Starting with aquatic plants, Annette showed an idea of floating a peace lily in a barley bale, which has a hole in the center for that purpose. She also talked about a lady that had thrown an elephant ear bulb in her pond and it grew very nicely. (I have had an elephant ear cutting planted in pea gravel in our pond for several years.)

We all like to sit by our water garden and enjoy it with our friends and family, Deb Spencer from Waters Edge in Lawrence said at the March meeting.

But sometimes our beautiful pond becomes an ugly nightmare. The water turns green and we can't even see our fish, let alone the bottom of the pond. Algae grows and almost takes over the pond. Yikes!

There are several things that contribute to algae: fish overload, feeding fish too much food, too much sunlight and too much debris in the pond. The nitrogen cycle -food & waste equals ammonia, which turns into nitrites and then into nitrates. The key is to get rid of the nitrates.

Boy, the Gruvers picked a good winter to stay in Kansas, didn't they? We've seen more snow this winter already than we usually see the whole season.

Ahh, Spring can't get here too soon!

Don Hutley, Waterscape Concepts, with the help of Adam and Drew Tucker, Fantasy Falls, gave an interesting talk about products available for fall pond projects. Don mentioned several things that pond owners need to do this time of the year:

• Nets - Ponds need to be protected from all the falling leaves this time of the year and there are quite a few sizes of nets available on the market now. In addition to the ½” and ¾”nets, AquaScape has come out with a woven mesh that is more durable and will last several years. There are a few frames on the market but PVC pipe works well to design a frame.