3,500 gal water garden with bog filter

[Rex]

Got about 12 more feet of coping stones to go.

I'm going to face that cinder block wall (waterfall spillway) with some kind of veneer. Any ideas? I've looked at a few products from the big box home improvement stores, but I can't quite find something I like. I'm thinking some kind of natural stone.

 

[RobAmy]

Looking good, you could use a thin veneer stone on that cider block wall. This is a job I did with thin veneer stone.

 

[Rex]

RobAmy, that looks pretty cool. Where did you get that veneer stone from? What name and or color is that?

 

[RobAmy]

It is Delgado Thin Veneer Stone. The color is Colonial Tan. I buy it from a local Masonry supply yard. I am sure a Masonry supply yard can help you out.

Real Thinstone Veneer - New England Thinstone Veneer

Delgado Stone is proud to manufacture real thinstone veneer products. Our natural stone comes from New England, New York, and Pennsylvania.

www.delgadostone.com

 

[Rex]

I got some work done on the bog today. I used a table saw to cut the slits in my 2" pvc. I set it to cut about 1/3 of the way through the pipe. The slits are spaced approx. 8" apart.





The 2" pump hose will be attached to the open T on the near side of the picture. I put threaded clean-outs on the end of each pipe. To ensure I had plenty of slits for my 4,100 gph pump, I hooked everything up and turned the pump on. I had plenty of slits. The water didn't even try to come out of the clean-outs at the end.

 

[addy1]

Very nice!

 

[Rex]

I've been working on filling up the bog with pea gravel. In my effort to do this project as cheap as possible, I'm using some pea gravel that was on my property when I bought it. It was an old playground area. Years of West Texas dirt storms has this gravel really dirty. My least favorite part of this build has been cleaning the gravel. I'm using a plastic tray that I drilled a bunch of holes in and lots of flushing with a spray nozzle.




It's going to take hours of work to clean enough gravel to fill the bog up

 

[addy1]

Even when you buy the stuff it is covered with dirt and seems to take forever to clean.

 

[Rex]

I'm still working on filling my bog up with gravel, but I just had to turn the pump on. This also allowed me to check the levelness of my bog retaining wall all the way around. It's pretty level, but by the time I add a waterfall spillway rock, the water level may rise requiring me to build my bog up a little more. I'm still deciding if I want to do one large waterfall or 2 to 3 smaller ones. I'm also getting a ton of mosquito larvae, so I wanted to start cycling my pond so I can get it stocked with fish. I threw a dozen Rosy Red Minnows in to hopefully help with the mosquito larvae and to start the cycling process.

Even though I love ponds and can't wait to have it finished, I'm struggling with motivation to do all the finish work it needs.

 

[addy1]

Get it running then walk away and it will call you back to finish. I had to do that off and on, the finish work was overwhelming at times.

 

[Rex]

Get it running then walk away and it will call you back to finish. I had to do that off and on, the finish work was overwhelming at times.

I think that is good advise @addy1. I wish a pond build worked liked an old time barn raising...where the whole community would come together to help out

 

[Rex]

I've been working the edging of my pond. Some of my coping stones aren't as high as I would like them, so it is making it a little harder to hide the liner.

I cut any excess liner off with a razor knife. I left around 8" of liner from the ponds edge. I then dug on the outside of the pond down a ways, so I could tuck and fold the excess liner in.

I used a piece of 2" pvc, as a gauge, to ensure my liner fold was a couple inches above the level of my yard. I want to ensure rain water doesn't run into my pond.

I then back filled with dirt.

Here are a couple examples of how I plan to finish the edging out. I'm still playing with what look I like best.

 

[addy1]

That is looking good! Like the rock selection

 

[Rex]

Here's where I'm at this week on the pond. I'm pretty happy with everything for the most part so far. I'm already wishing I would have made it bigger though and so is my wife.

I bought a few plants from my garden center, and split some from my pondless water feature to get my bog started. So far I've got Horsetail, pennywort, creeping jenny, irisis, chameleon plant, lizard's tail, cardinal flower, blue lobelia, water garlic, african rose mallow, fiber optic plant, and some watercress (from the grocery store). The watercress is the only thing I can tell that is actively growing. I think the water temp may still be a little cool.


The water has gone through one algae bloom and cleared up from that. I had a lot of leaf debris in there that I didn't get all out from the fall. The water was pretty tea stained, but I noticed today that is starting to clear up from that also. I'm trying to get some more of the leaves out and once the temps rise a little more, I'll probably start doing some partial water changes.

 

[addy1]

That is very nice! The plants will start out whimpy and then take off