ATP's Front Yard Pond!

[combatwombat]

You don’t have to use earth to create your been. Could be CMU or pavers, styrofoam blocks, lots of options!

 

[GBBUDD]

Ok, I think I am starting to get that the design I have been been planning is more a weeping wall. Which would be ok and might be kinda cool but If I want more of a falls then I will need to build up a berm at the front edge (pic with blue arrow above). So the liner goes over the front of the bog berm, down to the bottom of the bog and then back up to the outside edge of the bog. Do I have it correct? YES which is why i leaned toward two liners. making the liner do all of those ups and downs particularly when there are 90 degrees sides right next to 90 degree verticals.

Visually, I am struggling around how I would hide the liner on the top part of the bog berm in the front. Do I just cover it with a layer of pea gravel? tHERE ARE MANY WAYS TO HIDE it the boulder in the front if it is large enough you can bring the liner up the back side of the pond/ bog rock and then place a second rock in the bog pushed up against the pond boulder. Now if it is heavily planted you could even use a 2x4 run the liner up onto that and staple it on the top the plants will hide the liner or like you said you could place waterfall foam on the liners edge and just before it's dry push gravel into it . Or what i have done mostly is use moss.

Your design is far simpler to build then is a weir and water fall and it also can look more like a spring coming up from your lawn . then would waterfalls so i see what your thinking now. But your spoils being spread on the back side of bog has me confused it is going toward the falls idea . so your not planning on digging the bog into the ground your building it up with the soil berm and boulders . if i had to leave the berm like you have it now and not flattening out gradually i would just dig the bog into the soil and loose the soil all together else where. But to answer the question like you have it the boulder in the bog with soils outside and the liner comes up the shelf a couple inches below the water level under the boulder up the back side and folded under 6 inches higher than water level. the hard part is the drop from the falls to the bog and your two waterfalls think that out well. lots of extra liner and like i said i'd go with two liners and simply overlap them.

I played around with a few options below of what I think would work. I like the first pic the best. It wouldn't give me as much height but I feel like it may look the most natural ( this stone just represents the avg height of other stones i have) the bottom 6 inches or so would be under water. you could always make a shelf solely for the water to come out from the bog rolling off a rock that falls down where it lands on a couple rocks that are on a shelf all on the own and the water drops off on the sides. if that makes sense

The second pic would give me more height but with a earth berm it takes up more room in the bog. The bog is only 4-5ft wide so would like to keep as much width as possible. The water level would be about halfway up the bottom stone and you would see the gap between the top and bottom stone as the top stone would be completely above the water.


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The second one can give you more the look you showed in the first picture x2
in the drawing i did the red is the pond liner the yellow is the bog liner they both go end to end on the bog the gravel of the bog holds the two in place up against the boulders. now in the pic though the character boulder " your big boulders " are moved into the opening from the bog where there is another rock that just comes up a little higher that the gravel of the bog or another rock in the bog the water will spill out over and down onto the second pic with the lower rocks this can make it look like a stream as well as a a water fall . you use spar waterfall foam to keep the water running of the rocks and not behind or under
purple is foam

r the top

 

[ATP]

@GBBUDD First I want to thank you for all the advice! When this is all done I owe you at least a days work on your pond! CT is not too from me

Yes, you nailed it with the "spring coming up out of the ground". that is what I am looking for. Sorry, about the confusing mound, I intended to build it higher than needed and then sculp it down to the heigh for the back wall of the bog. I do plan to dig down in that location, just havent done that yet.

Below is the look I am going for. Its what I thought I had decided on and even hand picked a couple boulders i thought would be a good fit. i probably should have posted these from the beginning. I would like to try and emulate this as much as possible. The first picture is how it looked before water was added and pic 2&3 show it with water from different angles.

I will also have a big 32" spillway bowl at the highpoint of the pond, somewhere near the walkway with at least a foot drop to the water below

Now maybe the sketch i did will make more sense? To create this look I cant decide if I just use some of my big boulders from below the water level to create the dam to hold back the top of portion of the pea gravel in the bog or if I should place a boulder on the lower shelf and then use the grass edge as another shelf for the boulder dam. I would prefer the first option to avoid a stacked rock look and save space in the bog but open to either idea. Both I would foam the backside really well to force most of the water over the lower sections. Hopefully, i didnt just make this confusing again.

 

[ATP]

2nd load of rock. Was expecting more larger pieces mixed in…guess they could still be in there some where.

 

[addy1]

Still nice rocks

 

[GBBUDD]

Not sure how to use that much of that size, is that to line the inside of the pond and shelves.
think id look at using it as agami bark mulch replacement in the existing plants throw some in the pond and bog to blend it all together.

 

[ATP]

Not sure how to use that much of that size, is that to line the inside of the pond and shelves.
think id look at using it as agami bark mulch replacement in the existing plants throw some in the pond and bog to blend it all together.

Yes, alot of it will probably end up being stone mulch. My plan was to use it to line the lower shelves, strategically combined with some boulders, to save them for the top shelf. As well as to break up the boulders but was hoping for more in the 8-12 range.

Is there a way to start rocking from the top and work your way down? Then I could use all the leftover boulders on the lower shelves. Fill it with water, maybe?

 

[GBBUDD]

it can be done but the lower boulders on the shelves usually hold back the gravel on the shelves above if you build the shelves leaning back toward the wall you wont need the lower boulders until later

@j.w has some walls/ around her pond at water level i believe with that size rock

 

[ATP]

it can be done but the lower boulders on the shelves usually hold back the gravel on the shelves above if you build the shelves leaning back toward the wall you wont need the lower boulders until later

@j.w has some walls/ around her pond at water level i believe with that size rock

I guess I could always put some temporary rocks at the lower sections to pull the liner tight, do the top coping and then go back and finish lower part of the pond.

 

[j.w]

I find uses for rocks everywhere on my property and yes I have a mounded dirt berm around my whole pond to help w/runoff and I've planted plants all around the edges so they flow over the rocks and into the pond so it doesn't look so un-natural. The liner goes over that dirt berm and down just a bit so plants are planted behind the liner and in the dirt berm and then they are crawling over and down into pond.

 

[ATP]

I find uses for rocks everywhere on my property and yes I have a mounded dirt berm around my whole pond to help w/runoff and I've planted plants all around the edges so they flow over the rocks and into the pond so it doesn't look so un-natural. The liner goes over that dirt berm and down just a bit so plants are planted behind the liner and in the dirt berm and then they are crawling over and down into pond.

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Looks great with all the plants! Is that mainly creeping Jenny you have there? Once this pond is done I am going to need to boost my plant knowledge for sure!

Right, on the rocks. I was planning on re-doing the landscaping in front of my house this summer and I was going to order some stone mulch anyway to mix in, so wont go to waste. When I looked at the pile of cobble where I bought them, I saw a lot of bigger rocks and less of the smaller ones. Maybe they took a scoop from the bottom and the smallers ones settle there....

 

[combatwombat]

Maybe they took a scoop from the bottom and the smallers ones settle there....

They always do unless you request otherwise. And you should always request otherwise because the bottom of the pile is always full of dirt and gunk.

 

[j.w]

Looks great with all the plants! Is that mainly creeping Jenny you have there? Once this pond is done I am going to need to boost my plant knowledge for sure!

Right, on the rocks. I was planning on re-doing the landscaping in front of my house this summer and I was going to order some stone mulch anyway to mix in, so wont go to waste. When I looked at the pile of cobble where I bought them, I saw a lot of bigger rocks and less of the smaller ones. Maybe they took a scoop from the bottom and the smallers ones settle there....

Yep that is the lovely Creeping Jenny! Got to watch it tho as it doesn't go by that name for nothing. It likes to creep wherever it wants to and I easily pull it out or cut it off from certain areas, like my grass and pathways around the pond. I also have some low growing Sedum plants that like to crawl around.

I like to stick plants in between rocks w/their feet in the water too. Anything that will grow and look good I try to stick in there.

Could be on that pile of rocks that you got a lot of the small stuff on the bottom. You'll find uses for all your rocks it sounds like to me.

 

[ATP]

Put in a full day of digging and man am I feeling it! Almost got the entire pond down to the 2ft mark. Tomorrow hopefully I can get the most of the digging done and down to 3ft in the center in front of the big flat rock. Layers from the top are: sand, shale then clay. Bog should be all sand and an easy dig. I am planning on using the sand from the bog as an added layer of protection on the pond bottom. I am adding a few shelves in between coping and 2ft level for some addtional marginals, lotus, a step to make it easier to get in and out and add some variation visually. Hope I am not making it easier for predators too!

 

[GBBUDD]

Yep that is the lovely Creeping Jenny! Got to watch it tho as it doesn't go by that name for nothing. It likes to creep wherever it wants to and I easily pull it out or cut it off from certain areas, like my grass and pathways around the pond. I also have some low growing Sedum plants that like to crawl around.

I like to stick plants in between rocks w/their feet in the water too. Anything that will grow and look good I try to stick in there.

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Could be on that pile of rocks that you got a lot of the small stuff on the bottom. You'll find uses for all your rocks it sounds like to me.