Cold Climate Gardening

12 responses so far ↓

• 1 Jane // Jul 20, 2007 at 5:00 pm

  From Edmonton, latitude 53, zone 3a: I do not have koi or a pond but my next-door neighbours do and they overwinter their koi in a tank in the basement. In very large ponds (like at the Kurimoto Garden - http://www.devonian.ualberta.ca/japgardn.html) I think the fish overwinter in the pond. Assuming they still have fish. There seemed to be dozens last time I was there but that was years ago.

• 2 ~~Melissa // Jul 20, 2007 at 7:08 pm

  I’m in Ontario Canada zone 5a. I keep goldfish year round in my shallow pond. Common advice says pond must be a few feet deep but mine is just 20″ and the fish all survive fine. I don’t have a heater. I just make sure the pump runs all winter long (and I keep a spare on hand). I overwinter the pond plants the same way: leave everything as is.

• 3 Carolyn // Jul 20, 2007 at 10:30 pm

  As a former Yooper born and bred, I would suggest planning on housing your koi indoors during the winter. One of my friends kept koi. She overwintered them in a tank in her heated garage.

  I think a heater would cost a fortune to run all winter and it sure would be hard to maintain in the winter. They have 3 feet of snow on the ground most of the winter (Lake Effect Snows). Its not unheard of to have snow on the ground on Halloween and still have snow piles the first week of May.

• 4 Dan Eskelson // Jul 22, 2007 at 10:38 am

  Our winter temps here in north Idaho often go down to minus 20F. Our Koi and goldfish do just fine in our two foot deep pond. The only requirement is to keep a small hole in the ice (with a 100 watt pond heater) so any potentially harmful gases can escape. We keep the falls and stream running all winter…the ever changing ice “sculptures” are beautiful…some folks will remove the pump during the coldest months.

  Our aquatic plants also do fine right where they grow, the marginals in 4″-6″ of water, the water lilies down about 16″.

• 5 Mel Rimmer // Jul 22, 2007 at 2:58 pm

  I’m glad to hear Amy can have her fishpond in her new home. How nice that she was able to get advice from this blog.

• 6 Ted B // Jul 24, 2007 at 8:36 am

  From Wisconsin, the pond will need a heater but should be fine. Also may need protection from all the great wildlife you’ll see - I wonder if loons like koi!

  All the plants you list will grow well with the possible exception of the Japanese maple but it’s worth a shot.

  The main things you’ll notice is much longer days in summer. Reliably cool nights. Lots of winter snow and good winter humidity. The growing season will be shorter, but more intense. Flowers last longer in the cool weather and colors are often more vibrant. I’ve always thought the UP would be a good place to garden.

  I just got back from northern Wisconsin, about 20 miles from the UP. The soil there is very sandy and acidic, maybe a good place for Finnish rhododendrons?

• 7 Chris // Jul 24, 2007 at 1:44 pm

  Liquid water won’t even get much below 32 degrees. Its chemistry. If a fish can survive in 32 degree water in Florida, they can survive in 32 degree water in Antarctica.

  So all you need to do is make sure the pond doesn’t freeze all the way through. You can do this with a heater, but a more common way is to just keep the water constantly moving and circulating. Then of course depth will matter as well, the deeper the better.

  For plants… I’m afraid you’ll have problems growing Japanese maples unless you can provide them with a microclimate (pack one in tight near your house, or by a larger tree for instance). The others should do fine, maybe not the phlox, and the deer & rabbits will probably eat your hostas.

  One of the issues is where you live of course. Keweenaw Peninsula, or just barely over the bridge? Inland, or near a lake? (Lakes will provide warmth in the winter from wind passing over that 32 degree water).

• 8 flake // Jul 28, 2007 at 6:25 am

  Hi we have lived in the central UP of Michigan where we have grown a garden over 30 years and have had a small pond for 3 years.
  We had goldfish the first two we brought them in over winter. Have many friends with koi and some do bring them and winter them in their basement but one women has a very big deep pond and successfully leaves hers in she has koi and gold fish and fancy golds she puts small thing I was thinking it was heat and some kind of air bubbler over the winter. (Which by the way is very very very very long. LOL The seasons have changed since the 70’s. If you move here you must love the snow. Unless you move to the banana belt. Which is down at Garden. Hope this helped

  flake ( In the Upper Peninsula of Michigan) who put her pond in the wrong spot..

• 9 Brooke // Jul 28, 2007 at 5:23 pm

  I’m from a family dating back over six generations in the UP. I left. I keep moving south so that I can grow more. I am sure some folks wouldn’t mind moving fish in and out by the season, but eight to nine months of the year spent mostly indoors drives most people to either drink or take up some awful hobby like bluegrass (I’m having a little fun at my Dad’s expense, here)…Why on earth are people moving up there? That I cannot fathom…

• 10 Chris // Jul 29, 2007 at 6:09 pm

  I almost forgot… you can’t reliably grow most Japanese maples in the UP… but you can grow the two new varieties of elderberry that look just like laceleaf japanese maples.

  Sambucus Black Lace (introduced in 06, really rare and hard to find) is jet black with beautiful laceleaf foliage. There is another one with lime yellow foliage, but I don’t remember the name. I remember because I just bought my first two today after looking for them since I first saw them in catalogues (promptly sold out) last fall.

• 11 Water-Garden-Fish-Pond // Aug 15, 2007 at 10:44 am

  The only thing you need to make sure is that you know the depth of the water that freezes in wintertime and make sure you build it much deeper than that. I would be interested to know if there were any other reasons. If anyone knows please let me know.

• 12 Karin // Nov 11, 2007 at 5:10 am

  I checked out Melissa’s blog about overwintering goldfish in a shallow pond. I believe she used the word nervewracking at some point, and that is where I am now when I look out the window at the frozen fishpond.

  I live Uppsala, Sweden, which on our charts is borderline zones 3-4, temperatures to minus 20 C. We installed a small pond (600 liters, which could be about 150 gallons??? I’m bad at conversion) that I think is about the same size as Melissa’s Mom’s 125 gallon pond. We have three goldfish. I have been preparing to move them indoors, but you and some others suggested that even a shallow pond the key is to keep the water circulating. Our pond is 40 cm (16″?) deep at the deepest.

  Doesn’t that sound TOO shallow?

  Also, I haven’t been good about removing decaying plant material. Should I crack the ice and do that if I let the fish stay in the pond?

  Nervewracked,
  Karin

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