Here we go -- FINALLY! A pond for wildlife...
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You are right! But I need days in between to recover! (And do all the housework that inevitably falls by the wayside when I'm caught up in outdoor fun!)
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I never worry about housework very low on the priority list.
I am uncovering the pond so we can use the laser level tonight to determine water level. What a mess it all is! I need to blow out leaves. We have had probably 5 inches of rain in the last two days. Stuff is too gross to work with right now. Would anyone like to weigh in on the shelves? I did many stair step shelves on the sides - for stability and also getting in and out safely. I am wondering about the back end closest to the swings. I did a gradual shallow step arrangement, thinking about wildlife and having shallow areas for frogs and such. I am thinking I might not need such an extreme gradual set up. Like maybe I could go a little deeper down at that end and start with 1 foot at the shallowest. (For more water volume.) Thoughts? (I know the photos make it hard to see exactly what's going on. But hopefully you can see enough.)
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I like it!
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Looks great to me also.
Well, now that we've identified the problem... haha!
Looks great! Let's get that liner in and get us a POND!
I don't know if you saw my dilemma about concrete cloth, or doing a DIY version of it. That's where I am right now. Deciding. I know it would be helpful in deterring the chipmunks (and we have MANY) but it would also kind of limit flexibility (literal and figurative) in rock placement. I would kind of need to know what rocks go where and how I want to sit them - before putting down any concrete stuff. I don't know how well that would work. I like being able to pull the liner back and having the option to dig out a little dirt to help a rock settle in place - or adding dirt to help support it.
I am very excited to get to the creative part, though! SOON!
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If you overdig your waterfall area, you can always backfill your rocks inside the liner with gravel.
Because of the way I built the bog, I am sort of stuck with what I have. They are right next to each other with a dirt wall (dirt - aka - red clay like concrete) between them. So really, in this area, I guess it wouldn't matter if I used the cloth. I couldn't dig much there anyway. I would suspect this would also be the area that's really attractive real estate for the chipmunks.
This tells me maybe I should plan to do that high side and bog with the concrete cloth - either the real thing or the DIY version.
Hmmm - you may have helped me answer my question!
I'm not familiar with concrete cloth, but I know I've seen pond pros use a flexible fabric imbedded with metal to prevent rodents from chewing into liners. Maybe someone smarter than me will actually know what it's called.
HARDWARE CLOTH! That's the words I was looking for!
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Hardware cloth is just the metal mesh. I've not seen a product that is impregnated with that. Sounds like it could be a good alternative to concrete cloth if it's more easily available.
PROBLEM WITH HARDWARE CLOTH IS it has very thin wire evn galvanized it can rot out and then you have sharp points under a rubber or other material that equally doesn't like wire poking at it. CONCRETE CLOTH IS CAZY EXPENSIVE last i saw it it was 700 plus dollars for 30 feet x 3 feet Chipmunks do not hide there homes it's easy to see . that little hole in the ground. but i believe they like to burrow more in the woods or in rock walls. if you pay attention and mix up a little concrete you can make your falls water tight and rodent proof. 1400 bucks buys a lot of sakrete concrete mix to stuff into a water fall. there is also concrete board you could install against the bog wall protecting the liner and then start stacking the rocks against the board. While i'm not one to shy away from a product if it works it works regardless of the cost. but at 8 bucks a square foot that's not cheap stuff. thats 256 bucks for a sheet like plywood sized . 32 sf or use the concrete board or duro rock is only 14 bucks a sheet at 3 x 5. duro rock will bend and if you were place that against the soil you could use gorilla tape on the seams and then your fabric i'd think that would work just fine with some effort. My rodet population has droped since the pond went in my resident hawks have made this a regular dinning area