Mia and I in front of the relaxing koi pond at my parent’s house.

It’s 2014 and my family and I just returned to Finland a few days ago after spending three weeks back at home in Florida for the holidays.  We have gone nonstop for the past year with the move and my husband’s busy job, so we really needed some time to recharge, thaw out, and just turn everything off for a couple of days.  We were successfully able to do so mostly because my dad decided to put in this amazing koi pond for my mom a little over a year ago.  My mom is from Okinawa, Japan, and one of her dreams has always been to have a koi pond in her backyard.  Well, my dad jokes that he has heard her say that she has wanted one the whole time they have been married (40 years this year).  So, if he was going to finally put one in for her, he was “going to make damn sure it was a really nice one, so he wouldn’t have to hear about one for the rest of his life!”

Well, he successfully did so after finding a company that installs koi ponds in the Central Florida area and to our surprise, construction finally began on my mom’s koi pond and was finished in only a couple of days! This corner of their backyard has turned into an amazing sanctuary where you can sit on one of the benches and listen to the sounds of the waterfall and truly feel yourself completely relax.  My daughter Mia has spent hours upon hours playing and catching little minnows and frogs at the pond.  There is even something so tranquil about feeding the koi (nishikigoi) and watching them come to the surface and swim around each other while they eat.

There is a lot involved in the pond such as the pump, waterfall feature, bubblers, UV lighting to control the algae, the filter, and testing the water.  But, overall there is not much upkeep to it other than feeding the koi everyday and cleaning out the filter. There are about 30 koi total in the pond as well as minnows and frogs.  The plants have really grown in since the install and although the lily pads that were originally put in looked really nice, they have all been eaten by the koi.  Here are a few photos of the koi pond in my parent’s backyard:

A backyard koi pond: The ultimate in relaxation!

A few of the koi coming up to the surface to eat.

Mia enjoys spending a lot of time with this little net catching some of the minnows in the pond.  She puts them in a bucket and then returns them back to the pond.

Ahhhhh…its ‘s so tranquil watching the beautiful koi peacefully swimming around the pond.  You could easily want to spend all day here!

A koi pond is loads of fun for kids…  Mia was so happy to finally catch one of the frogs in the pond!

My mom and Mia enjoy spending lots of time relaxing at her backyard koi pond.