Best of the Holidays from Koi Garden Guy

The Koi Garden is trimmed and ready for the cold frost season. The fish are snug, protected and resting at the bottom of their pond (or so I am lead to think…).

The Koi Garden Guy wants to wish everyone a very Merry Holiday season.


The Koi Garden Guy is traveling and visiting family so this will be the last post of the year.


And just in case everyone forgets the main reason for the Holiday Season, I have included the Koi Garden Holiday Gift recommendations below for any last minute gifts.

Brrrr, winter has arrived!

The temperature has dropped for the last week and is staying well under any sane temperature (this AM we woke to a 21 degrees, in Seattle no less). 

But the Koi Garden is ready for winter.   The heater has long been turned off and the temperature has dropped nicely and evenly.  As I have talked about in earlier posts, the heater is used to even the temperature out as it falls to the winter levels.  There are some ponds that stay heated year around so the fish don’t even know that winter has arrived.  I call those ponds San Diego ponds….  But our goal is not to do that.  We like the seasons!  We just want to make the transitions smoother.

I have raked the leaves up to keep them from getting into the pond to foul the water.   I also got all the leaves out of the crushed gravel.  A Zen Garden with dirty gravel will just not do! 

The lilies and irises have been split and cut back in preparation for the cold season.  Cutting them way back allows them to go dormant and focus any new growth on the root structure.

The water has cleared up some as the temperatures dropped so it is almost possible to see to the bottom of the pond.

But most importantly, the pond is covered with the safety cover.  Jumping fish are not a problem this time of year as the fish are mostly sleeping.  But it does keep the leaves out and stops any raccoons, herons or eagles stopping by looking to have a sleeping Koi for breakfast. 

The Koi are sleeping without a worry in the world….

Oh and for all the shoppers who are just starting their search to find that perfect gift for their Koi Garden family and friends, we have moved the Koi Garden Guy’s Holiday gift recommendations to a special carousel at the bottom of this site.  This will be available for the next few weeks to save you the effort of perusing old posts. 

Koi Garden Guy's Gift Guide part II

Last week I covered the items 10 to 6 of the Koi Garden Guys recommended shopping list.  This week I will finish off the guide.

5. Koi Cufflinks.  Just what the smartly dressed Koi Garden owner should be wearing this season, preferably in a nice spring party in your Koi Garden.

4.  Comprehensive Koi book.  This book is one of the best.  It is  the first places I go to find answers for any questions I have regarding the Koi Garden.

3.  Ceramic Warming stools.  No Koi Garden should be without them.  They should be placed near the pond for the best viewing of the pond.  Make sure to place them so they become warm from the morning sun (get it?  Warming stools?).  There is no place better to have a warm cup of coffee or tea.

2.  Japanese lantern.  A Rustic Lantern is must-have item for every Koi Garden.  The more rustic, the better.  Make sure you cover yours with a nice blanket of moss.  (For tips on getting moss to grow just right, please check my earlier post.) While you can buy them on Amazon, you can find beautiful ones at your local Japanese garden store.  I've showcased my beautiful lantern in several previous posts in addition to the moss post.

1.  Bronze Heron.  This can be a highlight of your Koi Garden.  I've found this nice one for you on Amazon, but you should be able to find nice specimens at your local garden art store.  One of our favorite stores Oasis Water Gardens, has some very pretty ones.

Koi Garden Guy's Holiday Gift List

With the holiday season right around the corner, the Koi Garden Guy has put together a top 10 Koi Garden Holiday Gift List for the Koi Garden fanatic on your shopping list.

10.    Solar Chinese Lanterns.  Minimum three lanterns, but this is one case where you can overdo it.  Unless your garden is huge, don’t use more than five. For wet climates, bring them in during the bad weather season.  Remember, they are solar based, so position them where they get the sun.

9.  Koi Tote Bag.  Carry stuff in style. Since plastic store bags are now passe, why not save the environment while advertising a great hobby?

8.  Indoor/Outdoor Weather station.  This station not only tells you the correct time (probably updated by atomic Gnomes in Colorado), it also tells you temperatures. Both temperatures in your home but also the water temperature of your Koi pond. Not the air outside your window, or near the pond, but the water temperature of the pond! It does so wirelessly, so you can read it from the comfort of your living room.

7.  Bonsai Plant.  No link for this one, but you can find some at your local Japanese Garden Stores.  For those people who live in harsher environments, a Bonsai plant is a great way to enjoy the Koi garden indoors during the winter.  Then when the summer comes around again, you bring the Bonsai outside and place it in a shady section of the Koi Garden.     Voondebaaarrr!

6.  Pond Water Test Strips.  I have talked about these before. They are a great way to keep in touch with all the chemical stuff going on in your pond.  No more liquid chemicals, counting drops.  Dip the strip in the water and compare the colors to a standard attached to the container.  Brilliant!

Next week we will have the final five of Koi Garden Guy's holiday list.

Winter has arrived

Well the freezing weather and snow has arrived.
The cold weather that hit Seattle recently has gotten so cold, I was concerned about the filter freezing over and the ceramic container breaking. I had recently turned off the filter heater and this cold snap was enough to make me turn it back on. At these temperatures, it is not strong enough to raise the water temp too much, just enough to keep the filter and the pond from freezing over.




The water stays cold enough to freeze on the screen, making some very nice icicles. The fish are visible and moving around in the water. At these temperatures, they are sensitive to noise and harassment. The fish sometimes even lay down and sleep. I have thought more than once that one of them was dead, but the fish were just sleeping.

The screen fills up with snow as well which makes for some nice photos.




Notes for Photographers: When photographing in snowy times like this, sometimes you need to modify the photos with software. I use Picasa from google (Google.com). It allows me to lighten the photographs to compensate for the cloudy, snowy weather. Picasa allows for many more, quite complex types of improvements to the digital photos. And it is available for a nice price... Free.

December winter prep

Even as the temperatures drop
into the 30s, the Koi Garden
still teems with life.

An early morning walk through
the garden allows time and
the light to find some small,
busy neighbors.










The winter die back allows for the Koi Garden to shine in other ways. It does make the fall/winter cleaning worthwhile.


In the northwest, filter temperature is a constant problem. I use a small aquarium heater placed inside the filter assembly to help keep the filter working.


The heater keeps the temperature above 50 degrees, measured in the pond at the alternate corner. This allows the fish to feed earlier in the spring and longer into the fall/winter. Koi go dormant at temperatures under 40 degrees and should stop feeding under 50 degrees. When the temperature bounces over and under that 50 degree level and you are still feeding your fish, there is a chance that the Koi will not be able to process the food, thereby getting very sick. By using a heater, you can help remove this risk as the transition through feeding and letting the fish go dormant a lot easier. Also, in the spring, as the temperature is rising again, the harmful bacteria and viruses wake up from dormancy faster than a Koi's imune system. Having a filter heater can help make the transision from 30s and 40 to over 50 a lot smoother.
It also allows the filter to remain at a higher temperature allowing the beneficial bacteria to work more efficiently. Since the pond temperature is now falling close to 50 degrees and the outside temperature is mostly well below it, it is time to turn the heater off for the winter. The Koi will be fine as long as the pond doesn't completely freeze over.
I prefer to turn the heater off at the plug in, rather than remove it from the filter. This allows me the option of turning the heater on for a few days if the pond start freezing over in a cold snap.

In preparation for the winter, I also put the winter screen on the pond. It is a wood framed monstrosity that has a metal screen that I built a few years ago. This allows light and all the elements like rain to get through, while keeping the raccoon away. I don’t use this screen in the summer or while I am around and enjoying the Koi Garden, but in the winter, it is a nice way of keeping predators at bay.