Here Be Dragons's Barrel Pond garden

I have a new barrel pond! This is the second one I’ve created; the first was at my home in San Ramon, and it was a basically self-sufficient ecosystem for about four years.

I’ve started my new one a bit differently. This one is in a former wine barrel (one of the benefits of living in wine country – I was able to buy it for almost nothing). Instead of using a plastic liner, I’m just using the barrel as-is. The first couple of weeks, I filled it with water and water hyacinths to help leach out and filter any tannins, etc., from the barrel, and after a couple of weeks I decided it was ready for fish (four mosquito fish, added August 9) and an additional plant (a cattail).