Renovating the pond

[wuftytufty]

Oh no, not bunnies!!!

We are thinking about picking up some sticklebacks to go in the pond, too with the miscellanious minnows....just a couple, apparently they are good for eating mozzies, which seems good. Have drawn out my little plan for the bog, I think it will work, and I am going to mix through some larger pebbles also, to hopefully break it up, so the water can get through ok. I guess the key thing is to make sure that I don't plant the plants too densely. There is also a little recess further up the fall, currently filled with pebbles, that I could try planting with a couple of excess plants, if I have any over time, and that will hopefully be a good way to spread it out a little.... We shall see, like you said, it will take tweaking! I am thinking about having a definite drop straight from the edge of the bog, so I think I will need to just brace it with some wooden planks, so it doesn't collapse. Then from the water level, it will be a meter (3") deep, and the bog will be about 12" deep, as all the plants I have aren't really deep rooted plants, so that will be sufficient....the plant shelf around the edge for lillies will be 18" deep, as the lilies are already used to being planted that deep. IT was a bit of a mucky job getting them out of the pond, but effectively I have 4 plants, not 2, so can split and plant either end of the pond.

My plans are evolving gradually!! Next year I will put in a good selection of water lettuce, for more surface coverage. We have a compost heap, so that will be ideal to add to the compost when it needs thinning out....

All the bare earth we have from the hedges being cut back is going to be planted with wild meadow flowers, and a couple of easy care bushes...it will be super!

Is there anything I need to be careful about planting next to a pond? Anything that can be toxic, or dangerous, eg, when it seeds?

Thanks for your advice and interest in my little project! It is nice to share with someone.

I just hope our frog is ok, as we are the only pond, for a block, and I hope he will be ok, for a few days, I am thinking about trying to find him andjust set him up in an aquarium, with some rocks for a few days...its going to be hot, and I don't want him to dry out!

 

[addy1]

Our bog wall is 2.5 feet high 27 feet long, we built it landscape timbers, glued and screwed together. We also drove some 2x4's into the ground and attached the bog wall to them to give it extra support. Then covered it with the liner.

You just want to make sure your wooden planks are real secure, so once you have your liner in place they don't collapse on you.

If you save your little frog, make sure it can't jump out, shallow water and a place to sit out of the water. with all the stuff you are doing it might decide to try to find quieter waters.
I would just check a plant out for toxicity before you put it next to your pond. Not knowing what plants you have that would make it the easiest way to be safe. Do a quick search on the net.

I keep my lilies in oil pans, makes it easier to move them around and keeps them from growing root masses I can't handle.

I love wildflower plantings. I have them all along our interior fence, a huge circle of flowers out in the back field, 60 foot diameter. Redoing them right now, putting in a lot of seed that is nectar friendly, going to try and raise bees next summer. Have a neighbor that does it they are going to care for the hives, I am suppling land, water and flowers.

Sounds like you have a good plan, keep it going!

 

[wuftytufty]

Really pleased, we have saved soooooo many critters, and they are all adorable....so many baby newts, it is fab! :claphands: :cheerful: :banana: :biggrin:

The really weird thing is that the people who built this pond, appear to have dug it deep, then thought..."I know, what would be brilliant....I am going to put mahoooosive rocks in the bottom, because, well rocks need space to swim, even if no one will ever see them, I am going to pay €7000 for rocks and hide them in the bottom....but tightly packed so no creature can benefit from the cervices, etc...yes, what a brilliant person I am....this is going to be an awesome pond....and the rocks will be really happy!!!"

And totally line the pond with fleece...WHY!!!! So all the stink and roots can embed lovely in it....great idea! Oh, and it is near impossible to clean it....and I wonder why we had such an algae problem!

Mucking Fidiot :banghead3: :banghead3: :banghead3: . That is my opinion....photos to follow in a bit....a particularly charming one of my butt too!

 

[HARO]

Perhaps the rocks were an afterthought, to keep a child or pet from drowning. :dunno:
John

 

[addy1]

Well now you don't need to buy rocks! you have your own supply, well once you pull them out and rinse them off. And fleece too! clean it, great for a fleece rug!..................jk

 

[wuftytufty]

Heheh, I think this is a bit beyond being a rug!!! Re the rocks being put in, they were quite clear when we bought the house, that they designed it like that....I am just about to upload the pics of the "boulders" we pulled out.... but they didn't have pets, and were an elderly couple, so whilst it could be for the grandchildren, their kids all live quite far away!

Sorry, Pondcrastinator, I was having a bit of a post hauling rant!! The good point is that it is deeper than we thought, so it means less digging for us, which is great, and yes, the rocks will become a nice rockery, which I hope to add in some ferns, and bark and semi rotten wood, so that there are nice places for the critters to hide. At least, this is the plan! We learn as we go!

I am sure that rocks look lovely in ponds that have things like filtration, and are easier to keep clean. Ours were a total surprise, because everything underneath the level waterfall pump was just green/brown sludge - dead algae, I think....smelt really bad too! Seriously, we thought the pond was only 45cm (18in) deep, it is more like about 80-90cm deep, almost 3 feet! That is a lot of rocks!!

Seriously, still really pleased that we managed to fish out something like 20 baby newts, about 5/6 juvenile ones and three adults (2 common and 1 palmate). Our frog as hopped away, so hope it is ok, and will eventually come back.... We have saved all the fish, and not lost any of them, since they are tiny, we are pretty pleased with this. And we have saved so many Dragon Fly and Damsel Fly larvae, and some others that I just don't know what they are, so I hope this will help the pond, when we are able to reinstate it. We got to the point we just couldn't find anymore, so have literally saved all the plants.

Tomorrow it is digging out the gravel, so we can clean and recycle that, too....oh, and removing all the liners, and the digging! Hurrah for the digging. All by hand!!

Still puzzled by the pond liner/fleece stuff that was lining the inside of the pond. There are lots of random sheets of both this stuff and also the actual plastic liner patchworked around the pond...over the top of the main plastic liner, which is on top of some more of the fleece stuff. That part makes sense. I am guessing they were trying to protect the plastic liner from the boulders? That is my best guess.


Still, it is an adventure!

 

[addy1]

Nice boulders and rocks! Nice load of gravel you will have once you clean it. What a find even though you needed to dig them out by hand! Yep the fleece on the top of the liner was to protect it from the boulders that they laid on the liner. Score on it being 3 feet instead of 18 inches, fantastic!

so glad you have been able to save all the critters, I sort though everything I pull out of the pond to make sure there are no critters getting tossed.

. That is my opinion....photos to follow in a bit....a particularly charming one of my butt too!

Where is the charming picture of your butt?

 

[wuftytufty]

Seriously, we nearly killed ourselves pushing and pulling those boulders. They are lovely, and hoping, in time they will be arranged and look good. First priority is to get the pond habitable. I am thinking that it is going to be a sort of cross between an ornamental pond and a nature pond, contemplating putting some of the smaller rocks back on the planting ledges, to provide some shelter for critters and fry, etc.... just not gigantic boulders in the middle!!

I am prob going to make the bog filter bit about 3 - 4 1/2 feet (1-1.5m) square. Since the pond overall is about 9ft 9in (3m) by 16ft 3in (5m), so that is a fair portion of it, and it will provide a good way in and out for critters, although the rest of it will have the same rock edges, with a more gentle access into the water....so anything falling in, should be able to get out.

Having trouble keeping the dogs out, since we cut back the hedges, so that is fun!! Will have to rig up some sort of string and bamboo canes affair, to patch it up, until we have the new fence put in....although looking at it, I wonder if we could actually do this ourselves...hmmmmmm posts with chains, as thankfully the dogs are too lazy to question decent boundaries, so long as they are actually there...hurrah!


Re the critters, we are so pleased, and also fascinated. Esp the baby newts....sooooooooo very cute!

 

[addy1]

get a hand cart, wonderful for moving boulders around. They are not the expensive (the cart with the long handle a small ledge to put something on)

I made mine with walk out areas, shallow rock edges etc, the big pond has never had dead critters the preforms have had a few dead critters the sides are too straight, therefore making critter ramps.

That is a nice size pond, will be looking good when you are done...........

In looking at your showcase, make that depression above the water fall deeper, I would go at least 12 inches. If you have drain pipe there put a piece of drain pipe in with the ends past the edges of the pond. The water will go into the ditch, into the drain pipe, the gravel will keep the pipe from getting clogged up and out around the pond.

If you look at this link, you can see the small slits in the drain pipe.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Advanced...ipe-Perforated-4040010/100211970#.UiZfon_4IvQ

.Now I want baby newts pictures!

 

[wuftytufty]

Thanks Addy! I am defo going to dig out that "moat" a bit more, I agree with you, it isn't deep enough, but I will defo go deeper. I was planning to just put in some of the gravel, to help support the hole, so it will drain, as it curves around the top.
Off out later to the DIY store for some drainage piping so that I can divert the swimming pool water away from the pond. Thinking about hiring a well-borer to dig a soakaway in the future, obviously, won't go as deep, and was thinking about putting some rocks and gravel in it....still incredulous at the idea of draining a 6m wide 2m deep swimming pool directly over a pond! Just so glad we hacked back the bushes and found it!

Still, we will figure it all out, in time. Think longer term, we will dig in and bury the pipe, at least....

Also buying the wood to make the bracing in the pond, too....

Right, off to dig out the trench!!

 

[addy1]

I did some pits in my arizona yard, even though we were desert we would get horrendous rains. The yards are made to retain your own rain water, sloping to the back, we could easily end up with 4 inches of water in the back of the yard. My pond was at the back of our yard there, so we dug 3 pits, filled with gravel , one at the end of the gravel drive, one right near the pond and one around the shop. After that never had a flooding issue. And it kept the rain water out of the pond.

During your rebuild, see if you can raise the edge of the pond just a little from the land around it. It is surprising how a 1-2 inch berm will keep anything from flowing into your pond.

My pond is at the bottom of our seriously sloped yard, around a 25 plus degree slope, steep enough I actually have trouble walking up it, I dug in steps to make it easier. Around the pond I dug in a 10 inch trench, filled it with 1 inch gravel, at the edge of the pond, on the pond side have the land raised about 2 inches with a back slope towards the trench. While building it I also made sure the land did a side slope around the pond. To the best of my ability, lol, was learning how to use a tractor during the build.
During any storms I would either be outside with my umbrella or using binocs looking out the window to watch the water flow, any run off issues were noted and fixed.

Our pea gravel path washes out quite often during heavy storms, part of the redirect of rain flow from the slope. I just rake it backup. The pond looks far far away in this shot, just at the bottom of our slope,maybe 40 feet from the house. The gravel path is to the left

One thing neat is we can stand at our windows and see the fish swimming around, since we are looking down at the pond.



After done there was one area at the walk out area that let a lot of muddy rain water flow into the pond, fixed it with a small pit, drain pipe.

 

[sissy]

I bought a rock hauling dolly it was a great investment .Works for moving plants like larger trees to the area I want to plant them .

 

[wuftytufty]

Wow, Addy, your picture of your amazing garden has blown my tiny beginner-ponder's mind!! It is really very beautiful!

 

[addy1]

Thanks
All because my honey bought me a tractor for our first wedding anniversary. The dirt here is so bad you could not even dig in a plant without a pick. Lots of shale, nicely layered to make making holes hard. All those plants and water you see used to be just boring grass......

I went from working 2 full time jobs to retired, had to do something lol
Love plants, ponds, critters this land was perfect for me.

Looked at your showcase, nice work there. Are you going to make a lower lip around the edge of the pond, like two three inches, around 12 inches wide. A great way to hide the liner, stack rocks on the liner, the water will come up part way on the rocks, hiding spots for critters.

 

[Fishylove]

You guys are doing a wonderful job! Told ya the bug would catch ya And how lucky to be deeper than you thought!?! I'd would much rather shovel gravel and sand by hand than dirt! Lol Your little Salamanders sound cute, I think they are the same thing we called mud puppy as a kid. Come to think of it, I don't think I've seen a mud puppy since I was a kid