Over the summer, a few reptilian visitors moved into Camden High’s beautiful courtyard pond… turtles! During the summer, our resident pond guru Mr. LePorte was hard at work installing new plants and introducing frogs, salamanders and fish into the mix. I spoke with him about the improvements made on the pond during the summer and asked about what the future holds.

What have you added to the pond over the course of the summer?
T he new frogs and salamanders came from a pond that I had built and worked on for seven years. After the owners decided to fill the pond, they let me take the frogs, salamanders, some pond plants and the old liner and filtration system. I built a small rock wall encasing a corner of the pond as well. I’m planning to turn that area into a swamp so the frogs and turtles can hunt there.
Sadly, some time during the summer, we lost Barnes (Mrs. Strebel’s orange goldfish). We think he was carried off by a seagull. But, Mr. Keller’s swordtails are thriving - there are now at least one hundred fish living in the pond.

Tell me more about the turtles.
We now have two painted turtles living in the pond. On warm days, they like to climb up on the rock wall and sun themselves. You really have to be quiet when you come out into the courtyard or they’ll dive back into the pond!

How do you plant the pond plants?
It’s a tricky process, since you just can’t scoop dirt into the water and expect for good results. I put a mixture of peat moss, pea gravel and soil into the pond and then anchor the plants safely in the mixture. I added some pickerel rush and lizard’s tail near the rock wall. Lizard’s tail is a cool plant because when it’s grown, it bends into the shape of a lizard’s tail.

What will happen to the pond and its inhabitants during winter?
Since the turtles are still new to the ecosystem, we’re going to take them inside for this winter and put them in a tank in one of the biology rooms. Most of the fish will survive alright staying in the pond over the winter.

 What would you like to add to the ecosystem in the future?
We’d like to have some birdhouses and feeders built so we can permanently attract birds to the ecosystem… we do have birds coming and going, but once we build them a place, some will stay. We’d also like to put a video camera inside one of the birdhouses so we can watch what goes on. Pondwise, we want to add some koi – they’re from upstate New York, so we know they can survive the winter.