Deck ponds

[minnowman]

After building the greenhouse ponds, I discovered the Water Gardeners International web site. It's a great source of information! I learned how to pollinate waterlily flowers,collect the seeds when ready, sprout the seeds, and grow the seedlings. All I needed was lots more room, so I built two ponds set in a deck. We already had a small deck outside our back door. From the lowest ground level in the build area to the level of the existing deck it was about 30". That seemed a little too deep for a pond, so I built the side walls with one 2"x8" and two 2"x10" boards, then a 2X4 lying on its side to shade the exposed liner,then another 2x8 to fill the rest of the wall and make a 2" bumper. The bottom is covered with sand and sloped slightlyto one corner for drainage if that is ever necessary. The side walls are covered with 1/2" foam insulation sheet that is held on with duct tape. Supporting the walls is a double row of 4x4s set 2' deep in concrete and braced to each other. There is a 4' wide walkway around and between the ponds and a bamboo fence to keep unwanted critters and wind out. A wider area of decking connecting the deck ponds and the greenhouse is under construction. There is no filtration in these ponds. The only circulation is from a small submersible pump in the 20'x20' pond to a cast iron pump in the 16'x20' pond and a 2" pvc return line. There are some Paradise Gouramis and Sailfin Mollies in there to control insects.
Before I could finish the first pond I had enough nightbloomer seedlings to fill it up. Most of the seedlings weren't as good as the parent [ Antares] so they either were thrown away or given away. Both ponds are now full and I have new daybloomer seedlings getting ready to bloom. I'll send pics of them as they bloom.

 

[taherrmann4]

Thanks for sharing your construction pics, looks great.

 

[j.w]

Such nice work you do and oh what fun that would be to have those beautiful ponds and right off your deck and one on your deck too. Neat idea that is putting one on the deck like that.
Love to see more pics whenever you can post them.

 

[addy1]

Very nice, construction pictures help others do their builds.

 

[Alvarero]

Makes me want one. My wife said "Looks expensive." which means no. :sad:

 

[sissy]

agree alvarero looks expensive an looks good too and when the wife says no then you try to figure a way around it .and maybe end up in the dog house .I guess if you did the inside with concrete block and then built the deck in sections ,one section each time you can afford it .

 

[mikeinpgh]

Very nice. Why doesn't my lilly look like those? I would buy more but mine don't look nearly as nice. Maybe if I had more than one they would do better :dunno:

agree alvarero looks expensive an looks good too and when the wife says no then you try to figure a way around it .and maybe end up in the dog house .I guess if you did the inside with concrete block and then built the deck in sections ,one section each time you can afford it .

LOL. When my wife tells the story of my pond build, she always starts off "Well, I came home and he was just digging in the backyard. So I just went back inside to cool off before I went back out to ask questions." My poor wife :razz:
You know us men don't think anything through. I guess I did(maybe). I guess my wife didn't think I was really going to do it.

 

[minnowman]

I started building the deck pond greenhouses this weekend. The end frames are made of pressure treated wood. The middle frames will be made of chain link fence top rail pipe. It's thin wall galvanized steel pipe. I would make all of it out of wood, but it would be hard to reach the ridge board to attach it, and pipe will take up less room inside.

 

[baeya]

Wow! So very nice! You should sell tickets to visit your water gardens!

 

[j.w]

That's going to be really nice. Are you doing this to keep them out of the weather more? Seems like you guys are pretty warm down there already but maybe you don't want the wind or rain on them or does it actually get cold enough at times during the winter to hurt the plants?

 

[minnowman]

JW We are in zone 9. The coldest it usually gets is in the 20s. Not all tropicals would survive that, and many of those that did would go dormant. They would start off as very small plants from tubers in the spring. Last Winter some of the tropicals bloomed until January. Most of my tropicals survived and were blooming by the end of March. This year I will try to keep the water warmer with solar collectors. Maybe we'll have blooms all Winter.

 

[j.w]

That will be neat to see m-man! Some nice colorful blooms when we are all freezing to remind us of the Spring to come.

 

[Ermasdaughter]

Congratulations! Great work as shown by the end result!! FABULOUS!!!

 

[lotusfreak]

is there an update on this project??!?!?!??!?!?!

 

[minnowman]

Made a little bit of progress today. I had to work some o.t. to make money for materials. The plastic is up on 3 ends. It's held on with wood strips and deck screws. I made a jig to bend the 1" emt pipe for the hoops.