Ok, so here is today's progress. Today we dug out the gravel, we removed the top liner fleece, innumerable scraps of pond liner, the pond liner itself and also the fleece under it, and also then removed as much of the sand as possible, ready to dig it all out.
We found that actually the pond is about 70cm deep to the point of the water table in the ground here, so we backfilled it to the level of the wate, so we aren't splashing about and sloshing in mud, as we dig. We backfilled it with gravel and also sand. Also, dug the gully around the head of the fountain deeper, then filled with gravel for drainage. Now we have the liners laid all over the lawn, to dry out. It was quite hot today, so we didn't quite get as far as we hoped. We had hoped to begin widening the hole today. Ho-Hum!
We decided to leave the earth to dry a little. So tomorrow we are getting in with our pick and mattock, and we will begin digging and reshaping. We decided to leave it at 70 cm below the intended pond water line, we were going to do it to 100cm, but don't fancy sloshing about in the extra 30cm of water, and read somewhere that it isn't ideal to put the pond in below the natural water table in the ground? Not sure, but frankly, we are a bit tired and a bit broken now! We have timber to sure up the drop from the bog bit into the main pool. We have our plans, we have the rock, oh God, do we have the rocks!!!
When we have sculpted it to our plans, we will put the saved sand back in, then the new pond fleece liner, then the actual black pond liner, whilst arranging the rocks around the edges (once they have been pressure washed, and folding the liner where needed.
I will need to clean the algae off the rocks on the waterfall. It appears to be dead, and completely dried out, so planning to remove it with a wire brush and sweep it off. I think this will be good. Also, I will be removing the gravel, to bleach, with the rest we have, so we can introduce it to the bog and fall, and edges, once we have got the fish back in, as we have a shortage of tubs, to bleach (peroxide) the stones in.
Just trying to focus on the fact that shortly we can fill it again, and then life will be a lot better!! It's that point when it is all completely dissembled, and you aren't sure you have done the right thing, and aren't sure how much longer it will take! We will sort the rockery and the boggy bit at our leisure, as it is not so urgent!
We will need to get the electrics sorted and make them safer, as have a lot of fieldmice in our garden (although they are deeply upset at being disposessed, when hedges cut back, and we have the Ivy being removed soon, so that is another hideyhole they loose. They keep squeaking really loudly at the moment, I am presuming they are all on a mass freakout!!! So noisy for such tiny creatures!!
Before we put the critters back in the pond, I will get pics of the fish and the baby frondy newts. They are awesome!
Fleeces drying on the lawn, so we can put them in the car and get rid of them!.
Big old piles of sand and gravel, at least it seems big when you shift it all by hand!!
As much sand as we could reasonable save was removed, this is a really fine coating, less than .5cm thick, but looks loads!!
The gully, filled with pebbles:
Putting in a little ledge under the bog, for creatures to bask, as have noticed the baby newts like to sun themselves, in the water, so want to make them a space that will be safe to just bask. The flowing water from the bog will be pretty slow, with all the gravel and plant roots, so it shouldn't be too traumatic, and they seemed to like to gather just near the bottom of the fall, anyway, so want to accommodate them! I hope they will find it. Might do a couple of other ledges around too, but a little higher, so they can't be reached by the fish...
I am hoping that eventually, it will look sort of similar to how it did before, but with more depth, and less algae and yuck over everything.... and also, will be putting some nice plants into the rockery, whilst making sure it is attractive, and also a nice environment for the toads, and newts too. But I think it will take a couple of years for everything to settle in and look good.... we shall see how it all goes! An adventure, to say the least! We always felt the original set up was pretty, but just not practical. No filter or anything, it was getting clogged, with what we now know as run off from the slope above, and without the filter, well, the algae and dead algae just kept going, despite all the water chemical levels being good, good bacteria etc. Shame really!
I will do the bog on Monday, when the weather is better....
