CW's Back Yard Water Garden Begins!

[combatwombat]

gotcha; sorry for dragging this out as I was totally oblivious, apparently, to your purpose with the wall. Somehow, I thought you were going for narrower but with above water visual appeal ala Darksaber's build.

Ha. No worries. It's hard to communicate this kind of stuff without good visuals. Isn't the Darksaber pond's resin wall system all below the water line?

 

[brokensword]

Ha. No worries. It's hard to communicate this kind of stuff without good visuals. Isn't the Darksaber pond's resin wall system all below the water line?

yeah, it is; I think my problem is I had the wrong build in mind as Darksaber's pond doesn't even have the stacked ledge rock, none that I can see. And in reviewing some of his time lapses, I now see the type wall you're going for. Don't know why I didn't remember that! Now I have to figure out whose/which build I'm thinking of!

[EDIT]; okay, found the right Darksaber vid; there is stacked stone and yep, it's below the waterline. There is no vid showing the transition, hence I missed it. Makes me wonder why the choice as algae is just going to coat everything.

Okay, back to the CW show, as programmed!

 

[combatwombat]

Well, I might have spoken too soon saying that I could fit the intake bay + wetland filter in the same liner. It's going to be super close, and I actually think I'll be short. Going to do some more liner management tomorrow to see if I can tidy up some messy folds and get a little more length.

If it doesn't quite work, I'll get to use my new heat gun to do some plastic welding!

 

[combatwombat]

Got the liner stretcher out today and made sure it would accommodate all features. Success! Really got into the zen of folding and consolidating folds. Like upholstering the world's biggest chair or something. Spent the whole day on it. How? I don't know. But wrestling that giant liner around has left me feeling like I did in high school after the first day of wrestling practice each year.

It's still a bit untidy, but as good as it's going to get until the boulders start locking things in and I can tidy it up as I work my way out of the hole.

Next step: Need to pick some lights so I can cut niches and run conduit for them in the block wall. Saw the thread asking about best pond lights and everyone replying that they all suck! Hope I can find some good ones

Also thinking I should add a little plumbing at the bottom to power some jets since I don't have a bottom drain.

After that, it's blocks and rocks!

 

[brokensword]

Got the liner stretcher out today and made sure it would accommodate all features. Success! Really got into the zen of folding and consolidating folds. Like upholstering the world's biggest chair or something. Spent the whole day on it. How? I don't know. But wrestling that giant liner around has left me feeling like I did in high school after the first day of wrestling practice each year.

It's still a bit untidy, but as good as it's going to get until the boulders start locking things in and I can tidy it up as I work my way out of the hole.

Next step: Need to pick some lights so I can cut niches and run conduit for them in the block wall. Saw the thread asking about best pond lights and everyone replying that they all suck! Hope I can find some good ones

Also thinking I should add a little plumbing at the bottom to power some jets since I don't have a bottom drain.

After that, it's blocks and rocks!

View attachment 138335

I'd say you earned your self a stiff drink, Man! There's light at the end of the tunnel, trust me! Course, after you get'er done and take a couple of well earned weeks off, you'll start seeing all the little things you want to either enhance or change. Trust me again, it'll happen. Feel free to visit the GPF acronym thread and get well acquainted!

 

[Lisak1]

Let me reiterate my one thought on adding lights - I know the pros install them as they rock the pond. I wouldn't recommend that. If something goes wrong (and it's almost guaranteed something will go wrong eventually), it's far easier to replace them if they aren't built into the pond, if that makes sense. I wish someone would make them so you could replace the actual light while leaving the wiring in place... says the girl who knows nothing about electricity! Then you could hide all the wiring without worrying about "how the heck am I gonna get that out without tearing this pond apart?"

 

[combatwombat]

@Lisak1: My plan is to install conduit up the vertical walls of the pond. That way, if I ever need to change a light (sounds like I'll probably have to change them a lot, actually...) I can simply undo the splice on the main low voltage line running around the pond and pull the wire for the new light through it. No moving rocks! Just a long snorkel.

Any thought on what depth to install at? Is it worth putting them in the deep area or should I stick to the shallows?

 

[Lisak1]

Any thought on what depth to install at? Is it worth putting them in the deep area or should I stick to the shallows?

WAY DOWN LOW. Our lights failed because they weren't below the ice line. They froze, the lens cracked, the water leaked in, and that was that.

Deep end lights are definitely worth it. I would suggest installing them so they point away from any viewing areas if you can - it's much more effective if you are looking into a lighted pond vs staring at a light pointed in your direction, if that makes sense.

 

[combatwombat]

Our lights failed because they weren't below the ice line.

Oh, good call. I think you're in the Chicago area? I'm in Portland, zone 8b, so I don't think we get any kind of ice like you do, but I will be sure not to place them shallow. Thanks for the tip on viewing angle, too. That would be kind of annoying to have a light pointed right at you.

 

[combatwombat]

Hey, do you all want to hear something funny?

After reversing the flow of my pond and putting the waterfall on the downhill side of the yard, I might actually have to bring in some fill dirt to make it work.

HAHAHAHAHA. I DUG OUT 50+ YARDS OF SOIL AND SPREAD IT AROUND THE PROPERTY AND NOW I'M GOING TO BRING MORE ON SITE.

I'm in Dante's 5th circle of Hell.

And to think I could have just made a nice pondless waterfall across the yard.

Who's stupid idea was it to build a pond? Do they still do lobotomies for the criminally insane?

 

[brokensword]

Hey, do you all want to hear something funny?

After reversing the flow of my pond and putting the waterfall on the downhill side of the yard, I might actually have to bring in some fill dirt to make it work.

HAHAHAHAHA. I DUG OUT 50+ YARDS OF SOIL AND SPREAD IT AROUND THE PROPERTY AND NOW I'M GOING TO BRING MORE ON SITE.

I'm in Dante's 5th circle of Hell.

And to think I could have just made a nice pondless waterfall across the yard.

Who's stupid idea was it to build a pond? Do they still do lobotomies for the criminally insane?

though maybe not as tragic as your story, when I dug my pond initially, I shoveled everything on all sides as the digging was in hard, dry clay. As I was beginning to frame out the pondhouse and set the posts, I figured to clear more working room and so I wheelbarrowed it all to the back of my lot. As I was finishing the landscape around it, I neglected to figure that since the yard sloped down and away, I now NEEDED all that dirt/clay back where I first put it if I wanted level walls without crawlspaces below. Did I mention I dug the pond in July? The hottest month of the year for Mi? I think with the initial dig, I lost 15 lbs and most of it was not water weight! I wasn't very happy wheelbarrowing it all back.

Anyway, when I expanded, what did I do with the new shoveled dirt? That's right, baby, I left it right where it was! See, old dogs CAN learn new tricks!

CW; look at it this way; you now have a story (like mine!) that you can whip out any time a newbie starts complaining about THEIR first dig and probably trump their story, hey?

 

[combatwombat]

@brokensword: Way to put positive spin on it.

When I started doing my whole backyard project, I made a spreadsheet to track the amount of materials I moved (the whole yard was covered in gravel and lava rock when we moved in). I gave up on tracking at about 400k lbs—and that was BEFORE I started digging the pond.

I would have the world's most unsuccessful landscaping business. I seem to move every pile of materials 3 times before it ends up where I actually want it.

 

[cas]

tee hee..... When I built my pond I removed the extra dirt and carted it up to the end of my dead end street to get rid of it. The next year I redesigned the waterfall and paid to have dirt delivered. You are not alone!

 

[Lisak1]

I can do you all one better - OK, not in actual brute strength, but when we had our pond dug we PAID to have the dirt hauled away. Our HOA president saw the trucks leaving the neighborhood and PAID to have them dump the dirt for fill around our natural ponds. So technically I paid TWICE to move that dirt!

When we had our patio installed we also had some drainage issues repaired around the foundation. They dug and then refilled all around the back of the house and we paid to have the "excess" dirt hauled away. Two days later we had monsoon-like rains and the entire area around the foundation sunk about three feet, taking a good portion of the brand new patio with it. (Which made us realize - there really shouldn't have BEEN any "excess" dirt.) The landscaper tried to get us to pay for the dirt they had to deliver to fix that little boo-boo... not this time, dude. Just gimme back the dirt you hauled away!

 

[addy1]

lol I knew I needed every bit of dirt I removed to create the pond to make the down slope side of the pond/bog higher to have a level area.
Piled it up, ran over it a lot to compact it the dug out the bog area. Still used that dirt to add to the down slope wall. The berm is high enough deer etc can walk by and you can't see them.

Our land is nothing but slopes. I could have put the pond in the back field, a bit less slope, but would have dug up our septic field. And it would have been far from the house.