Country Escape's 2nd pond - Goldfish only

[CountryEscape]

Thanks for the offer, SMM! My son could have brought by a sawsall, too, but I'm such a stubborn German ... LOL ... I just figure it out with tools I have. I will have one or two of those same darn roots in my bog to deal with as well, unless I won't have to go that deep. Seems they are at about 18" down, and my bog water height will be slightly higher than the pond, so hopefully I won't have to deal with those roots. I can hope anyhow ....

 

[pondlover]

CE I'm glad you took the day off. Looking forward to seeing some new pics. Maybe this weekend. :razz:

 

[CountryEscape]

Haha, yeah, there will be more pics, hopefully water pics! Now I'm having cloudy water problems with other pond so that sucks big time, but hoping to get that figured out soon. At least it's not harmful for the fish, but I just hate it! Thought I was past that, guess not. I wonder if my well water is high in nutrients that feed algae maybe, since I added about 4-5" of water last Sunday when I noticed the waterfall was leaking over the edge for a while. Oh well, time will tell!

 

[j.w]

Good you took the day off and good you are getting the carpet. You can't be too careful cuz you sure don't want any punctures after all the work you've done. Will be fun to see more of your pix CE and hope you can get your water cleared up. What about using a fine filter w/ the quilt batting stuff?

 

[pondlover]

That quilt batting thing sure worked great in ours. CE go to your local goodwill or thrift store and you can pick up an old comforter for next to nothing. I just took off the top and bottom fabric. It was amazing how quickly it gathered debris/dirt particles.

 

[CountryEscape]

I have some quilt batting already, but have it down in the pool filter in the basement. I can take that and use it under the waterfall area, though. Going to post some pics. Got the pond all the way dug out, and the roots removed! Woohoo!!! Picked up liner this afternoon, could not find any used carpeting, darn it. BUT, since I chop all the small roots behind the wall and then packed clay in the hole, I should be just fine without the carpeting, at least I hope so! I have some old plastic type dog food bags I was thinking of using on the bottom since I'll be walking on the liner. May have enough to drape down the sides in some places, too.

 

[CountryEscape]

I finished chopping and removing the last few roots this morning, and cleaned out the bottom of the pond. Still have to pack clay on some of the root ends, though, since I was not able to find any used carpeting, darn it. Going to use dog food bags instead, where needed.

In the last picture above you see the shelf I planned on leaving on the left end, and when I hit that 2-3" layer of limestone, I decided that would be perfect depth.
This is the pile of dirt that came out of the pond, keeping in mind I put quite a lot of it on the edge of the stream and filled in where it was low around the back side of the other pond, too.

And, the pile of roots that I removed.

I'm thinking of using these roots somehow on the new pond. I saw where they used driftwood on the edge of ponds at the Garden Show, so going to implement the darn things and hopefully give a little more "natural" effect to some area of the pond.
I bought the liner this afternoon, as well as the landscape stones that will be the outside wall. The other pond has 2-3 stones for height, this one will have 1-2, depending on the drop of the yard on the farthest end from the house (the shelf end) which will probably need a second block for height.
And, since my "level" was not very good on the previous pond, this pond will get partially filled before I lay the outside blocks. That way I can use the height of the water as my "level". I figure what better way than that!
Also, I've felt like it was Saturday all day today, forgetting I took Friday off of work, so I will try to find pea gravel tomorrow, after I unload the liner and landscape stones, so I can work on the bog maybe on Sunday, or whenever I get other things done first.
Bought some flowers (OK, I'm a true sucker when it comes to flowers!), all perennials, so will have at least a few for the edges of the stream.
I also have lilys to plant in new pots, so lots of things to do this weekend, but getting the liner in and water in the pond are priority right now.

 

[j.w]

I used a bunch of old blankets and comforters, mattress covers to line my pond with CE. You could use sheets, towels anything soft and cushy.

 

[CountryEscape]

I guess I should have gone to the resale shop to see what they had cheap. I don't have any old blankets or comforters. What I have that I don't use on a bed, I use for the dogs, and with all the dogs that have died lately, I used my big older towels to bury them in, so no old towels left either. Ho hum ... I think the bags will work, though, as they are the plastic type, not paper, and hard to puncture, too. I could wait until I could get some carpeting but I really want to fill the pond. I know there are people who have not used any type of liner, right, or am I dreaming? I am going to try to use something to line it, just not sure what yet. Hey, I just remembered my daughter left a really big area rug she didn't want! That should do for the bottom. Woohoo! Maybe I can think of other things left here unwanted ....

 

[j.w]

Most anything will work CE and if you don't have a lot of rocks and if you are sure the tree roots are fixed so they can't protrude then you might be ok. Go begging to your neighbors and see if they have any old things you might use or just use what ya got.

 

[addy1]

Those bags should help, if they are like the bird seed bags that are tough plastic. Great job ce! you are doing a good.

 

[CountryEscape]

Yep, they are the tough plastic type, can't hardly cut them, good thing they have the string zip to open! I will cut them apart and place them behind the liner where there are large roots, even though I will pack the roots with clay first. I did see some that I didn't pack when I reviewed the pics. Today is a beautiful day to put the liner in place and get some water in there! Sure wish my other pond went back to clear ...... guess the new pond is going to start out with murky water, darn it. Oh, but I'm going to run it through the quilt batting on the way into the new pond, so maybe that will help it some, too.

 

[koiguy1969]

go to a discount tool store or even a ACO or ACE hardware and get a few CHEAP woven tarps.

 

[j.w]

Top O' The Morning to Ya! and I think CE is busy working her butt off now and maybe even filling the new pond by now folks so too late for anymore suggestions on liner protection ideas. Anyway CE hope we get to see pix soon of the fill and your fishies you have been wanting to move in there for seems like such a long time.

 

[CountryEscape]

Well, I didn't use an old tarp I had, it was huge, and would have been more bulky, and it seemed like the bad spots were covered with the dog food bags, and the bottom was pretty much covered with the area rug. Here's my progress for the day!
Liner laid out in the yard, read to be folded.

Folded liner in a certain way so that when I dropped it into the pond (ready to roll it off the scoop in this picture) it would ... hopefully ... be in the right spot, with right amount for left side, and right amount for right side.

And, it worked! Didn't have to shift it much at all. Don't have the folds in it yet, but had it in place pretty much.

Then I put the area rug on the bottom, almost covered all of the bottom, and the dog food sacks on the sides where it was worst. I think I had ALL the little stubs covered with clay, but just in case, I went ahead and used the bags as well. I think I should be in good shape.

I started pumping water from the main pond to the new pond. If you look closely, you will see a spout of water from the hose on the right side also going into the main pond, to refill what I was taking out.

Then I laid the stream liner while the pond was filling, and after I had about 1.5' of water from the koi pond into the new pond, I started using water from the horse's well. I had been using the house well to fill the other pond, and had enough hose to have both ponds filling at the same time.

I bought flowers yesterday, and decided to get them planted on the stream edge. All are perennials except the pansies, which sometimes come back as well, this past winter they would have for sure! I wanted some extra color, and this is good time to put the pansies out.

If you look closely in this next picture, you will see some stepping stones on each side of the stream and a large stone on top of the stream for walking across ... until I get a bridge built.