Building pond in Israel by a Granny!

[YShahar]

Man.. when you get the liner and rock work all done i PITTY the first person who tries to drag you out of your hard word . Like a viper im sure you'll strike quick and precise

At that point I'll have no more excuses not to finally prune the trees and renovate my poor old pea gravel paths! But yeah, I'll probably never want to go indoors!

 

[YShahar]

You do have some cool rock I'll say that much... i guess i got lucky to The rock i got was local though not in my immediate area as ours is red sand stone, some people love it im not a huge fan for a pond

Ours is all limestone, so there's not much choice. Some is better quality (more like marble) and some is crumbly and wouldn't be ideal for the pond.

But yeah, that's kind of what made me decide not to try to get those last few rocks out of the hole. I walked around the yard tripping over all the rocks I've already pulled out of there and thought "hmm...I've really got enough rock to rock this thing in already." Now I would have loved to get that one huge one out that's pocking out from the side. It's got some nice character to it. But after bending my crowbar and a long iron pipe on it, I realize that I could spend days on trying to budge the thing (and I'd probably have to deal with that overhang above it collapsing as well, so I'd need to dig it out again before moving it).

Besides, they're building a new high tech park right next to the entrance gate to our town, and there are loads of nice rocks right next to the road! So if I run out of rocks, well, I know where to find more!

 

[TheFishGuy]

It’s been a month! Any updates for us?

 

[GBBUDD]

@YShahar................. I'M BETTING WHEN SHE comes back for an update there's going to be palm trees . people drinking rum swizzles with their feet in the water and an egyptian god waving a palm fan over her.

 

[TheFishGuy]

@YShahar................. I'M BETTING WHEN SHE comes back for an update there's going to be palm trees . people drinking rum swizzles with their feet in the water and an egyptian god waving a palm fan over her.

She has been active recently, just leaving us hanging!

 

[YShahar]

I do indeed have some updates: The hole is dug(!), shelves are carved out, intake bay is dug... and the liner was delivered just this morning! The good news is that the guy who delivered it helped us get it down all those stairs from the street to the backyard, though it took some struggle; that thing is heavy! The bad news is that since I didn't have everything completely ready for underlayment at that time, we couldn't just walk it into the hole. So it's currently taking up most of the back patio--a huge heap of .60 mil rubber like some sort of sleeping dragon.

But we're getting ahead of the story... Here's where things were as of 10 March:

And here's where things were earlier today:

What's with the concrete paver walls, I hear you ask (@GBBUDD was that you groaning over my crazy construction techniques just now?). Well, the issue is that this deeper zone is where I was hitting nothing but rocks. Strike anywhere at all in that area and you'll turn up no real soil at all, just rocks of all sizes. My guess is that when the house was built, the builders simply dumped a huge amount of rock all across the hillside to level the yard, and this is what I've dug into. Here's an example:

So rather than deal with millions of sharp edges, none of which can be pulled out without revealing yet more sharp bits (I think they breed in the sewers), I decided to just line the walls all around with concrete pavers. Each paver is 45 cm on a side and 10 cm thick. And they are extremely heavy, let me tell you! Took me most of the day to get them in place, then carefully backfill them so they'd line up nice and vertical. I've hammered out the sharp corners where they don't quite mesh, and will be wrapping the tops and corners with extra underlayment over foam packing material.

Meanwhile, I've started laying underlayment, beginning with the intake bay. I bought a 100 square meter roll of cheap thin geotextile material to serve as a first layer. On top of that, I'm laying a layer of sand, and on top of that, a layer of 400 gram heavy-duty geotextile. Here's the work in progress:

As of the end of work today, I've got the intake bay lined with fabric with a layer of sand on the bottom.

In the background, you can see layers of old underlayment from my old pond draped over the pavers to hold down some rubber packing foam that I put over the edges. Tomorrow I'll need to go buy more of the thicker underlayment to finish the rest of the pond. If I can get it finished by tomorrow afternoon, I may be able to draft my daughter and son-in-law to help get the liner into the hole, as they'll be staying with us over Shabbat. Going to be a bit of a schlep for two old farts, one rather small nursing mother, and a handicapped IDF veteran... But who knows, we might be able to manage it!

And just for inspiration, here's a view of the pond to be from the patio with the irises in bloom. You can just make out the "steps" and the stream at the left of the photo. Going to be an amazing view once it's done!

 

[j.w]

Wow you have really been slaving away @YShahar and looks good so far. The .60mil liner is the first kind I bought. That stuff is a bit thicker and a little harder to work with than the thinner stuff but it sure is tough stuff! I got mine from a roofing company years and years ago. Looks like you have done a great job of softening things up w/all that padding. Keep on truckin!

 

[TheFishGuy]

wow! You have been busy, congrats on getting the hole dug! that was the least fun and most time consuming part in my pond build.

 

[GBBUDD]

Thanks @YShahar you gave me a good chuckle.
amazing there lady!!! you could out work most of the people i know of any age.
one observation is wouldn't it be easier and not fill in your hard work if the sand was placed under the fabric get it fairly smoth and the place the fabric?

Your established garden is really going to set off the whole picture nice work

 

[addy1]

That will be beautiful! Fantastic work!

 

[YShahar]

one observation is wouldn't it be easier and not fill in your hard work if the sand was placed under the fabric get it fairly smoth and the place the fabric?

The reason I put it on top of the cheap geotextile was that if I put it down right over the ground, when the ground dries out during a sharav (desert heat that can sap the moisture out of the soil down to about 20cm) the ground could crack and I'd lose the sand. I got the idea to use the geotextile under the sand from an Aquascape build in Arizona, where they did something similar.

The only holdup now is that I've run out of the better grade geotextile. I ordered some from a local outfit, spoke to the store owner on the phone and verified that he was getting me the right stuff. So this morning I called to see if it had all arrived and was told that it had. I again verified the details just to be sure. I sent His Honor the Cook over to pick it all up and found that none of it was what I had specified: wrong grade of geotextile, wrong kind of pipe. Aaargh! Called the guy back and he swore up and down that on Sunday morning he'll get the right stuff out to us at his expense. I absolutely hate being lied to, and I hate that he wasted Don's time for nothing.

The good news is that the roofing guy who sold us the liner told me about an outfilt that sells the good geotextile and a fraction of the price. Problem is they may not sell to individuals but only to companies. I'll be checking on that Sunday morning as well.

Your established garden is really going to set off the whole picture nice work

The whole garden was really built around the pond, even 20 years back when the pond was just an idea waiting to be delivered. I built a little pea gravel path that winds around the pond and loops back toward the back patio, a sort of miniature Japanese stroll garden. I always told visitors "Imagine still clear water over to your right and a little stream just here!" Hopefully, that vision will be a reality in a few weeks.

 

[YShahar]

wow! You have been busy, congrats on getting the hole dug! that was the least fun and most time consuming part in my pond build.

That sure is the truth! One thing that made a big difference in my dig was the winter rains. The ground here is caliche (see here for the gruesome details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caliche) and is like cement in summer. But as soon as the rains began in December I was able to loosen it up with the pickaxe one blow at a time. A bit of forwards pressure on the handle pries up whole "bricks" of the stuff, which I can then toss on a pile outside the pond (what to do with the pile of caliche is another issue).

So now, in order to finish up the remaining edges, I've hooked up a small sprinkler and put it in the middle of the pond to wet the soil. Works like a charm!

 

[addy1]

When I dug my pond in Arizona I hit caliche about 12 to 18 inches down that stuff is like concrete. I also soaked it to try to break it up. That hubby bought a old bob cat to help with the pond dig.

Way to go! Go granny go!

 

[TheFishGuy]

With all of those rocks and that terrible dirt, I think I had it easy! I just had a nice clay and dirt mixture, pretty easy to dig in and great for sculpting the walls...

 

[YShahar]

When I dug my pond in Arizona I hit caliche about 12 to 18 inches down that stuff is like concrete. I also soaked it to try to break it up. That hubby bought a old bob cat to help with the pond dig.

Way to go! Go granny go!

Every time I see someone working with a bobcat somewhere, I dream of coming back at night and taking it on a little joyride. Alas, I'm supposed to be an upstanding citizen.