What could be better than fish fertilizer?  This is a photo of the pond (coloquially known as a water feature) that sits just off our deck, adjacent to the garden. My son helped to excavate the hole, and construct the supporting structure about 12 years ago.  Originally I stocked it with 5 little fish known as Shibunkins, which are like gold fish only spotted.  Over the years I have watched them grow and multiply. They seemed to have been pretty happy in their tiny universe.

Now, 12 years later, only two of the original fish have survived, Spot and Benji, but they have spawned a multitude of offspring.  While it may be fun to have lots of fish, it does create problems, overpopulation being foremost. Too many eaters and too much fish waste.  The water becomes a rich habitat for algae and the filter must be cleaned often.  And what, you may ask, is in the filter?  . . . . . . very rich fish-waste muck.  For 12 years I have been hosing out the filter and dumping the mucky water wherever I could.  I tried to put it on the garden, but it's a lot of muck and by the time I clean the filter, I'm usually not interested in carrying it around the garden.  Thus, my brilliant idea.  An holding tank, easily accessible to both pond and garden. Voila!

I purchased a rain barrel, retrofitted with a 1" ball valve, large enough to allow the mucky water to run freely through the pipe.  It has been fitted with a hose to carry the rich fertilizer down to the garden.  The top of the barrel is covered by a piece of hogwire which allows me to set the filter material on top of it and spray it clean with water.  All the drippings drain into the barrel.  The pond is above the retaining wall, the garden below.  No more carrying heavy buckets of water.

Now the garden has a ready supply of natural fertilizer.  It's ready and waiting in the barrel, which I plan to cover with a lid to discourage mosquitoes.  The gardener will be happy, the plants will be happy, and I'll be using a valuable byproduct of my "water feature".  Why didn't I think of this before?