September: A Water Gardening Month To Remember
To me September is a transitory month here in Central Kentucky. Colors change from green to multitudinous shades of red, yellow, orange, purple, and brown. Temperatures change from hot and steamy, to cooler and occasionally chilly. Sports change from baseball to football, food changes from ice cream to hot soup, days grow shorter, and the old world just keeps right on a spinnin'.

If you're a pond enthusiast who loves their colorful and personable koi, their aquatic plants, and everything else that goes with the water gardening hobby when the month of September comes rolling around you start thinking of preparing for the upcoming Fall and Winter. 

 

There are a few basic steps that you'll need to be prepared to address:

Take Care of Your Fish!
As the temperatures begin to sneak down into the 60's on a regular basis, you should start feeding your fish a little bit less each day. Then when the temperature regularly hits 55 degrees, you must STOP FEEDING them completely. At that point they're beginning to go into hibernation for the winter, and feeding them after that tends to confuse and antagonize their metabolic system and cause digestive problems. So the strategy at this time of year is to give them just enough nutrition so that, as they go into hibernation, like the proverbial grizzly
bear out in the forest, your koi will have enough stored nutrition to make it through the long hard winter, while parked safe and sound at the bottom of your pond.

Take Care of the Leaves!
As those colorful leaves begin falling off the surrounding trees one by one (it may be late September before this begins), you may want to consider purchasing a net and custom built frame from us to throw over the pond in order to minimize the leaf population that could end up on the bottom of your pond. Any debris that ends up on the pond's bottom inevitably deteriorates, biodegrades, and emits toxins, too much of which can cause problems for you fish. So try to minimize the amount of "debris" that ends up in your pond by using a net.

Finally, Remember to Have Fun!!

September is a month that's still alive with outdoor possibilities. So whatever you do, take full advantage of them. Light a fire in the fire pit if the weather calls for it. Roast some weenies or marshmallows, and finish off the season with a flurry of fun. After all, you and your family all deserve it, right? 

 

Sincerely