This is the second year that Brenda Bartz will host the Koi Experience at her home in Shawano. The public is invited to see her ponds and garden, ask questions and get information.
Bartz would like to offer her help to anyone who is starting a pond, has issues with their pond or is just curious.
“I was frustrated when I did my pond,” she said.
Visitors can tour the garden and observe the koi in the pond, which is home to a boat and beautiful lily pads.
Last year several people took advantage of her open house and her expertise.
“Everybody walked through and enjoyed the gardens,” Bartz said. “Some sat down on the bridge and couldn’t believe how relaxing it was.”
She is in a rebuilding stage right now. Her 64 koi died from the harsh winter, which caused mechanical problems. Before she lost all her longtime fish, some of them would eat out of her hand.
Koi are brocaded carp; ornamental, domesticated varieties of the common carp. They are distinguished by coloration, patterning and escalation.
She had many of the fish for 12 years and some were as large as 32 inches long. Bartz has replaced them with 21 koi in her big pond, which is 2 feet deep and 22 by 22 feet and holds 6,500 gallons of water. The fish will increase in numbers as they reproduce.
She is redoing her smaller first pond, which will be the home of a rescued sick koi.
“You can sit there for hours,” Bartz said.
Not that she has much time to do that. Her yard is full of plants and decorative garden items that have increased over the years.
“I didn’t want any grass to cut,” Bartz laughed.
As a master gardener, she is always looking for new ideas and replacing dead plants and trees.
She is always keeping an eye out for things for her pond and garden, watching for a good deal.
“It can be expensive, but I try to be frugal and buy used, and trade plants,” Bartz said.
Her daughter, Kourtney, who is home until she goes to law school, helps her and offers ideas.
Bartz has been a voice recognition editor for 22 years for ThedaCare Physicians and for four years she has done Breitner transcription for Children’s Hospital in Boston. That means she works on her yard mostly on weekends or vacation days.
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