My kitchen garden is on the downhill side of the pond dam, so no worries about tomato medicine getting into the pond water.
The garden soil drains very well. When we built this place we set aside all of the topsoil that came off all the areas that required excavation. After the finish grading was done around the house there was a huge pile remaining. I used that to build the kitchen garden. The whole thing is one giant raised bed. It’s ~8” above grade on the high side, and ~24” above grade on the low side.
I planted one rhubarb division out there two years ago, and it has done very well. Rhubarb is kind of picky about where it grows and I wanted to make sure it was going to like the spot before I spent a bunch of money on it. If these two take off good I’ll add a few more next spring and call it good.
I’d like to have a strawberry patch, but with free-range chickens I think it would not work out so good for me. lol
The yellow perch seem to be doing very well in the pond. I’ve caught a couple 12”+ this spring, and seen several that are bigger yet when I’m feeding pellets. They pulled off a good spawn spring of ‘20. Conditions were good for them to do the same this spring. I catch two or three young ones every week in the bluegill trap. I’m giving them one more summer to size up before I harvest any of them. By next spring there should be a couple dozen that are 16”+, and a couple hundred in the 8”-14” range.
You have your garden and fish and poultry and can get venison or beef locally. Works well!
My Rhubarb does not like the heat and has suffered even with afternoon shade. No big heat this year and lots of rain so it has become enormous.
I have strawberries but they are a challenge this year with the rain. They are also pretty invasive and I do not have that much space.
I understand that a few bales of Barley straw help the clarity of a pond. Don’t know if its true I’ll pass it on.
Sounds like you are doing really well.