Garden Photos: Part VIII

It's been awhile since I've shared photos from the garden, and the pond has some new additions!!

One of the ladies who works at the courthouse with me has a pond as well, and her water hyacinths were starting to take over so she gave some to me:


They help balance out the pond nicely, since there are a ton of water lilies on the bottom section, but nothing in the top.

And over the weekend I stop by Petco and picked up some new fishy friends!


We did have fish in the pond the first two years we were at the house, all named after Charles Dickens characters, but we learned our lesson the hard way: If you give you fish names like Smike and Little Nell, they WILL meet an untimely demise.

As of yet, these fish remain unnamed. ;-) Here they are settling into their new home:


And as I type this, there are some Japanese trapdoor snails en route to my house. They should help keep the pond water clean, they can survive the winter, AND they give birth to live young instead of laying eggs, which I think is adorable.

And moving to the other side of the back yard, here's a close-up of the vincas:


It's hard to believe that when I first bought them, they looked like this:


Needless to say, the vincas are definitely on my "buy it again next year" list!

And check out the daisies:


I wasn't sure how they'd do since I transplanted them from the front of the house, but I think their new home agrees with them, don't you? :-)