Fall Colors in Seattle Japanese Garden

The Fall color provides a great excuse to see other Japanese Gardens.  And when the weather cooperates, we cannot miss the opportunity.  We have shown the Seattle Japanese Gardens earlier in the spring.  This weekend we went back to see the fall colors.

 Because there is so much to see, this week we will focus on the gardens and not the beautiful inhabitants that live in the pond.  The pond water was not very clear and we had enough trouble reducing the number of beautiful pictures to an amount that we could show on this blog.  In fact, if you want to see more photos of the Japanese Gardens, we have created a Picasa web site to see the complete set of photos.  See the pictures at this web site.  Contact Koi Garden Guy for purchases and prints.  Enjoy!!!!

Photographing Japanese Gardens are one of the only times where an overcast sky is a good thing.  The overcast sky allows for use of a lower exposure and brings the colors into the photo better.  Also this is a public park that gets a lot of mileage with people and their families.   So it might be hard to completely get people free photos.  It might make sense not to even try.  There are lots of nice family shots and the people interactions are very nice. 

The Seattle Japanese Gardens does make special provisions for photographers.  Certain Tuesdays during the best weeks of the year, photographers can have a free run of the gardens, before they are open to the public.  At those times, tripods are allowed.  The cost for these times is 30$ and sign-up is required.  During the normal times, tripods are not allowed.  The legs cause trouble with all the families, etc.  Check the web site for more info.

It’s almost time to fall back, but not into the pond

Just like with clocks, there are some things that must be done each year at the Koi Garden Pond. As the temperatures drop, both in the water and in the air, the plants will start to change color and die back. The water will begin to change as well losing the algae that cause the green color and will eventually become clearer. In addition to the changes inside the pond, the leaves in all the adjoining trees are changing color and will start to fall into the pond.

This is an important time for the pond. The dropping leaves and die back of the pond plants can introduce a lot of biomass into the pond in a short period of time, putting real stress on the Nitrogen cycle. As we talked about in earlier posts, this can really screw up the chemicals of the Koi pond. And one thing you cannot mess with is my chemicals in the pond, not after the work we have done to get them in order…

Face it, cutting back the existing pond plants will just sort of speed up what was going to happen anyway and allows us a way to keep the plants from decaying in the pond. We have already gotten the benefits of the plants, both visually and with respect to pond health. It only goes downhill from here… at least till next spring. Trimming the pond plants back also allows me access to any gardening and repotting needs. Lilies are notorious for outgrowing their pots. They are also a very easy plant to break up and split into multiple pots. And as any aficionado of Japanese gardens knows, you cannot ever have enough lilies…

Once we have cut all the pond plants back and or done any required repotting, we can place them back in the pond. They go dormant and will do just fine in the water during the winter. Now we can place the pond cover over the pond. This will not only keep the falling leaves out of the pond, but also keep any Koi-hungry predators from getting at the Koi.

At this time, it could also make sense to do a partial water change. This gives the pond a bump start in cleaning up the water. As the water temperature drops, the algae that makes up the green water, will start to die back. By manually reducing the algae, we are reducing the possibility that large amounts of dying algae will cause a spike in Ammonia and we have already talked about the evils of Ammonia and the Nitrogen cycle… The water is also very high in nutrients. So reserve it for your favorite plants!

A chill is in the air….

Well the summer is gone, at least for now.

This drop in temperature affects the inhabitants of the Koi Garden Pond as much as it does humans. While we can scurry for the fall sweaters and sweatshirts, the Koi cannot do so. Even though a large percentage of the Koi Garden pond is situated underground, which moderates any temperature changes, the water still does change according the air temperature. I just checked the water temperature today and it has gotten down to 58 degrees F. It was in the 70s a week or so ago.

There are two parts of temperature change to be concerned about: The resultant temperature; and the speed in which the temperature changes.

Now the 50s are not really a problem for the Koi. You can continue to feed the Koi, just switch the food to a lower protein variety. As we mentioned in earlier blogs, temperatures less than 50 degrees are where you have to be more concerned. That is when I stop feeding altogether. So imagine the problem if/when the temperature raises over 50 again? Do you start feeding again? Continue not feeding? And what about the food previously eaten but not fully digested? All sorts of problems can and do occur. It is better to go through the temperature change through the 50s just once or twice a season.

So, back to our old friend, the aquarium heater. We use the heater to regulate the pond and filter water temperature. It won’t keep the pond above 50 degrees all winter, but it will slow the decline. And that is really what we need to do anyway.

Much better than trying to fit a sweatshirt on a Koi...