Re: Gary Allen's How to Build a Disaster

[Bob in PA]

> koi, which can grow 12 inches long.

Boy, the guy who said that is in for a surprise...


--

Check out the mystical blue koi!!
Check out my pond webpage:
Http://trains99.tripod.com

Click on the My Pond Link under Places to Go

Take ME away to reply

[FBCS]

ditto... My DH didn't understand why I didn't watch his regular show. It
always looked like the same house, the same plants and always in Florida.
Mundane.
"BenignVanilla" > wrote in message
...
> I finally watched the Gary Allen Backyard Pond Spectacular, last night. I
> didn't see him put rocks and pebbles at the bottom of a Koi pond did I? I
> didn't see them put fish in the pond the day after it was done, did I? I
> didn't see them recommend a lily for underneath a water drop of what
looked
> like 2 feet, did I? Pickeral Weed in a formal pond? A skimmer net is 'the
> most important piece of pond equipment'? You need to purify your pond
water?
> You should chemicals to maintain pH? And is it possible for him to do a
> project WITHOUT mondo grass? *laugh*
>
> --
> BenignVanilla
> Pond Site: www.darofamily.com/jeff/links/mypond
>
>
>

[joe]

BenignVanilla wrote:

> I finally watched the Gary Allen Backyard Pond Spectacular, last night


I watch a fair amount of HGTV and I've never even heard of this guy. When is
the show on, or was it a special?



Joe



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[Lee Brouillet]

When his Sat/Sun AM shows were first airing (I don't think they're on
anymore, though), he intrigued the stuffin' out of me because I was
house-shopping and knew landscaping would be on the list. However, he
rapidly got away from "real" houses and got into mansions and country clubs
.. . . He's big into "easy care" stuff, which - as stated above - tends to be
BOR-Ring . . But I *did* incorporate his curvy bed lines <G> My hubby and I
watched his special in horror. Even DH knew what he was saying and doing was
ALL wrong. The sad part is the number of people who watched the show and got
wrong info.

Lee

"joe" > wrote in message
...
> BenignVanilla wrote:
>
> > I finally watched the Gary Allen Backyard Pond Spectacular, last night
>
>
> I watch a fair amount of HGTV and I've never even heard of this guy. When
is
> the show on, or was it a special?
>
>
>
> Joe
>
>
>
> -----= Posted via Newsfeeds.Com, Uncensored Usenet News =-----
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[K30a]

Here is the whole WSJ article.


Patience Runs Dry
With Water Gardens

By EILEEN WHITE READ
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
From The Wall Street Journal Online
When Paul Dougherty put a water garden behind his Washington, D.C., home, he
imagined he was building himself an oasis, a quiet spot where he could sit and
gaze at the lotus blossoms as brightly colored koi fish swam below.
Some oasis: Now, every morning at 6, he rises to test the water in his pond,
then adds chemicals to counteract chlorine. His bills have climbed north of
$20,000, as he's shelled out for water filters, sterilizers and the like, not
to mention last month's $200 bill for an emergency house call from the fish
veterinarian. Yes, the fish veterinarian: Three of his prized koi had ulcers.
"If somebody had told me from Day One that it would be like this, I would have
said, 'You're out of your mind,'" says Mr. Dougherty, a commercial real-estate
agent.
Water gardening has been one of the biggest backyard fads of the past decade.
According to the National Gardening Association, U.S. spending on water gardens
-- which can range from a simple goldfish pond to an elaborate contemplative
garden of waterfalls and streams edged in bluestone -- climbed to $806 million
in 1999, twice what it was in 1995. With prices plummeting due to "instant-pond
kits" and mail-order supplies, three million homeowners decided to put in a
"water feature," between 1998 and 1999 alone, raising the total number of
households with artificial fish ponds in the country to seven million. Even
drugstores these days are peddling liquid algae cleaner, in case you've run
out.
But the trend has left lots of folks feeling soaked, as many backyards are now
graced not by a Zen meditation site, but a leaking pond, a mess of overgrown
algae and the bodies of very expensive, lifeless fish. "When a person sees or
reads about water gardens, they sound pretty simple," says San Diego landscape
architect Andrew Spurlock. But the reality, he says, is far more difficult. Mr.
Spurlock knows from experience. Though he helped design the intricate water
gardens at the J. Paul Getty Center in Los Angeles, when it came to his own
pond, "the pump would bog down from debris, there was the mess of cleaning it
every three weeks, and we had algae and dead fish," he says. When he recently
bought a new house, Mr. Spurlock decided he could do without a pond. "It's time
that I'd rather spend working in the garden," he says.
Nature Strikes Back
Terry Birkel knows the feeling. The Washington attorney used to love the
free-form ponds connected by a waterfall in his backyard. Then nature struck
back: One night, after Mr. Birkel cleaned the pond, he forgot to refill it all
the way. Local raccoons waded in and helped themselves to a dozen of his costly
koi (price per fish: as much as $300). He came out to find "fish carcasses all
over the yard," he says. Then he inadvertently killed some more fish himself,
first by filling the pond with chlorinated water (koi count: 15) and then by
putting in weed killer (another dozen dead). "It got to the point where I would
go out in the morning and just be glad not to see any of [the fish] floating
dead in the water," he says.
Before the early '60s, an ornamental pond was "typically a luxury item of the
rich, because you had to have a concrete foundation and plumbing underneath,"
says Charles Thomas, author of "Water Gardens." Putting one in usually cost
thousands of dollars. That all changed with the development of flexible pond
liners and submersible pumps and filters. The trend took off in the U.S. during
the '80s along with the craze for chateau-size mansions. It was fueled even
further by the development of "instant-pond kits," which let homeowners do it
themselves for as little as $100.
Thomas Williams and his son built three cascading ponds in their backyard with
just $900 in supplies bought from the Arizona Aquatic Gardens Web site. They
looked great until one morning when the Tempe, Ariz., banker noticed that one
of the ponds had collapsed overnight, spewing 1,500 gallons of water and
exposing the filter and the roots of his plants. Mr. Williams and his wife
waded into the "yucky mud, thigh deep," to slowly reassemble the pond's walls
with concrete blocks and dry dirt. His bargain-basement garden suddenly got a
lot more expensive: The price of his wife's help was a 10-day trip with their
daughter to Hawaii, without Mr. Williams.
And if putting a water garden in has gotten easier, maintaining one hasn't. To
keep a pond in good health, the water has to be tested daily, the bottom should
be cleaned weekly, and -- most onerous of all -- the whole thing needs to be
drained and completely scrubbed once a year. Not surprisingly, pond-technology
makers have released a flood of fancy gadgets designed to make life easier,
from high-tech filters to ultraviolet sterilizers, vacuum cleaners and "leaf
eaters" that clean debris on the bottom. Once people in colder climates started
putting in the ponds, they also needed things like de-icers -- winter heaters
that keep water gardens from freezing over completely.
A Haven of Beauty
Still, the calming, meditative quality of a backyard pond can be hard to
resist. Scott Hertzog, a salesman in Emmaus, Pa., enlarged his tiny pond four
times until he got it to a size that felt just right. Of his fifth, and
seemingly final pond, he says, "I fit this haven of overwhelming beauty in a
10-foot-by-30-foot area." And indeed, nationwide water garden sales are still
climbing at 10% to 15% per year, says PK Data, an Atlanta market research firm.
One reason: Even as the economy slows overall, Americans are continuing to make
their gardens a priority.
And according to Mr. Thomas, the garden-book author, the chief source of
water-garden failures is, ironically, fish, not plants. He says pond
aficionados quickly become fish fanciers and invest in a school of koi, which
can grow 12 inches long and produce too much waste for their small, contained
environment. Instead of "spending thousands of dollars on all kinds of filters
and things" to support big fish, Mr. Thomas advises water gardeners to focus on
the flowers and perhaps a few small goldfish -- at least it'll cut down on the
bills from the fish doctor.
That doesn't mean much to Kim Lindsey in Bronson, Mich. Every night this year,
she's gone to bed yearning for "the gentle, soothing sounds of running water."
Instead, from dusk until dawn, she's been harangued by the croaking of a dozen
toads, squatters among the rocks around her lily pond. She can't get rid of
them -- her sons like to feed them worms and watch them jump. "I actually had a
headache when the mating season was in full swing," she says. "They made more
noise than an eight-lane highway.

k30a
and the watergardening labradors
http://www.geocities.com/watergardeninglabradors/home.html

[DT]

K30a wrote:

> Here is the whole WSJ article.

> Patience Runs Dry
> With Water Gardens

> "It's time that I'd rather spend working in the garden," he says.

> ...he forgot to refill it all the way.

> His bargain-basement garden suddenly got a
> lot more expensive...

Is anybody noticing a trend here? These all sound like
"buy-it-and-forget-it" types.

> ...Scott Hertzog, a salesman in Emmaus, Pa., enlarged his tiny pond four
> times until he got it to a size that felt just right.

Finally! A hobbyist! Started small, got bigger. And he seems happy!
Imagine that. ;-)

Dale
(had one once, don't have one now, working on fixing that)

[joe]

mad wrote:

> --
> Do radioactive cats have 18 half-lives?

Depends on the isotope.

Joe



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[K30a]

Living next to the Hanford Nuclear Reservation we once we had this
mini-kerpuffle when a couple of radioactive flies showed up in town...


k30a
and the watergardening labradors
http://www.geocities.com/watergardeninglabradors/home.html

[Gary Rich]

DT wrote:

> K30a wrote:
>
>> Here is the whole WSJ article.
>
>
>> Patience Runs Dry
>> With Water Gardens
>
>
>> "It's time that I'd rather spend working in the garden," he says.
>
>
>> ...he forgot to refill it all the way.
>
>
>> His bargain-basement garden suddenly got a
>> lot more expensive...
>
>
> Is anybody noticing a trend here? These all sound like
> "buy-it-and-forget-it" types.

And, like the design on the HGTV show - they didn't design a "buy it and
forget it" pond. The poor folks that got that pond probably will have to
do the amount of maintainence that the WSJ article mentions.

Daily water quality checks? Pond wall collapsing? Thigh deep yucky mud?
cleaning the bottom weekly? totally drained and scrubbed once a year?
What!?

Those all point to BAD DESIGN. Probably built by swimming pool
contractors or people that watched these half informed TV shows.

garyr

[K30a]

Scary, eh?
When even the WSJ gets ahold of
an 'expert' we all have trouble with.


k30a
and the watergardening labradors
http://www.geocities.com/watergardeninglabradors/home.html

[mad]

oh, yeah--i forgot to add that to my previous list.
mad
--
I must have a prodigious quantity of mind; it takes me as much as
a week, sometimes, to make it up.
Mark Twain

> From: "Bob in PA" >
> Newsgroups: rec.ponds
> Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2003 06:21:02 -0400
> Subject: Re: Gary Allen's How to Build a Disaster
>
>> koi, which can grow 12 inches long.
>
> Boy, the guy who said that is in for a surprise...
>
>
> --
>
> Check out the mystical blue koi!!
> Check out my pond webpage:
> Http://trains99.tripod.com
>
> Click on the My Pond Link under Places to Go
>
> Take ME away to reply
>
>



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[mad]

LOLOL
mad
--
Funny, I don't remember being absentminded...

> From: joe >
> Organization: Newsfeeds.com http://www.newsfeeds.com 100,000+ UNCENSORED
> Newsgroups.
> Newsgroups: rec.ponds
> Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2003 14:14:18 -0700
> Subject: Re: Gary Allen's How to Build a Disaster
>
> mad wrote:
>
>> --
>> Do radioactive cats have 18 half-lives?
>
> Depends on the isotope.
>
> Joe



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[mad]

OH NO!!!! attack of the radioactive flies!
mad
--
I have great faith in fools - my friends call it self-confidence.
Edgar Allen Poe

> From: (K30a)
> Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com
> Newsgroups: rec.ponds
> Date: 14 Aug 2003 21:19:51 GMT
> Subject: Re: Gary Allen's How to Build a Disaster
>
>
> Living next to the Hanford Nuclear Reservation we once we had this
> mini-kerpuffle when a couple of radioactive flies showed up in town...
>
>
> k30a
> and the watergardening labradors
> http://www.geocities.com/watergardeninglabradors/home.html



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[DT]

mad wrote:

> even this article has wrong information:
>
> 1.
>
>>the bottom should be cleaned weekly, and -- most onerous of all --
>
>
> the bottom doesn't need to be cleaned weekly. i don't think i've ever heard
> y'all say this

Maybe they could do like my dad did once, he added a cup of bleach to an
aquarium to kill the algae....

Then he asked me if I had any idea why his fish died.

Dale

[~ jan JJsPond.us]

Does seem the H&G show & this article swing like politics, extreme right to
extreme left. Super easy or super difficult.

>the bottom doesn't need to be cleaned weekly. i don't think i've ever heard
>y'all say this

Other than those of us to do it every nano second with a bottom drain
connected to our filters. ;o)

>>2. and -- most onerous of all -- the whole thing needs to be drained and
>>completely scrubbed once a year.
>
>draining and replacing the water might be a good idea, but not scrubbing it.

Ditto, why do people who've never done it, get paid to write about it?

Regarding the 12" koi... they surely for got to add, in a year or two time,
such over sight. ;o) ~ jan

See my ponds and filter design:
http://users.owt.com/jjspond/

~Keep 'em Wet!~
Tri-Cities WA Zone 7a
To e-mail see website

[mad]

> From: DT >
> Organization: The University of Texas at Austin; Austin, Texas
> Newsgroups: rec.ponds
> Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2003 09:05:32 -0500
> Subject: Re: Gary Allen's How to Build a Disaster
>
>> mad wrote:
>> even this article has wrong information:
>>> 1. the bottom should be cleaned weekly, and -- most onerous of all --
>> the bottom doesn't need to be cleaned weekly. i don't think i've ever heard
>> y'all say this
> Maybe they could do like my dad did once, he added a cup of bleach to an
> aquarium to kill the algae....
> Then he asked me if I had any idea why his fish died.
> Dale
>
i assume you explained...
mad

--
I wished the buck stopped here, as I could use a few.
Andy Rooney



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