The challenging pond build (uk)

[poconojoe]

rocks are something of a scarce commodity on this build, but plenty of wood... and broken building rubble, lots of that..

you mention another element in my known unknown category; I understand about the liner under the next to last stone... how do you stop the water taking that route rather than over the top of the last stone? black foam? some sort of caulk? a very good fit?? Its a problem I was saving until later, but now you mention it

Rocks are scarce, bummer. I have all I need and then some!
If you used 4x4's, are the pressure treated ones harmful to fish? Hopefully someone will chime in on that...

Maybe you could lay a couple courses of brick or other blocks to hide the liner. Just stack them like a brick wall, but loose, no mortar.

If you use wood, you could have the gravel a bit higher around the perimeter so any wood you lay there will not be constantly wet. Or lay a course of bricks (no mortar) and set the wood on them.

The bog water will return to the pond at a low point that you create. It can't pour over the wall, it will seek the lowest point.

 

[GBBUDD]

There's always precast stone cover the bog wall with cement board and install concrete died rock

 

[kelpie]

A lot of useful ideas there, many thanks.

The area I need to hide, if I use one liner for pond, stream and bog would be a vertical face, 7 feet long and about 22 inches high... oh hang on, a delivery from Mr Reality... theres more... the pond itself. The front edge is the lowest point, the rear of the pond is about 3 feet higher... and the sides angle down to the front. Hmm, so there's another vertical face 3 feet high and 6 feet wide, as well as the sides, zero to 3 feet high and 6 feet long where the liner will be visible. Ouch. (Sorry... thinking out loud.)

 

[GBBUDD]

I wouldn't call that a problem that means you'll have about a 30 inch waterfall (sweet) and as your seeing there are many ways to hide a wall. You want more ideas how about a tree stump I bet those are in short supply someone is always wiling to get rid of one getting it there's another issue. Or how some bamboo placed vertical some 3 foot tall grass.

 

[addy1]

Or have your nice wood wall with some pipes, a weir, etc to be your waterfall, not flowing over the wall, but out of the wall.

 

[kelpie]

yep, funnily enough I have a 2 foot tree stump that would work. The wood camo seems like a good plan, plenty of fallen trees over the years that I've hung on to interesting bits of them.

I was thinking of putting a notch or three into the top of the sleeper forming the front wall of the bog filter, to get the water to the stream... that could be embellished. is that what is described as a weir?

Looking at my plant guide; flowering rush, low growing rush, carex riparea, bull rush et al, theres lots of choice around 36" high plants. no worries there.

 

[kelpie]

the stump..

 

[GBBUDD]

Put some moss or a low growing stone crop in the lower area and you have a piece of intrest

 

[kelpie]

I think I'm going to have to go rustic.. no budget left to buy in rocks or pebbles. But that's fine, it's more in keeping with a native Brook or stream I have in mind. There's not too many natural fresh water streams lined with sea washed pebbles.. (is there?).

The hole in the ground now gets the prefix of woodland before wildlife pond.

 

[kelpie]

Possible site for the next pond... lol... codename "didn't you learn the first time" / challenge 2. Possible 3 multi level ponds, as all the hard landscaping is already done... and I do seem to have a thing about builders rubble... lol.

 

[GBBUDD]

codename "didn't you learn the first time"

And are you blind look at the surface what makes you think below will be any better???????????
I like this guy take no prisoners and don't tell me it can be done ......seems i remember some of those words myself in the past

 

[kelpie]

And are you blind look at the surface what makes you think below will be any better???????????
I like this guy take no prisoners and don't tell me it can be done ......seems i remember some of those words myself in the past

LOL, it's not quite as bad as it looks, well, ok, it is... I do know that whats underneath is ok because I was the one who dumped the twenty something tons of old clay roof tiles and other building site detritus there.. My plan is not to dig into it. (that would be silly, even for me..) but to build on top of it, using the spoil from the hole of the main pond to bury all that rubble.

That mound is about 5m long and 4m wide a metre high. Potentially one pond on top of it and another behind where I'm taking the pic from, forming a number "8" type arrangement, the join between the two "0" of the 8 (where the largest vertical drop is) down into a third sunken main pond.

Could always use the raised pond as a bog filter... but that all assumes that SWMBO likes the current one. "making it into pond would be a lot cheaper than getting a grab lorry in to clear it away..." but thats next years project.. it will have changed a few times by then.

 

[GBBUDD]

The spoils from digging probably won't go as far as you may think.

 

[kelpie]

The spoils from digging probably won't go as far as you may think.

There might be as little as 8 cubic yards... another couple perhaps from the other pond? always use sand, thats cheap enough.. but back to reality for the moment... deal with this one before I get ahead of myself.

 

[addy1]

True^^^