WATER LILIES—Shortly after we established the pond my bride Carol and I visited the local water garden shop where she was discussing water lilies with the proprietor.

He said, “Oh my, you cannot use these plants when you have White Amur (Grass Carp) in your pond. They enjoy eating these plants as if they were ice cream.”

We had previously installed six of these fish to help control naturally occurring aquatic weeds.

So, she left his shop mildly disappointed. When we got home--and much to our amazement--that very day a neighbor had stopped by and placed a large container of lilies in the pond; his gift to my sweetie after an earlier conversation they had had.

That was about 13 years ago. Three of those fish have survived and grown to nearly 3 feet long. As you can plainly see the water lily plant has survived nicely as well.