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Mine have been there done that, frogs are next.
Michey1st's Maryland Pond Upgrade Thread
- Thread starter michey1st
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We had toads and frogs singing away a few weeks back, then had that week-long cold snap and everything went off and hid. I finally started hearing them again 2 nights ago, but they haven't emerged from the forest into the pond yet.
Okie doke! Spent some quality time with the hose this morning and got the new shape mapped out! Here's a wider shot of this half of the back yard:
At the top of the photo, you can see the dropoff into the forest (that's the 45 degree downward slope I mentioned. The tipped over chair is roughly where a new flower bed will go -- wrapping the corner and coming out to flare out around the tree stump.
The hose with the new lower pond profile is kind of hard to see in this (go fig -- greenish grass and greenish hose, whoda thunk there would be a problem, lol?!?). So, here's one zoomed in a little bit more:
At its widest, it's about 11 feet across and we plan for around 30 inches deep with minimal shelves (except for what will be needed to support the rock edges).
We have raccoons (that haven't bothered the pond yet in the 2 years we have had it, but I hear them chatting out in the forest), foxes (very shy, rarely see them come up the hill), and last fall we had a heron that I scared away before he could do any damage -- hence the hardware cloth you see on the lower pond -- a temporary measure until we do something more permanent and hopefully better looking.
I know some of you are partial to the 4 inch netting -- do you think that will do anything to annoy/deter raccoons or is that strictly a heron precaution?
At the top of the photo, you can see the dropoff into the forest (that's the 45 degree downward slope I mentioned. The tipped over chair is roughly where a new flower bed will go -- wrapping the corner and coming out to flare out around the tree stump.
The hose with the new lower pond profile is kind of hard to see in this (go fig -- greenish grass and greenish hose, whoda thunk there would be a problem, lol?!?). So, here's one zoomed in a little bit more:
At its widest, it's about 11 feet across and we plan for around 30 inches deep with minimal shelves (except for what will be needed to support the rock edges).
We have raccoons (that haven't bothered the pond yet in the 2 years we have had it, but I hear them chatting out in the forest), foxes (very shy, rarely see them come up the hill), and last fall we had a heron that I scared away before he could do any damage -- hence the hardware cloth you see on the lower pond -- a temporary measure until we do something more permanent and hopefully better looking.
I know some of you are partial to the 4 inch netting -- do you think that will do anything to annoy/deter raccoons or is that strictly a heron precaution?
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Raccoons, we have a lot they do not bother the pond at all, the heron is a different issue. I just protect against the heron.
Glad to hear the raccoons are not a problem - we have a ton of them. What do you do to protect against the heron?
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I use a wide weave net hung around 3 feet over the pond, draping down slightly, easy to remove, not eyeball obtrusive, can work under it without removing if I want to.
Fishing gill net. They coated it with black stuff to protect from uv. and the net is normally white, the black is not as bad to the eyes
Addy, do the sides of your net go all the way down to the ground around the perimeter? If so, do you anchor it with rocks? We are thinking of doing something similar once our build is complete. Can squirrels and doves still make it through?
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On the bog side it goes down to about a foot above the ground, more or less, In from the pond edge around a foot more or less. The shallow walk in end I have it to the ground. The up slope side of the pond, It does not drape down, mainly because of the rock wall the heron has to walk down to get to the pond.
The heron likes to stand up straight coil its neck to do the strike. In all my watching of it stalk around my pond I never saw it duck down low to crawl under the protection. I did see it fly up and over the fishing line, watched it flop through the fishing line I had over the pond which to me was a real pita to have. Hard to work on the pond with those lines there.
This net has worked out the best for me.
Similar to this, http://www.memphisnet.net/product/211/netting-multifilament-277
coated with black anti uv stuff. I told the guy what I needed it for he was very helpful . Think this is the third summer with the same net, when and if it fails I will get another one.
Just found the card, this is the one I bought, it was only 6 feet wide so I sewed it together with fishing line to make it wider.
http://www.memphisnet.net/product/4772/netting-seine-knotted-15
The heron likes to stand up straight coil its neck to do the strike. In all my watching of it stalk around my pond I never saw it duck down low to crawl under the protection. I did see it fly up and over the fishing line, watched it flop through the fishing line I had over the pond which to me was a real pita to have. Hard to work on the pond with those lines there.
This net has worked out the best for me.
Similar to this, http://www.memphisnet.net/product/211/netting-multifilament-277
coated with black anti uv stuff. I told the guy what I needed it for he was very helpful . Think this is the third summer with the same net, when and if it fails I will get another one.
Just found the card, this is the one I bought, it was only 6 feet wide so I sewed it together with fishing line to make it wider.
http://www.memphisnet.net/product/4772/netting-seine-knotted-15
Had a little bit of progress, yesterday! We finished pulling up most of the sod for the new dig. You can see the bare dirt in the top left corner of the photo. There's a bit more to do but the basic shape is coming out nicely.
We have been putting the sod in areas of erosion in our backyard hill. Those areas are mostly shade, so the grass won't take, but i'm hoping it can slow the water and enrich the soil to prevent it from getting worse until I get some nice, rooty perennials there.
We also put up a temporary net in preparation for moving all the fish to the middle pond. We plan to take up the preform liner but need to move the fishies, snails and plants first and we want them to be safe in their new habitat. Then, we will relocate perennials and any good soil (ie NOT CLAY) we find to other beds and can start digging in earnest.
We are waiting to get the 4 inch net until we have our final measurements in place -- this is just a leaf net to tide us over. We plan to check the perimeter every day and have left some escape gaps. Hopefully the birds will adjust and use the bog (which is open) for their bathing and drinking as most have been doing.
We have been putting the sod in areas of erosion in our backyard hill. Those areas are mostly shade, so the grass won't take, but i'm hoping it can slow the water and enrich the soil to prevent it from getting worse until I get some nice, rooty perennials there.
We also put up a temporary net in preparation for moving all the fish to the middle pond. We plan to take up the preform liner but need to move the fishies, snails and plants first and we want them to be safe in their new habitat. Then, we will relocate perennials and any good soil (ie NOT CLAY) we find to other beds and can start digging in earnest.
We are waiting to get the 4 inch net until we have our final measurements in place -- this is just a leaf net to tide us over. We plan to check the perimeter every day and have left some escape gaps. Hopefully the birds will adjust and use the bog (which is open) for their bathing and drinking as most have been doing.
Not a ton of progress to report. My day laborer (ie, boyfriend, lol) sprained his ankle (on my birthday, no less!) so the manual labor is on pause. However, we did manage to pull up all of the sod, relocate the fishies to the middle pond, block off the lower waterfall, partially drain the lower pond in preparation for removal and relocate the affected perimeter plantings. Here's where we are as of this morning:
I sure hope the gardens appreciate all the pond water we have been giving them =D
Pretty sure the shape will change slightly as we get to digging -- it's hard for me to visualize the shape with the distraction of the preform in the way. I'm happy with the overall length (about 14 feet coming out from the waterfall) but I think the width and curve shape needs a little tweaking.
And for a nice Sunday morning surprise, my peony opened today! I snagged this tuber from my mom 2 years ago (who has had it probably for around 15 years or so) before they sold their house. This gal is probably 3 feet around and seems pretty happy by all accounts. My mom had a ton of peonies scattered around the yard, but at the time, I didn't have any dug beds to put them in, so this is the only one I managed to get my hands on. Slightly regretting that now =/
I sure hope the gardens appreciate all the pond water we have been giving them =D
Pretty sure the shape will change slightly as we get to digging -- it's hard for me to visualize the shape with the distraction of the preform in the way. I'm happy with the overall length (about 14 feet coming out from the waterfall) but I think the width and curve shape needs a little tweaking.
And for a nice Sunday morning surprise, my peony opened today! I snagged this tuber from my mom 2 years ago (who has had it probably for around 15 years or so) before they sold their house. This gal is probably 3 feet around and seems pretty happy by all accounts. My mom had a ton of peonies scattered around the yard, but at the time, I didn't have any dug beds to put them in, so this is the only one I managed to get my hands on. Slightly regretting that now =/
Wahoo! PROGRESS! Spent the morning doing some digging and trying to figure out the best way to tackle our slope. We decided that priority 1 was getting a level ledge all the way around. This ledge will be a few inches below the water line and stacked with rock. So today... ledge building! Apologies for the shadow-- our back yard faces East so the house tends to block the late afternoon sun. Here's a shot from our back patio:
We are nowhere near where we need to be for the right height, so we are going to just keep digging, piling and tamping and then if we do too much, we can adjust it later. Here's a few more views:
The view from our 2nd story deck:
We will be removing the preform, just haven't gotten around to it yet. Tomorrow will be more digging, and possibly removing the preform. At this point, dimensions are looking like 9 feet wide, plus 6 inches on each side for the rock ledge, and then 14ish feet long, 3 feet deep. Our liner arrives Thursday!
We are nowhere near where we need to be for the right height, so we are going to just keep digging, piling and tamping and then if we do too much, we can adjust it later. Here's a few more views:
The view from our 2nd story deck:
We will be removing the preform, just haven't gotten around to it yet. Tomorrow will be more digging, and possibly removing the preform. At this point, dimensions are looking like 9 feet wide, plus 6 inches on each side for the rock ledge, and then 14ish feet long, 3 feet deep. Our liner arrives Thursday!
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that is going to look great!
So, our grand plans for the day got slightly sidelined. When we went to pull out the preformed lower pond, we noticed it was filled with tadpoles! Likely tree frogs as they've been serenading us for the past 2 weeks. Sooooooo, we set up an emergency tadpole waystation:
Then we carefully pulled out the preform and leaned it against a tree stump and put the taddies back in.
With the preform removed, we were worried the wall between the middle pond and lower pond would collapse, so priority 1 was to shore it up in preparation for the new waterfall. We are planning on a rapids-like course for this waterfall, so wanted to bring it out a little bit.
Sooo, time for another trip to Home Depot where we picked up some rebar and a couple of cinder blocks (among other things). We set to work putting in some support and backfilling for the new waterfall:
At close of business today, we have it fully packed in (no photos -- ran out of daylight) and ready for the final sculpting, which will happen just before the liner goes in.
Tomorrow, it's back to working on building up the ledges, getting stuff level and hopefully the bulk of the remaining excavation.
Then we carefully pulled out the preform and leaned it against a tree stump and put the taddies back in.
With the preform removed, we were worried the wall between the middle pond and lower pond would collapse, so priority 1 was to shore it up in preparation for the new waterfall. We are planning on a rapids-like course for this waterfall, so wanted to bring it out a little bit.
Sooo, time for another trip to Home Depot where we picked up some rebar and a couple of cinder blocks (among other things). We set to work putting in some support and backfilling for the new waterfall:
At close of business today, we have it fully packed in (no photos -- ran out of daylight) and ready for the final sculpting, which will happen just before the liner goes in.
Tomorrow, it's back to working on building up the ledges, getting stuff level and hopefully the bulk of the remaining excavation.
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People after my own heart! I save every taddy I find when netting cleaning anything. My little guys and gals are getting legs now.
Totally agree, Addy! The whole rescue operation set us back probably 4 hours, but totally worth it!
We had it down to a system by the time we were done. These taddies were too small for the net (I didn't trust myself to get them to safety quick enough), so we ended up bailing out a good portion of them from the preform and into the plastic containers. Then we slid out the preform, which still had a few inches of water (HEAVY!!!) and more taddies, set it up by the tree stump, then bailed out water from the plastic containers, checked to make sure we didn't have taddies in the container, dumped into watering cans and watered the gardens. Once the containers were low enough, we dumped them back in to the preform, along with their inhabitants. Since the preform is above ground, I didn't want to fill it up, so it's about 1/3 full. We even rigged up a little shade for them in case it gets too hot. There's lots of good stuff for them to nibble on and I put in a few plants too. Spoiled little buggers!
Do you think I should put a tiny pump for some circulation in there? Kinda worried they'll get chopped up but I don't know if a stagnant pool is their idea of a natural habitat.
We had it down to a system by the time we were done. These taddies were too small for the net (I didn't trust myself to get them to safety quick enough), so we ended up bailing out a good portion of them from the preform and into the plastic containers. Then we slid out the preform, which still had a few inches of water (HEAVY!!!) and more taddies, set it up by the tree stump, then bailed out water from the plastic containers, checked to make sure we didn't have taddies in the container, dumped into watering cans and watered the gardens. Once the containers were low enough, we dumped them back in to the preform, along with their inhabitants. Since the preform is above ground, I didn't want to fill it up, so it's about 1/3 full. We even rigged up a little shade for them in case it gets too hot. There's lots of good stuff for them to nibble on and I put in a few plants too. Spoiled little buggers!
Do you think I should put a tiny pump for some circulation in there? Kinda worried they'll get chopped up but I don't know if a stagnant pool is their idea of a natural habitat.