From Paul in Florida

Thank you Paul.  Lots of good info to pass along.

Hi John!

I read your blog every day (sometimes more than once) just to keep up with what is going on with the MGRS. Thanks for all of your hard work keeping it going with good information.

I'm glad that you got your pond serviced today. I'm still in Fort Myers. We plan to come back home to Maine about the first week of May. I was hoping to see part of the annual garden Railway convention in Tampa, but Brenda is getting a bit homesick I think and is anxious to get her hands in her gardens. Friends sent us some pictures last week of our driveway. It has only one small bare spot showing and still some very high snowbanks so I think we have a few more weeks before we can get into some serious gardening. I'm also anxious to see how some of my very small shrubs did this winter. I planted two Jean's Dilly Alberta Spruce in October, so I'm hoping their roots were established enough before the ground froze. It will also be interesting to see how my bridge abutments that I built last summer did through the winter.

I ran my pond pump 24/7 last summer after putting a small burlap container of barley straw in the skimmer and didn't have any algae problems. I didn't use any other chemicals in the pond. I may try putting the pump on a timer this summer and let it run 16 hours per day (resting at night) to see if I still have satisfactory results. I did some calculations last fall to see how much it cost me for electricity to run the pond pump per month at 24 hours per day and I think it was about $30.00. (amps X volts = watts @ 0.17 per kWh -  Bangor Hydro/Emera rate). I guess it is worth $30.00 per month to keep the pond maintenance free….I would spend more to run the pump even just 8 or 12 hours a day and then buy the buckets of algaecide needed to keep it clear. The bag of barley straw costs just $8.00, if I recall correctly, and lasts 3 months (I buy two for the summer season and they can be purchased at the local nursery in Herman (Greencare) for 50% off in the fall). One of the biggest advantages of using barley vs. other chemicals is that the water is safe for wildlife such as frogs and the birds that drink from it. I saw an article on line that reviewed the use of barley straw in livestock water tanks on farms and ranches. I think that Tractor Supply is the first place that I saw barley straw for sale.

Keep those great articles coming!

Thanks.
Paul Smith