The Perching Spot

  The Frog Pond is still in the process of being revamped.  This job is taking much longer than I expected as Son and I got sidetracked on producing the Annual Clue Hunt on the Bayou.  There have been so many distractions that some chores have been put on hold.  The Frog Pond was one of the "do it tomorrow" chores.  I will get back to it some day...hopefully.  In the meantime, the frogs do not mind as long as there is water in the pond and plants to hide them from predators.  The aesthetics can wait as far as they are concerned.  This afternoon as I was pushng the lawnmower around the place to make it somewhat presentable, I noticed that one of the elephant ear plants in the pond was  blooming.  Well, at least it had a bloom if you can call a long, pointy thing a bloom.  The banana-yellow bud stuck up about fifteen inches above the water making it the perfect perching place for the dragonflies.  They seemed to be taking turns catching a catnap on the tip of the bloom.

  Elephant ear are strange plants that seem to grow just about anywhere you toss them.  The root can take hold in dry dirt, mulch or even (as mine are) in two feet of water.  You do not even have to actually "plant" the things!  When we first started the makeover of the Frog Pond, I pulled two hundred water hyacinths and thirty or so elephant ear plants from the pond.  These were hauled to the compost and tossed in to create a good fertilizer.  The hyacinths rotted down completely in a matter of weeks but the elephant ears refused to die.  They flourished in the compost and were fertilized by their once pond mates, the hyacinths.  Those plants grew to great heights but produced nary a bloom.  The one in the pond is a spindly thing but obviously size does not matter.

  The dragonflies have claimed the Frog Pond for their own as they are laying eggs in the still waters.  Dozens of the critters flit about as they search for the perfect mate.  Being as it is already late in the year for the eggs to hatch and grow to maturity, the nymphs will overwinter in the Frog Pond.  Come springtime, the nymphs will be some of the first to morph into adults and help keep my garden pest free! The Frog Pond with its perfect perching spots is quite the busy place regardless of it being neglected.