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THAT is a very fine rock and will look stunning anywhere in your pond. Enjoy your guest!
Building pond in Israel by a Granny!
- Thread starter YShahar
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“Our rock is a very, very, very fine rock. It’s 2 tons in the yard. Moving it was hard. Now my back hurts a lot because of you.”
YShahar
Enthusiastic duct-tape engineer
Oh my! Now you've given me an ear-worm! I'm going to be singing this and making up verses all day long!
My go-to ditty while trying to unearth some of the bigger rocks was:
"How deep is your rock? How deep is yoooour roooock? I really need to know. 'Cause we're living in a world of dirt and need to let it go..."
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ROCK ENVY! I want one!
I had an ice cream man who would come by 10 times a day. but he played cu-cara- cha cu-cara-cha on the pa . I wanted to kill the cucaracha man I could not get that nursery ryme out of my head.
YShahar
Enthusiastic duct-tape engineer
Tonight's update:
I've taken a break from pond building to play tour-guide for a distant cousin who's visiting from the U.S. (Didn't even know I had a cousin until she contacted me some years back!) But a few things have happened pond-wise:
On Friday I pumped all the filthy water from the initial fill into the garden (was quite a chore, let me tell you!) then refilled with the final (?) fill. I'm still not finished with the edging, nor do I have all the gravel in, so I expect the pond to remain murky for some time as I continue to work. However, having the pond full has been extremely helpful. For one thing, I can see exactly where the edges are--or should be! Not having a laser transit, figuring out the final water level has been something of a guessing game. My little Ikea picture-hanging laser was good enough to give me a very rough estimate (providing I used it at night, when I could see the laser line across the pond). But now that I've got the exact levels, I can dig out a bit or backfill a bit to get everything just right.
What's more, I'm finding that moving those heavy rocks around underwater is ever so much easier! Limestone is only about 2.5 times the density of water, so they aren't nearly as heavy once I get them into the pond. This has made the work of rocking in the upper edges that much easier. I've still got a long way to go, but I can already get an idea of the final composition.
Also on Friday, I foamed in the waterfall spill stone. I wasn't able to get everything around it foamed in, as I ran out of time, but at least I've got most of the water going over the spillway now! Looks and sounds great! I've left it running for a couple of days in order to check levels and see where else needs to be foamed. Because I can't get waterfall foam here, I'm using construction polyurethane foam. Seems to do the job.
Here are a few pics:
The pond lit up by a little solar powered spotlight in the intake bay. This view is of the waterfall from the sitting area.
The foreground will eventually be covered by landscape fabric topped by pea gravel. I've got a few nice flat stones to put along the pond edge, cantilevered over the edge a bit.
Today I managed to clean off and maneuver a huge (and heavy!) old olive branch into place to form part of the wall on the western side of the pond. This view is looking over the branch back toward the sitting area and intake bay. I love the way the sunlit waves cast light across the rocks and plants!
Here's another pic of the same view:
I'll need to raise my "turtle rock" up by about 15 cm, so that at least half of it is out of the water.
No major leaks at least, as I haven't seen any drop in water level in the past few days, despite a major heatwave over Shabbat. So far, so good!
I've taken a break from pond building to play tour-guide for a distant cousin who's visiting from the U.S. (Didn't even know I had a cousin until she contacted me some years back!) But a few things have happened pond-wise:
On Friday I pumped all the filthy water from the initial fill into the garden (was quite a chore, let me tell you!) then refilled with the final (?) fill. I'm still not finished with the edging, nor do I have all the gravel in, so I expect the pond to remain murky for some time as I continue to work. However, having the pond full has been extremely helpful. For one thing, I can see exactly where the edges are--or should be! Not having a laser transit, figuring out the final water level has been something of a guessing game. My little Ikea picture-hanging laser was good enough to give me a very rough estimate (providing I used it at night, when I could see the laser line across the pond). But now that I've got the exact levels, I can dig out a bit or backfill a bit to get everything just right.
What's more, I'm finding that moving those heavy rocks around underwater is ever so much easier! Limestone is only about 2.5 times the density of water, so they aren't nearly as heavy once I get them into the pond. This has made the work of rocking in the upper edges that much easier. I've still got a long way to go, but I can already get an idea of the final composition.
Also on Friday, I foamed in the waterfall spill stone. I wasn't able to get everything around it foamed in, as I ran out of time, but at least I've got most of the water going over the spillway now! Looks and sounds great! I've left it running for a couple of days in order to check levels and see where else needs to be foamed. Because I can't get waterfall foam here, I'm using construction polyurethane foam. Seems to do the job.
Here are a few pics:
The pond lit up by a little solar powered spotlight in the intake bay. This view is of the waterfall from the sitting area.
The foreground will eventually be covered by landscape fabric topped by pea gravel. I've got a few nice flat stones to put along the pond edge, cantilevered over the edge a bit.
Today I managed to clean off and maneuver a huge (and heavy!) old olive branch into place to form part of the wall on the western side of the pond. This view is looking over the branch back toward the sitting area and intake bay. I love the way the sunlit waves cast light across the rocks and plants!
Here's another pic of the same view:
I'll need to raise my "turtle rock" up by about 15 cm, so that at least half of it is out of the water.
No major leaks at least, as I haven't seen any drop in water level in the past few days, despite a major heatwave over Shabbat. So far, so good!
Last edited:
mrsclem
mrsclem
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Absolutely beautiful! Great work!
FANTASTIC! Mine isn't going to look anywhere near that good - you could work for Aquascape with your talent!
I was thinking along similar lines about working with the pond filled up. We have had some big rains and it is halfway full. It is really helpful to see where everything is. We are expecting lots more on Thursday - so I am just going to leave the water where it is and let it REALLY fill up. I think it will be very useful.
I was thinking along similar lines about working with the pond filled up. We have had some big rains and it is halfway full. It is really helpful to see where everything is. We are expecting lots more on Thursday - so I am just going to leave the water where it is and let it REALLY fill up. I think it will be very useful.
Id stir up the pond as much as you can . run a submersible pump if you have one really stir everything up and then pump it down and the next rain will get you back to square one hopefully free rinse
YShahar
Enthusiastic duct-tape engineer
Thank you! Still a ways to go until it's complete, but it's getting there!
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YShahar
Enthusiastic duct-tape engineer
Oooh, I wish! Excavators and big rocks to play with!
Definitely having the water in has helped a lot to figure out how to finish up the edges. I realized that I had enough extra liner on the shallow end to make a fairly big planting area there. Maybe even a mini-bog! I'm toying with the idea of running a perforated pvc pipe T-ed off the main hose to that area and then letting water spill back into the pond. But for now, the plan is just to fill it with gravel and plant some stuff - I want to have the project running already! I can keep tinkering with it later.
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Just beautiful! Love the rock work! and everything else.