Tadpoles by Kate Crowley
GOING NATURE’S WAY By Kate Crowley I have not been able to maintain our little pond this summer as I’d hoped. First it was the chilly spring weather, and then it was just trying to get flowers potted for the deck and weeding all the garden beds. I did manage to drain it and clean out the dead leaves and detritus collected over the previous fall and winter, but I wondered whether the algae that had grown late last summer would just regrow this summer. The answer is yes. Even though I scrubbed the rubber liner as best I could, the rocks along the edge still had a dried layer of algae and there was no way I was going to hand scrub each of the rocks. So I refilled it and hoped for the best. The green slimy material was soon spreading throughout. Mike tried using a rake to remove it, but it’s really an impossible task. In the meantime, the birds continued to use the pond as a handy bird bath, and the frogs absolutely loved the place, algae and all. For weeks, they sang through