Pond/Water Garden Project

[jwstewar]

A shot of some of the mulch and stuff that she was using yesterday. We found a deal a Lowes on Sunday. They had a bunch of busted bags on sale for $.50 a back. We bought 28 bags of cypress mulch, hardwood mulch, a bag of topsoil, cow manure, and peat moss with most of it being mulch for $14.00. We thought it was a pretty good deal, as most of the bags were for the most part full.

 

[jwstewar]

Last one. A shot of the tractor at rest after providing its contribution to the project. Man that thing needs washed. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[dmartin88]

Thanks for the pictures, I'm enjoying watching your progress. We did a small water garden last year, will try to post a picture-- really enjoying it this year, still some work but more just watching the fish swim.

 

[dmartin88]

Here's our pond early this spring before we added more plants! It's about 15X25, 2-3 ft deep. Had 17 goldfish at the end of the summer last year, 14 made it through the winter with just the waterfall running to keep it from icing over.

 

[dmartin88]

Another view.

 

[dmartin88]

Visitors that seem to enjoy the new source of water in the neighborhood.

 

[jwstewar]

That looks real nice. I hope ours eventually looks that nice. Do you have a close-up of the water spitting statue?

 

[Inspector507]

Jim great looking job........ /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
One of these days we'll stop down and see it if I can ever pry Phyl out of the house....with notice of course.

 

[RonR]

You're going to have trouble getting your share of seat time, now that she knows how to run it and seems to be enjoying it!

Best wishes,
Ron

 

[dmartin88]

Will try to get you one, need to take a couple of pictures with the new plants so will try to post something this weekend.

 

[DannyD]

I am looking for something to "hide" the electric to my pond......by the way, dont mention yours to my wife, I have enough time and back breaking in the one I have.............I am thinking of something crafty like a lighthouse or something. Going to bury 3/4 inch gray PVC to the shed and run like you 2 outlets, waterproof box and GFI.

 

[dmartin88]

Here's a closeup of the statue in our pond.

 

[dmartin88]

Another picture showing the current state of new plantings-- bought another water lily yesterday as we're trying to get a bit more surface coverage to help control algae. Water right now is so clear it's scary, two weeks ago had a bit of pea soup type algae. Can't say we did anything but we did add a lot of anachris early in the year that is starting to take off and grow so that will use up the nutrients otherwise used to feed algae?

 

[DannyD]

On planting, how are you doing this? We have found plants that need to be planted in something, soil, pot or something. Others that float. We have some hosta that my wife understands will live in the pond with simply a wrap around a ball of dirt and then submerged in the pond. Does this work?

I still have to stop the water from getting out around the rock wall, but have mortar to dot that with and some silicone to put in back of the mortar. After this we will be refilling the pond and adding plants and fish. Would it be best to add plants as we fill the pond again, or afterwards. I know from my fish tank days, I would put in the plants with some fertilizer then add fish about a month later.

Your pond looks very nice, I will most likely have to do one like this in a couple of years, after learning on this one. We have a great spot for one right behind where ours is now, but would have to build a structure to make it comfortable to sit out and enjoy, since there are no real trees to speak of there.

I looked at what seemed to be a bio filter today at wally world. it was basically a box with devices in the bottom to buiild up the natural filtering, then a very tight filter material, then a courser one on top. I hole in the top and middle filter, and a hole in the side, but with no diagrams I could not figure out how it worked. It looked about the size of a 6 pack.

thanks for your help!

 

[dmartin88]

We have a real mixture of plants, some we've left in pots but submerged (parrot feather, our water lilies, and a lotus. There are "bog" type plants that like to be in soil or even in the water. Our pond is lined with rocks, every hole we dig here in Virginia seems to more rock than clay so we used 1-2 inch gravel on the bottom, then lined the walls and waterfall with all the rocks we've taken from the yard-- many were from the hole we dug for the pond. A lot of our plants are set in to the rocks, covered with some clay, then some pea gravel. It seems to work. Heavy clay seems to be a good choice as it stays put in the water.

We have a bio filter and skimmer in our pond, the waterfall is actually th biofilter, it's about 2' square, has a couple of mats of what looks like furnace filter material along with a couple of bags of small rock/gravel. Our pump is located within the skimmer at the opposite end of the pond, then connected by a 2" pipe to the bottom of the biofilter. The water enters, there and flows through the rock/filters and over the waterfall. There are also plants in the box and the roots of the plants along with some bacteria form the natural filter. Dont pretent to be an expert but we're learning and enjoying watching the fish. We added 9 new ones yesterday.

Here's a site with some good information about plants-- they obviously sell them, they're only about 45 minutes from here and have acres of ponds with all different kinds of lilies and plants, fun to walk through but you might enjoy taking a look or request a catalog.

Enjoy.

www.lilypons.com

 

[jwstewar]

Here are some updated pics. I vagely remember somebody asking about these plants, but I don't remember who (Junkman maybe). These are the tree/bush on each side of the entry arbor. The tag on them calls them a Lady Stanley, but I don't know anything else about them. Here is the one with a few blooms on it.

 

[jwstewar]

Here is the redesigned water fall now that we actually have some water flowing. Now that we have all of the "leaks" fixed we can start trimming the liner and the "Great Stuff" foam that we used to seal between some of the rocks so that it looks more natural. Where the pond is in the direct sun we've got a little bit of an algae problem that we are attacking on several fronts including chemicals, plants, and barley straw pellets. We were trying to avoid a UV stabalizer because of costs, but will probably give up and buy one for it next year. We're getting a little tired of spending money on it this year. Has ended up quite a bit more expensive then we had planned - of course, don't they always? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[jwstewar]

Here is one of the water lillies in bloom. Her white one had a bloom on it for awhile, but they don't last near as long as the pink one.

 

[KiotiJohn]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( These are the tree/bush on each side of the entry arbor. The tag on them calls them a Lady Stanley, but I don't know anything else about them. Here is the one with a few blooms on it. )</font>
This is a Hibiscus cultivar nearly identical to ‘Blushing Bride’, ‘Gussie’ and ‘Leopoldii’
The pond is really taking nice shape. Those are nice rocks you have in the waterfall. Around here, they cost too much for me. I'm going to use a lot of old granite rocks we've had around for many years. Not as pretty, but sure inexpensive enough! John

 

[jwstewar]

Actually we've lucked out. Haven't bought any rocks other than the small ones around the edge. So far about 3 tons of those. The larger rocks have come from a few different relatives that have them on their property wanting to get rid of some of them.

Thanks for the complement and thanks for the info on the bushes. I'll pass that on to my wife, she'll be interested in knowing that.

Look forward to seeing pictures of your project.