In a previous post entitled The Catfish Pond, I described one of the ponds located on this property, and discussed the problem of insufficient water clarity in that pond.  Today’s post is about another pond on the opposite side of the ranch property.  It is a spring-fed pond, so naturally we call it the “spring pond.”  Whereas the catfish pond is plagued by insufficient water clarity, the spring pond is beset by insufficient water!  This is a recent occurrence, and one which has us scratching our heads and wondering what course of action, if any, to take.  To understand our dilemma, it is necessary to present a little background information.

The spring pond is fed by a small fresh water spring that, to my knowledge, has been steadily and reliably flowing for at least the past 3 decades.  Below is a picture of the spring as it flows into the pond, which was taken April 10th of this year.

Although this is a small spring, it has provided an ample enough flow to keep the small spring pond full year round, even through the heat and dryness of our summers here in the Ozarks.  Each spring and summer, the grasses in and around the pond will grow in abundance, and each winter the grasses and other vegetation die off, amassing as a thick organic matting on the pond floor.  Over time, this organic matter had built up to the point that something needed to be done, lest the pond fill itself in and cease to exist at all.  The photograph below, also taken on April 10th, show the condition of this small pond at the time –

After examining the pond in April, Retta and I decided that we would schedule a pond cleaning for the spring of 2007, which would entail the services of an excavator and a bulldozer to dredge and reshape the pond to it’s previous spring-fed glory.  In the meantime, I thought that I would introduce several grass carp (white amur) into the spring pond to see if they would help consume the excess grasses in the pond.  We have had success with this method of pond vegetation control in yet another pond on our property (see The Grassing of the Carp), and we were confident that the carp would work in this pond as well.

When the local farm store scheduled a fish stocking day in early May, I was the first in line at the stocking truck to order my 4 grass carp.  Returning to the ranch, I followed the recommended procedures for introducing and acclimating the carp into the spring-fed pond, and proceeded to forget about them for the time being.  On July 2, roughly two months after introducing the carp into the pond, I decided it was time to check the progress of my experiment.  Returning to the pond on July 2, this is what I found –

You can see in the photo above that the carp were doing their job, slowly but surely.  In previous years, by July the grasses would have completely covered the entire pond surface, and so it was evident that the carp were making a big difference in the vegetative mass in the pond.  Satisfied with the progress that the carp were making, I again put this pond out of my mind, and proceeded on with other tasks at hand.

It has been a little over a month since I last inspected the spring pond, so this morning (August 6) I thought it would be a good idea to mosey on over and see what was happening over there.  The first sign that something was amiss is shown in the following photo –

This creek bed is just below the outflow from the spring pond.  It has been a reliable watering hole for the animals, as it has always been supplied with a fresh supply of water from the spring pond.  As you (and George) can see, it is now bone-dry, as dry as dry can be.

Fearing the worst, I continued on over to the spring pond, and as you can infer from the following photo, I was not happy with what I saw.  From the same vantage point as the previous photographs, you can see that the spring pond has shrunk to a fraction of it’s former size, and the spring itself can no longer replace water lost to evaporation.

For what it’s worth, the carp still seem to be doing their job, as the following photograph shows that the remaining small amount of water left in the pond is clear of vegetation.

But I am doubtful that the pond will contain any water at all come September, unless something radical changes in the interim.  The following photo shows the diminished flow coming from the spring, which can be compared to the very first photo in this post, which was taken this past April.

So now Retta and I face the dilemma – what to do with this pond?  We had originally intended on hiring heavy equipment to visit our property for the purpose of cleaning out the pond.  But if the spring itself is drying out, we will probably be wasting our time and limited resources undertaking this project.  Is this spring experiencing a reduced water flow that is just a temporary aberration, or are we feeling some of the effects of global and regional temperature changes that are here to stay?  Inquiring minds want to know!

The weather has been very hot in the Ozarks and across most of the country for the past few days.  The weather map shows two domes of high-pressure, super heated air that has caused stifling heat, reminding us that summer is here in full force.

When the temperature soars to triple digits, and the relative humidity hovers in the 50%-60% range, it can feel like a steam bath.  When the heat of the day threatens to cook all who venture forth outdoors, follow the animals, for they seem to have an instinctive sense of where and how to cool off.

 Introduction

This is to be the first in a continuing series of posts in which I will attempt to portray the method by which I undertake landscaping projects here at the ranch.  Before you can appreciate my style of landscaping, I must lay a little background.  I know very little about the flora that surrounds me, and even less about the science of horticulture.  I must further confess to having a near complete mental block when it comes to memorizing plant names and details of their existence.  I have never understood why I can retain trivial facts for years and even decades, and yet, anything having to do with plants seems to evaporate from the nooks and crannies of my brain nearly immediately.  I can recall the exact computer assembly language coding for the Fibonacci series that I learned in 1970, but I need to look up the names of common plants nearly every season!

Here is another piece of background information that influences my style of landscaping.  I do not plant any plants, shrubs, or trees.  With 330 acres to tend to around here, I find that there is a perpetual amount of work to be done just to maintain the neat appearance of the grounds that we enjoy so much.  It might be different if I were able to always keep up with my maintenance schedule, but invariably, I find that I am usually playing catch up with necessary chores.  When trying to keep the ever-encroaching wilderness at bay, the last thing I want to undertake is digging holes, transplanting, watering, fertilizing and fencing in additional species of plants or trees.  To my way of thinking, on this much land, mother nature has provided a sufficient variety of species.  All I need to do is simply appreciate it.

So, having said all of this, what exactly is my style of landscaping?  It is merely my feeble attempt to encourage the growth of species that I enjoy, while discouraging the growth of species that I dislike, for whatever reasons.  To illustrate the point that I am trying to convey, the first installment in this series portrays one encounter with a plant that inhabits this property.  As additional installments of this series of posts appear on this blog, I think you will see a pattern developing – this pattern is what I am calling “Landscaping, My Way.”

Dwarf Sumac

In the fall of the first season that we lived on this property, there was a good amount of remedial and catch-up field work to be done.  Some fields and pastures had been allowed to grow wild for many seasons, and decisions about their future use had to be made soon, or else we risked the prospect of having to re-establish these fields in the future.  As I was busy bush hogging one of the fields, I ran across a patch of some bright red plant, which at the time, I could not identify.  Whatever this plant was, it immediately caught my eye because of the intense color of the leaves, and I made an on-the-spot decision to spare their colorful lives.  Instead of shredding them into oblivion, I decided to allow them to continue to grow, at least until I could take the time to learn more about them.

By gathering samples of the leaves and stems, I was able to identify this plant as a type of sumac, which occurs throughout most of the eastern United States.  Later I learned that this was a species called dwarf sumac.  The thin, reed-like stems of this plant, along with the opposing leaf structure make it easy to identify at a glance, and this made it easy to isolate and spare clusters of this plant in the fields where they grew.  As a result of this ease in identification, soon I had numerous clusters of dwarf sumac growing in some of the fields.  Each fall now brings numerous bright-red splotches of color into these fields, and a big grin onto my face when I see them in the course of my chores.

In the photo above you can see what a typical cluster of dwarf sumac looks like in the field during the month of July.  The sumac is in bloom this time of year, and the creamy yellow flowers grow thick amidst the shrubbery.

The dense concentration of the bloom on these plants attracts the attention of any bees in the area.  If you have any desire to “course bees” in order to locate elusive “bee trees”, these clusters of sumac are a good place to start.  If you would like, click on this link to see my pictorial essay on “Hunting for Bee Trees.”

The sumac has year round nutritional value for wildlife.  In the summer, many species of songbird dine on the prolific seed of the plant, joined by grouse and quail.  Birds and many mammals partake of the berry-like fruit of the sumac, and deer love to browse the bark and stems of the plant in the winter.  Native peoples of the eastern U.S. used the plant for medicinal purposes, and herbalists today utilize the root, leaf, and bark for a number of homeopathic remedies.  So besides being a lovely, ornamental species that grows wild in this region, the plant brings with it numerous practical and beneficial properties.

Whenever I pass the many sumac patches that now exist in my fields, I can now say with pride, “that is the result of landscaping, my way.”