CW's Back Yard Water Garden Begins!

[Lisak1]

If your cistern is primarily for emergency drinking water, it kind of sounds like your pond is actually drinking your emergency water for you? Are you capturing rain water from your roof or patio?

Well, actually the entire POND is emergency drinking water when you think of it. There's no difference between the water in the pond and the water in the rain exchange, right? So what we actually did was just add space for a potential extra 1000 gallons. If we found ourselves in a predictable emergency situation we could fill everything up - like they recommend you fill your bath tub before a storm.

But yes, there have been summers where we make it many many weeks until we need to add water (cool and rainy) and some where we are topping off every week (hot and dry). We have our sump pump dumping into the rain exchange, but the rub there is when the sump is discharging a lot of extra water SO IS THE SKY!

I do believe the water underground stays cooler in summer and warmer in winter, so bonus points there. We can fill it up before we leave home for an extended period and know we have at least a few weeks of buffer. Plus the pond level NEVER drops - only the underground water gets lower. So lots of good things about it - just not quite as useful is one way we hoped it would be I guess is the message.

 

[combatwombat]

Dont forget youll nevet rely on all 2000 gallons.

That's true. Maybe I should have dug my pump vault pit even deeper.

As brian h said in one of his videos the has a 6000 gallon cistern

I remember hearing him say that and thinking, "That seems unnecessarily large." I guess not. What I am thinking now is that I have lots of space besides this one cistern to store water if I want to in the future. Maybe I can dig another one. Maybe put a rain pillow under the deck or something.

It's at least motivating me to plant some more big trees in the back yard to give the pond some shade.

Well, actually the entire POND is emergency drinking water when you think of it.

Ah, yes that's true!

 

[combatwombat]

Well, now I am thinking about how to get more rain water into the cistern later in the spring/early summer to capitalize on the light summer rains we get here.

Future project may be to install valves/diverters on all my downspouts to capture rain water from the entire roof. During the rainy season, that much water would overwhelm the cistern so gutters would be directed to existing dry wells. But then they could all switch over to draining to cistern in late spring/early summer so that little rains could produce lots of water into the cistern. We typically get light rains till at least 4th of July around here.

My brain is spinning, but this will be a project for another year.

 

[addy1]

My gutters feed into the pond, it gets a great fresh water input when we get our rain, which has been a lot this year.

 

[GBBUDD]

Realized while setting the top shelf along the back that you have to go slower, plan better and make sure you know your water level so that, once set, your rock is above it.

One trick i did was to place a boulder that was just tall enough to poke out of the water or was just a bit short was to place it on two smaller boulders lifting them up creating a notch under the rock where the fish / fry could use and grow

 

[combatwombat]

One trick i did was to place a boulder that was just tall enough to poke out of the water or was just a bit short was to place it on two smaller boulders lifting them up creating a notch under the rock where the fish / fry could use and grow

Like this?

 

[combatwombat]

Another good day of rockin'. Ended up sending my dad home early, though, because I ran out of steam. I can't believe how I tired I am when Barney did all the heavy lifting.

Got a load of BIG rocks yesterday in the 6-900 lbs range, and Barney handled them like a champ. Maybe I'll tag some even bigger ones fo the next load. 7 tons of big boulders doesn't go that far, though. Probably need at least 3 more loads.

Two lessons learned today:

1. A 20" deep shelf requires REALLY big rocks to get up above water with just 1 rock. Even bigger than most of our big ones. I have extra liner and extra real estate on the back of the pond, so I am digging out another shallow shelf as we go to weave some bigger and smaller rocks in and out to make it look better once the pond is filled.

2. Smaller rocks look funny below bigger rocks. I am seriously considering undoing the day of rock work we did a week ago with smaller rocks on the lower shelves. It just doesn't look right. Maybe the bottom shelf is okay, but the smaller, middle shelf is definitely going to have to get re-worked.

Photos from the day:

 

[GBBUDD]

Looking good. a little input don't have all your rocks the long way going down the length of the pond have a couple point out into the pond.
Look at the sticky of the building tips we started on the types of edging.
You may be sore now but when it's all done you'll wish you were still building it

 

[combatwombat]

Looking good. a little input don't have all your rocks the long way going down the length of the pond have a couple point out into the pond.
Look at the sticky of the building tips we started on the types of edging.
You may be sore now but when it's all done you'll wish you were still building it

Agreed. Trying to do that here and there. Hard to see from the angle of the picture, but the one big rock in the middle is actually resting on rocks on the shelf below it. If I'd taken the picture from up on the deck (to the left), it would be a lot more obvious. It kinds of swallows the blocky one behind it.

 

[combatwombat]

More boulders tagged. Bigger ones, too. Will be here on Monday. Wish I'd known the capabilities of Barney earlier. I feel like he's really punching above his weight—at least what I expected his weight to be.

Going to have to undo some previous work to make it all look good. Rocks on the bottom are too small. And not sure what I'll do with the smaller ones. Maybe I'll put 'em in the bog.

Dad is going to be displeased to be undoing work. Might have to do it myself when he's not here. Ha. As some of you have noticed, I'm all vision and no execution. Dad is all execution and no vision. We make a good team. He's almost 70, though, and can't stop himself from overdoing it. This is probably the last big project we'll get to do together.

 

[brokensword]

Dad is all execution and no vision. We make a good team. He's almost 70, though, and can't stop himself from overdoing it. This is probably the last big project we'll get to do together.

and we can tell you're enjoying the moment as you should; kudos. Your pond now will have memories that go beyond just a build and satisfaction. I hope my son had something similar when he helped with my expansion a couple of years ago; I know I look at my pond differently when he's visiting.

 

[GBBUDD]

My eldest son gave me a hand with Dead pool , and my youngest lent a hand with the retaining wall.

 

[GBBUDD]

You said else where you don't like the bottom . well to me the middle looks great. The left to first big on thats not doubled up i think is upside down you have a nice flat edge sticking up. Id flip that so the face is to become the back as you flip it so the flat becomes the bottom . It even looks like the little rock will work with the flip. . So in the drawing the two large rocks on the end get fliped both faces become the backs . So another words roll rock 1 grabbing the bottom and roll the bottom toward you . This way on the left has an angle from the left it angles back to the right aand rock 2 has the flat spot thats currenty facing up becomes the marrying angle to rock one with the now angle rock two going over rock 1

o

 

[combatwombat]

@GBBUDD: I see exactly what you're saying. Those two would fit together well when rotated. Will keep in mind as I make adjustments. Looking at the top shelf and going down, the weighting feels very top heavy. I put some really big ones in the bottom left corner for stability on the high wall, but I think I need to pull some smaller ones from both lower rows and replace with much bigger ones to give the whole arrangement a more even feel. Not perfectly even, just the kind of balance you see in nature that feels lacking here.

Also thinking about how tight I should be trying to make boulder joints. I've seen lots of koi ponds where they intricately weave small/medium boulders together so that there's practically no void space between rocks at all. It doesn't look bad, but it doesn't look natural, either.

 

[GBBUDD]

it doesn't look natural, either.

MAYBE NOT but like your self you got kids heading for the pond . i do not i have not stuffed all the gaps with rock but i know im not going to go noodling at the bottom of the pond either and get my arm or leg stuck between the rock but they will get filled if i sell