my Zen Water Garden and Koi Pond

[Doug]

Very nice. Kool winter advice also. Something I may try once out in Kamloops. Think itds to cold here in Manitoba.

[kien]

Doug, there was a time when I thought the same thing about Calgary. We had a couple of weeks last winter where the temp was down below 40 for quite some time over night and never got above minus 30 during the day!

Here are some older pics of the koi pond from a couple of years back, pretty much when the pond first came online. I like these photos because the weeds haven't taken over yet LOL.

[kien]

And here is the hoop-house that I built for it the first year. Although I did manage the overwinter the pond successfully without the hoop house last year I do plan on re-using it this year and into the future. It is a bit more work to set up and take down every year but has quite a few advantages. One of the most important being the ability to feed the fish for longer. It effectively lengthens their feed/growing season (spring-fall) and shortens their dormant season (winter).





As I mentioned before, with the hoop house the ice rarely froze at all, it gets quite warm under there when the sun comes out and that's one great thing about Calgary. Even if it is minus 30 degrees outside the sun could be out in full force. If you google it you'll see lots of people using these hoop houses for their ponds and/or gardens.