CW's Back Yard Water Garden Begins!

[combatwombat]

Landscaping update. Freak snow storm in the PWN yesterday. More coming tonight. No outdoor work in a few days makes CW grumpy. Bamboo was putting up amazing new shoots this spring. Half of them destroyed by the heavy, wet snow. Very disappointing. Especially after they got scorched with 116º heat last summer. Oh well, better luck next year?

 

[bagsmom]

That is a bummer! Where I am, it seems like we always have a couple freaky weather twists in the early spring. We can feel sorry for each other today. You can't work because of weather and I can't work on my pond because I have to go to work-work. It's not nearly as fun as playing in the dirt! You will be back out there soon!

 

[addy1]

Our temps are psycho. 82 today then dropping to a week of 50s again.

 

[combatwombat]

Our temps are psycho. 82 today then dropping to a week of 50s again.

It was 80º last week. I got a sunburn. lol

 

[addy1]

Darn weeds taking off still one handed but now a brace. Need to get the small ponds running biters starting to lay.

 

[SarahT]

Darn weeds taking off still one handed but now a brace. Need to get the small ponds running biters starting to lay.

Hooray for the brace! Sounds as if you're healing pretty well.

 

[addy1]

Hooray for the brace! Sounds as if you're healing pretty well.

The doc is happy. He says two more weeks for the bones to finish knitting together. I can remove when sitting shower etc. Trying to stretch the ligaments, get my knuckles bending again. Real painful right now. Part osteoarthritis part not moving for weeks actually a month plus.

Constantly moving bending when brace is off to loosen up.

 

[combatwombat]

Timelapse + narration of the last 2 days of progress on the negative edge cistern.

 

[Lisak1]

Looking good. The bib liner is interesting -we use one in our poodles waterfall, so I get your point. But are you water falling into the bog?

 

[combatwombat]

But are you water falling into the bog?

Do you mean the cistern? There will be a few small waterfalls into the top of the cistern, yes.

our poodles waterfall

YOUR POODLE HAS ITS OWN WATERFALL?

 

[Lisak1]

YOUR POODLE HAS ITS OWN WATERFALL?

Of course! Doesn't yours?? haha! If I HAD a poodle I would definitely give it a waterfall.

But no - MY PONDLESS. For some reason this forum wants to autocorrect the to poodle.

 

[j.w]

Wow I see real progress before my eyes, amazing! Really looks like a pond is happening.
I hear your pain on the weather @combatwombat . Today is another winter type day here. No snow..........yet but if it arrived I wouldn't be surprised! Sunday is supposed to be sunny and warm up a bit and then ZAP gone again and back to rain forever!

 

[bagsmom]

VERY cool! It's all coming together!

 

[SarahT]

Of course! Doesn't yours?? haha! If I HAD a poodle I would definitely give it a waterfall.

But no - MY PONDLESS. For some reason this forum wants to autocorrect the to poodle.

OH. So THAT'S why people on this site keep talking about bogs and ponds. I thought sometimes it was talk about DOGS in the Garden POODLE Forum, with yorkies (Right, @addy1 ?)

 

[combatwombat]

A few hours here and there the other day. Took me at least an hour to reposition 1 "problem boulder" by myself this morning.

Transcript:

In this timelapse, I finished backfilling the milk crates after adding the 4th layer the other day. I have plenty of extra dirt all over, so I just grab a shovel full from wherever I'm standing, and I'll fill in any low spots I make later when I'm not so pressed for time.

I also realized that the pvc I used to reinforce the top of the crates stuck out a little and the edges were a bit sharp. Made me uncomfortable about compacting the liner against it with backfill, so I cut up a foam mat from Harbor freight and used it to pad each pipe before finishing the backfill.

Finally, I got a layer of underlayment over the crates and started painting out how I plan to finish the top.

Probably should have put that fabric down a long time ago. Lots of dust and debris fell in the cistern as I worked. Will probably need a few flushes to clean it out.

Here, I'm bringing Barney to the far side of the pond to do a little bit of final work on that side. After this, no more machines on the far side of the pond. Which is a relief, really, because it's a very tight fit getting around the corner without hitting the fence or the running over the cistern.

Believe it or not, I only ran over one milk crate the whole time Barney has been here. And that's a fine price to pay, I think.

Right here, I'm fixing my "problem rock." I love this rock, but it's in a tough spot, and not high enough to hide the liner. I planned on just digging out another little shelf to place a few small rocks and then plant marginals to finish, but it's too tight of a space for that with the plumbing coming out of the bog.

It took a really long time to wrestle this darn boulder by myself with Barney, but I eventually got it done.

Then, I moved one more rock I wanted to showcase elsewhere. Since I had so much extra liner and the space to do it, I decided to dig out a shallow shelf near the cistern and move the boulder there. The rest of the area will get planted with marginals to add a ton of plant life. I think it's going to be really cool.

And I was able to get the bib liner into the cistern just before the heavy rains set in for the rest of the day.