer over recycled water or fish emulsion, according to Laid Back Gardener include:
– It quickly corrects nutrient deficiencies;
– It encourages the proliferation of bacteria that are beneficial to the ecosystem;
– It stimulates rooting and flowering;
– It nourishes the soil with its rich nutrients;
– It increases the Brix (amount of sugar) in fruits and vegetables.

Earth Works constructed ponds are designed with sufficient filtration not to require water changes when the fish load is ideal. However, this can change as clients’ fish grow in number and size. The amount of waste a koi releases as it ages from small fry to full-grown fish is not a linear increase based on length but exponential based on fish weight. The circumference, more so than the length of your koi, accounts for this dramatic increase in fish waste. Pond water recycling affords you some fertilization benefits that we recommend supplementing with Neptune’s Harvest Fish Hydrolysate.

Earth Works operates a retail Garden Center/Plant Nursery in Jacksonville and provides landscaping, hardscaping, water features, lawn care service, lawn spraying, and drainage solutions. Stop by our retail center or contact us online or by phone at 904-996-0712.

Earth Works proudly serves clients in Northeast Florida, including Jacksonville, Ponte Vedra Beach, Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach, Jacksonville Beach, Nocatee, St. Johns, Fleming Island, Orange Park, Middleburg, Green Cove Springs, Amelia Island, Fernandina, and St. Augustine.

Detoxifier

Aquascape Pond Detoxifier makes pond water safe for fish and plants, allowing you to spend more time enjoying your fish and less time worrying about them. Source water, including tap and well water, often contains chlorine, chloramines, and heavy metals. It is essential to eliminate any toxins in your pond water to ensure the health of your ecosystem. Pond Detoxifier removes and detoxifies chlorine, neutralizes ammonia, and detoxifies and chelates copper and heavy metals that can harm pond fish and aquatic plants. Pond Detoxifier also allows some metals, like iron, to be used as a fertilizer, helping your plants to thrive.

Staple Fish Food

If you want happy and healthy pond fish, you need to feed them high-quality fish food. Aquascape Premium Staple Fish Food Pellets are formulated for everyday use and provide your pond fish with the nutrition they need to thrive at an affordable price. The mixed pellet sizes include small, medium, and large pellets, ideal for ponds containing a variety of fish sizes. All Aquascape fish foods contain probiotics that aid in digestion and reduce fish waste, while the included high-quality protein helps optimize growth rates. The floating pellets contain stabilized vitamin C and other quality ingredients and are scientifically formulated for all pond fish, including koi and goldfish. Aquascape fish food will not break apart during feeding, helping to maintain clear Premium water conditions.

Beneficial Bacteria

Aquascape Beneficial Bacteria in concentrated power formula or liquid water treatment helps to provide clean, clear, and healthy water conditions, significantly reducing pond maintenance. Each bottle of Beneficial Bacteria is packed full of eight pure strains of concentrated beneficial bacteria and is completely safe for fish, plants, pets, and wildlife. Our Beneficial Bacteria effectively reduce fish waste, organic plant material, sludge, and excess nutrients in your pond, allowing you to spend more time enjoying your water feature and less time maintaining it. Our bacteria contains a 1.5 billion CFU per ounce potency, ensuring consistently effective treatment. The included marigold and vitamin B help bring out your fish’s natural colors while maintaining proper fish health.

https://youtu.be/uxQ2uz808jA

Pond Plants

Adding marginal pond plants helps to reduce algae growth by competing with the algae for nutrients. Popular choices include bloody dock, pennywort, aquatic mint, corkscrew rush, pickerel, water iris, canna lily, and more.  Providing shade on the pond’s surface by adding water lilies will help diminish the possibility of green water.

Maintain

Aquascape Maintain for Ponds combines our most effective pond water treatments into one powerful formulation to successfully keep ponds clean, clear, healthy, and maintenance-free. This easy-to-use water treatment contains a powerful blend of beneficial bacteria, phosphate binder, flocculant, and pond detoxifier. The bacteria blend includes lithotrophic, heterotrophic, and photosynthetic bacteria strains, keeping pond water healthy, beautiful, and safe for pond fish. The included phosphate binder locks up excess nutrients that could otherwise cause issues with water quality, and the flocculant quickly clears cloudy water by clumping suspended debris. A pond water detoxifier is added to the formulation to remove and detoxify chlorine, chloramine, heavy metals, and other toxins, making your pond water safe for fish and plants. The easy-to-use pump top accurately measures 100 gallons of treatment per pump. Maintain for Ponds is safe for fish, plants, pets, and wildlife.

Automatic Dosing system: www.aquascapeinc.com/automatic-dosing-system

Automatic Dosing system: www.aquascapeinc.com/automatic-dosing-system

Rapid Clear Fine Filter Pads

The Aquascape Rapid Clear Fine Filter Pad helps speed up flocculated particles’ filtering. Smaller debris is often tricky to catch and remove from the pond. Therefore, using a finer disposable filter mat will allow you to capture particulate that is too fine for your mechanical filter mats. Place the mat inside the skimmer box and watch the impressive results. The Aquascape Rapid Clear Fine Filter Pad is best used in combination with Rapid Clear Flocculant water treatment to quickly enhance water clarity and quality.

Check Out This Video for More Great Information

Pollinator facts:

Our pollinators are in trouble with declining numbers worldwide. There are multiple causes including, habitat loss, pesticide use, invasive plants, climate change, and diseases.

In Florida, we have 300 native bees, 160 butterfly species that breed here and about 200 species that migrate through the state, and 3 commonly seen hummingbird species.

Bees are our most efficient pollinators. Practicing “flower Constancy,” searching for certain plants on their foraging trips. They go to and from the same species of flower. Pollinating a third of the world’s food supply.

Searching for nectar, butterflies pick up pollen and accidentally pollinate, not quite as efficient as the honeybee. Yet, several plant species, like milkweed and other wildflowers, depend on butterflies to transfer their pollen.

Hummingbirds are hungry creatures feeding most of the day. This makes them perfect pollinators for many flowers. Certain flower varieties have evolved to become even more appealing to these tiny birds.

Gardening for Pollinators in your own yard can help! As natural habitats are being destroyed to accommodate new development, the importance of gardening to assist bee and butterfly populations is growing. Planting a pollinator garden in your yard helps combat this loss of natural habitats.

Selecting the right plants for your Pollinator Garden

BEES: Honeybees prefer white, yellow, purple, and blue flowers — they can’t even see the color red! Bees also need a nice-sized landing pad, so broad petal, daisy-like flowers are best. Finally, they need both pollen and nectar to feed the hive. So fruit-producing trees and shrubs, as well as native plants, fill the bill.

BUTTERFLIES: If you want a well-attended butterfly party in your yard, invite your local butterfly species by planting their favorite host plants! Butterflies require specific host plant species to lay their eggs on, along with food and shelter. Then add some nectar plants, preferably with red, orange, yellow, and pink trumpet-shaped flowers, to feed your guest.

HUMMINGBIRDS: Brightly colored, preferably red, tubular flowers that hold the most nectar are particularly attractive to hummingbirds. Plant these sugar-rich plants near and around your home and patio areas for the best opportunity to view these elusive and amazing birds.

Black-Eyed Susan

Coral Honeysuckle

Marigolds

Lavender

Purple Coneflower

Milkweed

Coreopsis

Gaillardia

Dune Sunflower

Blue-Eyed Grass

Liatris

Alyssum

Agastache Bee Balm

Lantana

Penta

Buddleia

Firebush

Salvia

Porterweed

Sweet Almond Bush

Firespike

Black-Eyed Susan

Purple Coneflower

Milkweed

Coreopsis

Gaillardia Dune Sunflower

Firebush

Coral honeysuckle

Coralbean

Tropical Sage

Crossvine

Cardinal flower

Necklace Pod

Cigar Plant

Bat face Cuphea

Salvia

Jatropha

Bottlebrush

Shrimp plant Soap Aloe

Important Tips:

Avoid using insecticides and other harmful chemicals in your garden.

Shop the garden centers at different times to select plants that bloom in different seasons.

Fertilize with organic plant foods, like compost and fish fertilizer.

Choose plants for butterflies that will provide food for caterpillars.

Common caterpillar host plants: Milkweed, Parsley, Dill, Fennel, Dutchman’s Pipevine, Passion Vine, Azalea, Cassia/Senna Trees

Butterfly adults need more than nectar from flowers. Try setting out a dish full of fruit scraps. Fill the bottom with a very shallow layer of water mixed with sea salt and watch which butterflies hang around for a snack.

Useful Links:

https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/documents/AttractingPollinatorsEasternUS_V1.pdf

https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/design/types-of-gardens/butterfly-gardens.html

Thrill, Fill, and Spill!

A classic recipe for creating a beautiful arrangement uses this theory of combining plants with different heights, textures, and growth patterns.

• Thriller:  Anything you choose that will act as a focal point. Choose something dramatic and flashy. It could be anything that draws the eye. This is also usually the tallest plant in the mix.
• Filler: Choose plants that won’t get as tall as the Thriller but will either contrast or complement it and fill in the middle space
• Spiller: Pick one or several plants that will drape and spill over the container.

Design Possibilities:

Monochromatic design–Pick plants that flower in similar colors.

Learn how to plant anything like a pro.

A few easy steps will ensure your plants have an advantage. Add rich Compost and Bio-charged organic soil amendments.

After selecting the placement of your plants, follow these easy steps:

1–7 gallon plants: Water the plant(s) gently.

1. Dig a hole several inches wider and deeper than the size of the pot holding the plant.

2. Remove the plastic pot from the root ball.

3. Inspect to make sure there are no large roots circling around the edges. If so, gently pull roots away.

4. Add Wild Earth Mix and Bio-Tone to the hole. Enough so that when the plant is sitting in the hole the top surface of the plant’s soil is a quarter of an inch above ground level.

15-gallon plants and larger

Follow the steps above. (1-4)

5. Then, after back-filling with Wild Earth Mix, use the native soil that was removed to make the hole to create a ring around the tree or shrub. The ring should be on the surface of the soil at the edges of the circumference of the plant’s roots. Pack the soil with the backside of the shovel on the interior and exterior sides of the ring. Adjust hose flow to run at a gentle trickle and fill the ring with water for several minutes. Keep the flow rate slow enough to keep the ring filled with water but not overflowing.

Protect your investment by giving your plants a huge advantage.

Harness the power of nature and Bio-Boost your soil.

Earth Works proven success kit will reduce heat stress, water needs, and transplant shock.

Organic ingredients guaranteed not to burn the plant’s root system

Beneficial bacteria and Fungi come to life in the soil and work to  energize root systems

Slow-release natural fertilizer feeds for months

3 Easy Steps!

1.

Just dig your hole

2.

Coat the inside with Bio-Tone

3.

Backfill with Wild Earth Mix #3

Don’t forget that freshly installed plants may need water once a day when temperatures are in the mid-’70s and above. Check Daily if the soil below the surface is dry; hand water as needed. Never water plants if the soil is wet or moist.

Jack’s Classic Bloom Booster

Blossom Booster 10-30-20 is a Professional formula designed to produce more flowers and brighter colors on all indoor and outdoor plants. Feeds through both the roots and the leaves. This is the Original Blossom Booster with the proven 1:3:2 nutrient ratio– the quality is unmatched in the home gardener market. Trusted by many professional growers as a tool to fill out a blooming container. This formula will produce the same GREAT results for you at home.