The project for today is to clean out the little wildlife pond and install a new solar pump. There hasn’t been a lot of rain so this little pond, as well as the other water we have throughout the garden, get used daily by birds, neighborhood cats, opossums, raccoons, rabbits, and squirrels.

It was a fairly quick project. I put on gloves and removed the rocks and sticks and rinsed out the pond.  The new solar pump is a replacement and a bit of an upgrade from what we had last year. (The Power of Pump:6V/1.12w; The Power of Solar Panel:7v/1.5w)

Some of our visitors to the pond !

I am really glad that our garden provides a place for the urban wildlife that lives around us. We see more variety in summer when it’s warm (and the fruit starts to ripen). We always keep the water full and because the pond has been there for a few years now, we have a lot of return visitors.  The smaller visitors that we have seen around this little refuge include toads, dragonflies, praying mantis, salamanders, large beetles, hummingbirds, honey bees, solitary bees, and many others. We occasionally have seen fireflies – something I haven’t seen since I was young.

As we set up the conditions for things to thrive and work each day to maintain those conditions, I see reflected in the garden the balance I seek within myself.  When plants, animals, and people are sharing a space and living in harmony, each day we learn more about the world around us and more about ourselves.