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photo courtesy of
Dianne Evenson
GPPS MINUTES
GREATER PHOENIX POND SOCIETY
REGULAR MEETING
Dec 10, 2011
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The December GPPS meeting was held on Saturday the 10th at the home of Tom & Katie Knight in Phoenix.
The meeting was called to order at 9:00ish by President Dave Nelson.
Introduced Meeting Host: Tom Knight
Host pond info: Welcome - My objective was a water garden, a small waterfall and a few fish for mosquito control. Well, when Katie and the grandsons added more fish and naming all of them, it became a fish pond.Welcome to our newest member: Kim Wiggins
This is my second pond. It is almost two years old, about 1200 gallons, 20 ft. long by 8 feet wide, by 30 inches deep. It is constructed with an EPDM black rubber liner over a felt underlay. The primary filter is a pair of simple under gravel filters in the shallow end. The waterfall, 12 amp pump, pleated paper filter, and equipment yard were built by the previous owner. I added the small one amp pump, which runs constantly, and the complicated valves. The big pump and pleated paper filter are used once a month to "muck-out" the plumbing and gravel filters. So far this has resulted in a very clean pond that won't support any floating plant life. The water hyacinth, parrot feather and anacharis are all rooted in pots and fertilized with tabs about once a month in the spring and summer.
I like the above ground pond. It does not look as natural as a below grade pond but, there are far less children, dogs, and windblown litter entering the pond. The bog garden, behind the pond, is an ongoing experiment. Each plant is in a five gallon plastic utility bucket. Each bucket has a drain near the bottom which is connected to a series of half inch PVC pipes. These pipes are connected together and allow me to drain the bog occasionally and control the water level. There is no interaction between the bog garden and the pond water. So I can feed the bog whatever I choose.
My previous pond in Tucson had a serious string algae problem, so I developed a removal tool. It is constructed from half inch PVC pipe and a 12 inch strip of smooth felt, or loop side, from a Velcro package. The pole is swirled gently in the string algae and then rotated to wind up the algae around the pole. Then pull the pole from the pond, slide the wad of algae off the end and into the trash, or composter.
Our pond visitors include; Something strange in the night (perhaps the ring tailed cat), a great horned owl (on HOT summer evenings he cools his lower half in the pond prior to the evening hunt, and he has never taken a fish), gamble quail, dove, gold finch, house finch, wood pecker, humming bird, hawk, harris antelope squirrel, bees, giant red skimmer dragon fly, damsel fly, and the great blue heron. The heron took only one fish before I added the strip of PVC fence at the water surface along the edge of the pond. It appears to be working. This is also an experiment.
Pond Club business or updates:
* President, Dave Nelson: " President, Dave Nelson: No speaker - we'll discuss club business. Gene Goerke discussed Japanese Garden project to sell Irises. He asked if we wanted any money from the sale. Someone in the group made a motion to not take money offered but that they use money from the sale to purchase fertilizer tabs.
Dave is trying to have next year's meetings with members that have not held a meeting. Gene has arranged to have a meeting next year at the Japanese Garden.
Nina brought up having a potluck next year for a Christmas party in December. We could eliminate the voting and luncheon in November and instead vote during the potluck Christmas party saving the group money. Great idea! (the Secretary votes, Yes!) Dave is going to include this suggestion in his letter and we will vote on it next year.
* Vice President, Nina Koepcke: Nothing to report.
* Secretary, Fern Shaw: Nothing to report.
* Newsletter Editor, Gloria Skylstad: Not able to make the meeting
* Librarian, Gary Ures: Not present
* Event Coordinator, Dan Stough: Not present
* Webmaster, Dennis Beard: Updated the website - check out for upcoming events.
* Treasurer, Ed Tunstall: as of today there is a balance of $2,936.94 in our treasury.
* GPPS TechCom update: Check the website.
Guest speaker: none
The raffle winner was Sharon
The next meeting in January will be at the Desert Rat Forge", Paul Dief's shop in Cave Creek. [webmaster and newsletter to have additional driving instructions]
Dave closed the meeting at 10:30.
Respectfully submitted: Fern Shaw
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