Pond remodelling

The pond at our new place was really bad shape - the grass was dying, the trees were overgrown creating too much sun shade, the pond hadn't been cleaned in years. It needed a little uplifting so I undertook the endeavor of creating my first ever Japanese pond. It took me two weeks with a lot of help from Jesse and Elton trimming trees back, pulling out grass, weeds, all the plants and removing fencing. In went low lying plants like durantas, schefflera gold finger, nishi juniper, fern asparagus, lavender boutin and false heather. We even have a new pot of winter spinach (kangkung) growing in the pond! Finally, I rearranged the rocks so we could put in a pump to revive the waterfall. The patchy grass was replaced with white marble chips but I replanted certain areas with new grass to create some flow. Now, not only can the koi in the pond breathe better, I have a patio with a view to enjoy my morning tea! Here's the before and after.

Before

Before

Before

After

After

After

Waterfall

Waterlily flowering

Tenting

We 'tented' the house this weekend. There's a whole list of to-do things before leaving the house for the two days it was being tented. Among them, we had to pack all our opened food stuff and any opened medication in extra thick plastic bags supplied to us as they would not survive the fumigation. We also had to bring the pets with us and remove all fish tanks from within the house. It was quite a hassle but here in Hawaii, it's recommended to do so every five years or so to control the pest and insect infestation. Ants, roaches and termites are major pests in our house. Though we had a good family time staying at Elton's dad's, (even biked along the Pali Highway and took a peek at Queen Emma's Summer Palace Garden) I had to take a drive to the house to see what it looks like when it goes through tenting. It was the funniest thing to see.

The house covered in the largest tent I've ever seen