Female bullfrog
A stone’s throw south of Rock Bottom there is a small koi pond and accompanying gardens. This little treasure is teeming with bullfrogs, bees, bunnies, butterflies, and bish fish.
Bunny nest in the koi pond garden… selfishly disturbed just enough time to take this photo
Curious as to the origin of this beautiful space I began seeking out anything anyone knew about it. Not too long into my search I got the help I needed. Deborah, a founding member of East Wind (back in 1974), was happy to relay her knowledge of the koi pond.
The triangle yard where the koi pond is now located was once known as the ‘frisbee lawn.’ One day in the early 2000s a nearby area was cleared of brush and the brush somehow came to be burned in place on the frisbee lawn. This dismayed most and the ugly burned patch on the lawn simply would not do. An idea for a simple garden was thrown around until the idea for a pond reached critical mass. Black plastic lining for the pond was proposed and dismissed. Lynn, quite a capable communard, put her hand forward to design and build the pond out of local stone and mortar.
Fearful cries of water leaks, mosquitoes, frozen fish, drowned frogs, and insufficient aeration abounded during the construction of the pond. Lynn continued her careful work nonetheless for she made ample preparations for a beautiful, low maintenance micro ecosystem.
Lynn sized the depth of the pond so that fish could survive the winter, created a frog ramp to prevent drowning, and built two large shelves and placed appropriate plants for aeration and filtration. To date the pond has never leaked and hardly requires maintenance although the water is typically refreshed once a year and the two garden ‘legs’ require tending.
Shari working around the koi pond
Today, the koi pond is maintained by Shari and a number of other members. For over five years it was carefully managed by Monica, a member who left East Wind in early Spring. Monica had reclaimed the pond from overgrown grass in the early 2010s. It is a space to be enjoyed by all, but please don’t dirty and disturb this delicate ecosystem by touching the water! Thank you to all who have put their loving labor into this special gem!
Female bullfrog with an interesting eye
Post and pictures by Sumner