I’ve been fine tuning my pond idea. I’m trying to keep it good sized for the fish, but I see I’m shorting the bog. Without making it unwieldy sized, I’m thinking I’ll have to add bog area to the north another year. I’ll need more metal frames! So for this year, this is what I’ll try to accomplish. A berm raised 6”-1’ depending on how much dirt I end up with, all around it. Then I’ll put 4 of my metal frames right along the porch edge, fill them with dirt, so they sit about 2-3’ above ground level. I’ll slope the sides to either side and plant that with various plants to soften the look. The overflow from the bog will drop to a ledge about 6” deep, wide enough for me to walk on so I can tend the entire bog, and to allow water to calm before entering the pond major. The outer edge will have a shelf about 18 inches deep, kind of hollowed out a bit to allow planters to sit in there with out risk of falling off, but hopefully deep enough to prevent all but the bravest of raccoons from trying to turn the pond into a sushi bar. With lots of planters full of lillies, assorted water plants, and maybe some cute statuary, I think I can block most raccoons off. Then a ledge which will slope down from 24-30” deep, to a pit in the center 36” deep. That’s where I’ll set up egg crates to rest the pump on, with a diy large particulate filter. Not so deep I can’t get to it, but deep enough to avoid a bad freeze, give fish hiding places, and hopefully allow mulm to collect for ease of removal! As I like to just sit in my pond, enjoying the fish and lillies, I may make myself a comfy seat in there, where I can zen away a bad work day. Here’s a rough drawing of my plan. The red is the porch, orange is dirt built up for berm, yellow is the bog, and the blue is the pond. Sorry for how dark the picture turned out
