CW's Back Yard Water Garden Begins!

[addy1]

Do people medicate their goldfish?

Not since I built it in 2010 never had a need, never any issues that need meds

 

[brokensword]

Your pond looks amazing............and it will look even more amazing when it is up and running with fish and plants. You are spending extremely long hours trying to engineer things that are commercially already available with even more hours of research and development than you will ever have to put into redesigning a better mousetrap. I do understand the thrill of designing and building something yourself. But the details you are working on are leaving your beautiful pond unused for its true purpose. I daresay just buy a commercially available aerator, and move on to the next step of completing your pond. Even once it is fully up and running..............that is when some of the major tinkering and adjusting begins. So you will still have plenty of details to work on. The sooner you get your liner covered so it is not exposed to the sun, the longer it will last. Think of the fish looking for a wonderful home that could come live with you as soon as your pond is fish ready. A pond is never "done" since it always needs little (or big) adjustments over time. But yours is not getting the chance to really start being a fully functioning pond because you are trying to get it "perfect" before you get it actually running. Just get it good enough........and then continue your adjustments and improvements. I say all of this with caring and encouragement. Your pond is so beyond anything I am capable of doing on my own! The perfect is the enemy of the good enough. If you are truly enjoying your long multistep process, ignore my comments. I was just motivated to write after the hours you put into your home made aerator when you could have just bought one that had years of research and development and is under warranty. I absolutely look forward to seeing your beautiful pond up and running!!

we've been TRYIN', @Laaf , we've been TRYIN'!!! Not only is CW a thinker he's also a tinker, a researcher, a doer with at least 3 options going at the same time! Ya gotta admire his passion for working the system but you're sooooooooooo right--get 'er done and THEN tweak as necessary. I know, I know, SOME of the plans like this currrent aeration thang might need to be buried as it goes but there's other options for covering and a lot of UW stuff is going to get covered with green anyhow, so a lot of this is just wasting time and money. I thought my stacked stone bog wall would look like X but it turned out to look like Y and it still works, conceptually, just not as visually.

Anyway, well said but I fear CW just has to be CW and it's built-in, ya know? We're all PRAYIN' he gets it filled soon but I'm losing faith in my pool prediction, jus' da same!

ANNNNNDDD, you know, CW, that as many of OUR ponds are closed up for the winter and YOUR project is ongoing, the scrutiny and audience is gonna grow!

heh heh

 

[combatwombat]

Working in the driving rain today. More rocks in the pond. Barney caught a cold and is leaking oil. Just a sniffle, though. Gonna have to investigate that.

Hose is in the pond, supplementing the rain. I bet main pond will be full by tomorrow.

@Laaf: Appreciate the pep talk. I really do rely on you folks to help keep me focused. But @brokensword is right. I'm just me. I know myself. I'm not happy following a playbook. I have to tinker and try to make improvements and get things my way. It's just my nature. The aerator test only cost about $15 and 1 hour of labor, so no great loss there. I waste way more time standing around staring at rocks.

 

[combatwombat]

Speaking of tinkering and distraction, I've already been day dreaming about what sort of water feature to add to the front yard. I think I'm going to cut a window into our basement so that we can get more sunlight in the family room and then dig out a big window well for it and make it a pondless waterfall so that I can sit in my basement and look at a waterfall.

Gonna try not to get started on that before the pond is done, though...

 

[brokensword]

Speaking of tinkering and distraction, I've already been day dreaming about what sort of water feature to add to the front yard. I think I'm going to cut a window into our basement so that we can get more sunlight in the family room and then dig out a big window well for it and make it a pondless waterfall so that I can sit in my basement and look at a waterfall.

Gonna try not to get started on that before the pond is done, though...

CW, just a word of caution; it's not the best idea to have water near the house, for obvious reasons, so might want to rethink actually pouring water in such a vicinity. The idea is pretty cool, but even though I LIKE such dreaming, I'm also more a pragmatist than revolutionary, esp since any 'fixes' will be on my time and my dime!

Why not have some sort of dual stream thing that borders any sidewalk to the house, that end in a pondless? With appropriate 'Mother Earth belched water up' beginning spouts?

Assuming you HAVE a front sidewalk to the door kinda thing!

Anyway, a couple of days, huh? Would put me about 10 days too late...hmm, any chance you can re-visit this pondless waterfall window well thang for a bit longer????


heh

 

[combatwombat]

any chance you can re-visit this pondless waterfall window well thang for a bit longer????

Already started digging. Whoops.

 

[Laaf]

I saw an awesome Greg Wittstock video of a basement window well waterfall. Maybe you did too? It is from December 27, 2019 and the YouTube video is titled " Most Amazing *BACKYARD POND AND WATERFALL* "

Time spent staring at rocks ,or ponds, isn't wasted time. Rocks and ponds are 2 of my obsessions.

 

[GBBUDD]

YEAH I BELIEVE THAT WENT TO THE HOME OWNERS OFFICE A VERY WELL DONE FALLS

 

[GBBUDD]

Daring in one of the wettest areas in the country you want to dig in a window well and pond less falls and hope you can keep the foundation dry! Scary this guy is more like me then i care to admit

 

[brokensword]

Daring in one of the wettest areas in the country you want to dig in a window well and pond less falls and hope you can keep the foundation dry! Scary this guy is more like me then i care to admit

ya know, @GBBUDD I was thinkin' the SAME thing! Why, it's almost like @combatwombat is your apprentice, or sumthin'! Then it came to me--I think there was a pic of the two of you, sorta like biker twins...now, where did I see it...hold on, let me do a quick google...







...and, there it is! More scary than you even imagined, I bet!

 

[combatwombat]

Fixed a low edge on the far side of the pond and filled the rest of the way today. Let's do a walkabout.

 

[brokensword]

Fixed a low edge on the far side of the pond and filled the rest of the way today. Let's do a walkabout.

IT'S A POND!


so, okay, sniff, lost my own pool, but sure looks nice!

CW; I think you're worrying (re some of your rock positions/decisions) more than you have to (what else is new!) as I think when you integrate the plantings along the edges, both in the water in front of your rocks as well as those overtop/near, you'll easily fill in such gaps, visually. I think looking at it JUST from a rock perspective, you're a lot more critical than necessary. ANNNND, you can always adjust, probably, later on after you see what's what. I realize with the larger rocks you may want to move them now as you still have Barney, but on first blush, I don't see much overtly odd/wrong/out of place. You did great, Sir!

 

[Dimelius]

Fixed a low edge on the far side of the pond and filled the rest of the way today. Let's do a walkabout.

Damn! Your pond is amazing and got alot of potential and with your working mind will be great for sure.

I really love both logs, i love logs in pondscape just to keep all more natural...and a fall one into it is coolest...i wish some moss will grow over em.
Now will start the rockscape working and mind thinking, good luck.
I'm waiting to see it finished....like i said before, will be awesome for sure.

Great work

 

[combatwombat]

Had a whole list of things I was going to get done today. Pump the cistern full to get volume. Then drain the whole pond to get pond volume. Wash out all the mud/debris as the pond lowered. Pull some big rocks out of the bottom I was too lazy to lift out earlier. etc. etc.

Then I fired up the 1/2 hp utility pump with a garden hose and my water meter and... it's pumping like 225 GPH. Cistern will be full at midnight. lol

Recomputing plan...

 

[GBBUDD]

Fixed a low edge on the far side of the pond and filled the rest of the way today. Let's do a walkabout.

COMING ALONG NICELY.......... YOU HAVE TO BE EXCITED A SENCE OF ACCOMPLISHEMENT AFTER THESE MANY DAYS......

Your so pretty rock as you called it i would think about placing that at your focal points mainly as a character stone weather it' s for the falls or for the negative edge those are the eyes your eye will be most of the time. One other note that everyone loves is when there water encircling what is now the edging stones allow the water to go behind the boulder and you can do anything you'd like Just having a rock sticking out of the water close to the edge but not quite or just that the pond is not as even edged as it seems that goes a long way in looking natural.
YOULL BE DONE BEFORE YOU KNOW IT

The one rock you didn't like because it was to high. why not rotate it and let it hang out over the water a little make it so you have a seat but only your feet dangle in the water