A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion Landscape trials and triumphs Water Gardens Starting pond finally ~~2~~

Lynne, WOW! I haven't checked this out in a looooong time and I'm impressed your hole has turned into a beautiful pond! I can't wait to see it with water in it. What is that black bubble in the pond on the left? Again, WOW! Good work!

Looks better than ever! I'm really enjoying your pond building. It's very like watching a house take shape as you drive by it every day on your way to work. I find the process exciting, even if it is in a vicarious way. :~}

Thanks so much for sharing your pond. And thanks to for lettting us see how wonderful a relationship you and Don have. It's easy to see how hard he works to please you and equally obvious by your posts how much you appreciate his efforts.

it will be a whole 7 days since an update.....anything?

It's sure looking good, what a big job that was, hope you get it filled this time and that it stays for you.

That looks amazing- I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Thanks once again, all!
You all have been the best cheering squad, and I know it gives Don great pleasure to know that his progress is being followed by people all over the country!

He made great strides this past weekend! He layed all the electrical wires and connections, except for the malibu lights, which will be put in after we get the gardens dug out around the pond.

Here is the first line, going to the waterfall pump in the back:


And the beginning of the line that goes to the skimmer on the side:


And the little box that powers it all - he will hide this under a plant pot!


(the little black bubble in the bottom of the pond is the "drain" that takes the water up to the waterfall for recycling)

more in next post...

And here is the monster pump that will drive the waterfall!
My "perfectionist" even spray painted the pvc pipe black, so it wouldn't stand out all that much!


He is all done with the mechanics and cannot WAIT to fill it up!
He wants to be home when that happens, in case of any problems, so he'll have to wait until Saturday. We've been having rain for the past 6 days, so he'll have to pump out that water and clean it out one last time, before finally filling it for good!

We're soooo excited!
Wonder how long it will take - it will hold about 7,500 gallons!!!
(anyone want to pay our water bill?!? )


Triss - he is hoping that once it is filled, it will stabilize against rainwater causing any more slides. Time will tell...

Plants 'n pots tell hubby if he would like he could come to WV and building me a beautifully pond like that one. That is going to be so awesome when it is done. I am having problems with mine and like you when I get ready to work on it I have to pump the stupid water out and then work on it for a little then here comes the rain again. It seems to be a never ending battle. But mine is not as large as that one.

WOW Lynne He is moving right along Now!!!!!!! It's almost ready for the water fill!!!!!!!!!! YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!! thanks for the update,,!!!!!!!

That is looking so good, Lynne. Don is a dynamo!
Time how long it takes to fill. I'm interested. I know it takes ours longer to fill than some because our water supply is gravity fed, very low pressure.

DANG....now that is a pump!!!!!!!! saturday then? i will check in! wonder how looooonnnnngggg it will take to fill up? and the thrill of watching the water fall for the first time........i am so thrilled for you! tell don of the pond i said WAY TO GO!

You all have me chuckling so much - thanks! :wink:
I've just told Don all your compliments, and he says thanks too!
He thinks he's going to use 2 hoses to fill it, so instead of taking about 10 hours, it will hopefully only take 6 - CRAZY!

I wish I had a working video camera, so I could tape the first water flowing down the falls and share it with you all. I'm going to have to see if one of our digital cameras has a working video mode - you've all been with us through this whole ordeal, and should be able to share in that moment.

Stay tuned...

yes, YES, video would be grand!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so excited!!!
I just got my digital camera video to work, and figured out how to download it to PB, so now it just has to be still light out on Saturday for me to take one of the beginnings of the waterfall and share it with you all here!!!

as I've said before... stay tuned!

i have to go help set up "Snip n Tip" sat. (the program once a month that is totally done with volunteer vets and techs that spay and neuter feral cats, tip the ear, then are released back where they came from. they usually do around 180 in 1 day)

i will be home late that nite, but this is the FIRST place i will check!!!!

Wendy - that sounds like a wonderful program! Wish they had something like that around here. But I must ask... what is "tip the ear"? I've never heard of that!

I hope all goes well for you on Saturday.
Hopefully the video link will be here whenever you find your way to the forums - as long as I can continue to get the camera to work!

Lynne, that is where they take a little cut of the cats ear, like a tiny cropping, so when they see them out on the street etc. they know right away if he/she has been taken in and spayed/neutered without the trauma of being re-caught and examined.

Thanks Wrennie - I had a feeling it was a marking of that sort - just wanted to be sure. As I said... we don't have a program like that around here - but it surely would be nice!

Here either. There are a couple of local women who have taken the stray cats under their wing and independently catch spay and release.

.......staying tuned........

yeah, wrennie's got it...wow, i am happy someone else knows of this too!

Well... I just couldn't help myself!!!
I had to go into PetSmart to get some stuff for my aquarium in this room, and while I was there I just HAD to buy the only small koi fish they had! He/she/it? was so very active and affordable, I just had to do it! I'm not even sure if it will be able to go in the pond this year since we are getting it up so late, but it will be fine in my tank if need be.

I also bought a very intensely orange comet - the girl in the fish department said that they put it in with the koi because of it's great color - they couldn't stand the thought of it being eaten as a "feeder" fish. And the best part is... it was only 26 cents just like the other feeder fish. I've already named it Dorito, because of that orange coloring!

Soooo, I was practicing using the video on my digital camera just now, and thought you might like to see my new fishies! The multi-colored one is the koi, and the comet is the other one. It's very nervous in its new tank.

video of new pond fish

"What big eyes you have, Grandmother" That koi looks like he/she has really big eyes. They both look a little nervous but that's natural. I would be nervous too if people in my vacinity were bandying around the word "feeder......."
Good buys, Lynne.

Thanks, Tina!

I do believe they are nervous because the catfish in there wasn't being nice to them. He's had the tank all to himself ever since he killed all of the baby swordtail fish I had in there (after I took them out of the breeders net!). I took the video only about 1/2 hour after I put the new fish in tonight. I'm sure they'll be ok, as they are both about the same size as the catfish.

good deal. and wendy, that's awesome for you too thank you for keeping it up.

i could "hijack" this about feral cat's but i'll ask wendy to start a topic in critters instead.

lynne, thank you for the video, it looked good!

OKAAAAAAAAAAAY!

It's filling up as I type!
I think he started it about 10:30 - will ask when he comes back inside. I took this video shortly after that (again through the bathroom screen, as it's the best vantage point for right now) - he was busy straightening out the liner so there wouldn't be too many bumps and lumps on the bottom.

He's currently working on the more rounded rocks that will be on the top edge around the pond - that's the last thing for him to do, other than helping me by digging out the surrounding gardens. Yippee!

video of water going in for first time!

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay! I'm so excited for you! Can't wait to see the waterfall, and the gardens, and you two kicked back enjoying it!!

haha, i am a high jacker!

gotta go but will be here late tonite to see.....we need a drum roll smiley for lynne!

Well... it was an awfully hot and oppressive day out today - the temperature got up well into the 90's but the humidity was the worst I've ever experienced anywhere - JUST AWFUL! It got so bad, that at one point I just had to come inside and shower - my face was BEET red, and at first I thought it was sunburn, but it was actually my pressure!!! Very scary - fortunately all was well after I showered and took a short nap. I really don't know how Don stayed out as much as he did today - he even mowed the lawn too!

Soooooooo a few embarassing things...
and some re-thinking that I need to do now...
Don somehow miscalculated the size of the pond - BY A LOT!!!
Instead of being 7,500 gallons as he's been saying all summer long, he now says it's about 3,000! Quite a big difference, especially where koi fish are concerned. They can grow to anywhere between 24-36 inches, and need space! Also, it is not as deep as I was originally told it would be, so now I'm not even sure that I will be able to overwinter koi - I've read that they need from 3-3 1/2 feet depth in areas where it freezes over winter. Now he is saying it is 2 1/2 feet deep, but the "guy from the nursery said that would be ok". I need to do more research now...

It does look very nice though, but the pump is not putting out the "big waterfall effect" that Don was thinking it would. He's already replaced a pipe, hoping that would do the trick, but it didn't. He needs to adjust some of the bottom rocks for a better flow, but that's not going to increase the volume of the fall. I'm hoping he calls the pump company on Monday to see what they might suggest, or the pond store where he bought it... he really was expecting a much more forceful flow.

Here is the video - I'm sorry it's so blury - you can definitely tell it was done with a digital camera, though the first attempts came out much clearer.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v161/LynneNY/ponding/?action=view&current=8-25-07005.flv

Hope you can see the ornamental grasses that I moved from the driveway garden to the top of the hills by the waterfall - they were much too large for where they were, and really do help give the pond a more tropical feel. I have more grasses to move to the side gardens once we dig those out.


I will post some still pictures in my next post...

OMG Lynne All those videos are great!!!!!!! Even with the water flowing lighter then you wanted it still looks awesome!!!!!!! I Love it!!!!! And everything you have put around it , so far is awesome!!!! Big kudos To Don of the Pond and to you!!! What a well documented project!!

Thanks Diane!

Here are the pictures from yesterday.

This first one is when the pond was all filled up before he turned the waterfall on -
see how clear the water is? The waterfall brought down a bunch of dirt and dust that is now settling in the pond - it was very cloudy after he started it up.


Next are some of the things I put on/in the left side of the waterfall hill...
some white quartz rocks that my dad gave me from his golf course, some variegated creeping sedum, and my gargoyle friend who is SOOOOOOO glad to be out of the bag and outside already! I've had him and his brother for months!


and the right side...


pond with grasses - I've been growing them for 2 years now, and they make a much better impact here, than where I had them before!


Can't wait to get more plants moved over there - but it's raining today...
and Don is at a neighbor's house cutting up a tree that came down yesterday - it will probably take him all day - the poor guy can't even get some rest today with the rain...

Yay! It is looking great. I love the gargoyle brothers.

AWESOME!!!!! MEGA KUDOS TO DON OF THE POND!

it's alright if the pump does not work like you expected, it still looks great and i am sure you will get it like you want!

thank you for sharing this with us!

and a few things to remember lynne. first, i'd get someone (don?) to walk out into the middle of the pond with a yardstick and get an accurate depth. period. if you use a wooden yardstick and keep it out of the water until you get ready to poke it in, you will know that either it is over 3 ft deep, or how shallow it really is.

second, remember you are creating a "micro-climate" with the grasses and plants and water, and it will probably be a lot warmer there than the rest of your yard. just some thoughts for you.

also, while you might not have a huge number of koi, 3k is enough to have a few. as long as you have the rest of the support system in place for them.

Very nice pond and job well done.....Those lil guys looked tickled.

Thanks Wrennie, Wendy, Dodge, and Jiffy!

Jiffy - the pond is at MOST 2 1/2 feet in the center - it is more like 25 inches at the outer edges. I know this for a fact. But Don keeps insisting that the owner of the big nursery here told him that he overwinters koi in only 18 inches! I think he must have some heavy duty heater to be able to pull that off, and that is just not an expense we can put into the pond right now. We will have to get at least a de-icer to make a hole for the gas exchange however. I'll have to research and compare costs on the two.

I think I'm going to have to just get a few very inexpensive koi like the one I got this week, and try really hard not to get attached to them. Afterall... aside from freezing to death, I also have to worry about the racoons, and today for the first time I saw the BIG FAT FATHER WOODCHUCK up on TOP of the waterfall!!! :mad: He has never ambled up this close to the house, let alone anywhere near the pond - must really like the cascading effect of the fall. He ran as soon as he heard me at the window - back down to his burrow under the shed!

The first fish will definitely be experimental, and not at all expensive.

It is still looking very good, Lynne. Made me want to take a dip.

Looks like some one did a great job......

Good luck and show us the water fall when it is on .
;o)

LYnne: I Love your Pond---From the pictures, I thought it looked like you "could" add a bit more water,---is there restrictions to the depth?/ or was the pictures you showed before the water was all in?

whatever the case "Don-of-the-Pond" did an amazing job and so did you with the "landscaping". You can both be very proud of your work.

Thanks once again all!

Carol Jean... that is as high as it can be filled because of the skimmer level, so that was another surprise for me - I did think that he kept telling me that the water would go 1/2 way up the rocks - another adjustment in vision that I need to make.

I do really appreciate all the hard work that Don put into making this for us , please don't get me wrong. I just had different expectations because of what he had been telling me... , and now need to make adjustments around how it actually came out.

All will be great when it's said and done!

Lynne, I love your new pond ...I've been waiting for the day we'd be able to see it all pulled together and it's exciting to finally see it! Don did a great job--no project gets finished without a small kink here and there. For the size of the project things worked out very well!

Be prepared. I get tons of animals coming and drinking out of mine. Never did much when I just had a small pond but now all kinds of animlas come around and knock stuff into it(rocks, statues, etc). I think mostly it's stray cats at my pond though although we do have a resident groundhog here.

My pond book said 3 feet deep for overwintering fish in a pond in this type of climate....but maybe they'll make it. My old pond was only 26-28 inches deep and I had mosquito fish make it thru the winter even though I thought I'd caught them all. Not sure if I'll get a deicer or not.....I read a tip that said to float basketballs in your pond in winter to stop it from totally freezing solid so I may just try that.

You must be so thrilled that it's all finally coming to an end--now it's full and you are planting around it.

I can't wait to see more as you keep filling in with plants and decorations and seating!