Hi Guys,
New to the forum, and I've already been poring over the posts. Lots of knowledge on here!
Here's a little backstory: my wife and I bought an old house (1910) about 6 years ago. There has always been a spot in the back yard that never drained well, despite the fact that we're fairly close to the shoreline and our sandy soil drains well everywhere else. Around this spot was what I always thought was a concrete 'curb', sort of a border for a planting area. I never really thought much of it, but I was always curious. Unfortunately, that entire area was constantly overrun by poison everything and so my excavation project was always put on the back burner, until this year. After the snow melted and before everything started growing, I got my shovel out and started digging, and this is what I found.
Sure enough, its all topsoil/fill, not like the soil on the rest of my property. Also, there were plenty of old plastic tags for juniper and azaleas, so someone deliberately filled this in to use as a planter. (And then promptly forgot about everything they planted there) I haven't actually measured it, but I would say its about 3' x 6'. I dug down one side to about 3', where the topsoil turned into sand, so I assume the bottom isn't much farther. Still, I haven't reached the bottom yet. I began to wonder what the original purpose of this structure was. Could it have actually been a lily pond in a former life? The wheels began turning. The house certainly isn't anything fancy, and a lily pond seems to be a bit extravagant for this piece of property. I guess we'll never know.
A few weeks later, I went at it some more with the shovel, determined to turn this thing into more than just a mosquito hatchery. Along the way I found a couple boulders buried, so I artfully arranged them by tossing them back in.
In the intervening weeks, I've been enjoying watching the birds flap around in the water and hang out on the rocks, though I wanted more! I had a couple days off last week, so a trip to the local garden center netted me a Texas Dawn lily, a Pickerel rush, and a handful of water lettuce and water hyacinth. I managed to dig it a little deeper while still full of water to depth of about 12-18", and put my plants in. Looks pretty decent, I think, especially considering where I started with a mud puddle.
So that's the back story. Now, I need some advice. What should I do with this? I know that a good start would be to drain the water and complete the excavation. But what then? I love the idea of having a water garden, but I'd also love for it to have frogs, turtles, etc. Pump? Waterfall? Fountain? Shelf/beach? Lose the boulders? There isn't power back there, but maybe a small solar deal would be enough to keep the environment healthy? What would you do if it was yours? I'm open to all suggestions. Thanks for looking!
New to the forum, and I've already been poring over the posts. Lots of knowledge on here!
Here's a little backstory: my wife and I bought an old house (1910) about 6 years ago. There has always been a spot in the back yard that never drained well, despite the fact that we're fairly close to the shoreline and our sandy soil drains well everywhere else. Around this spot was what I always thought was a concrete 'curb', sort of a border for a planting area. I never really thought much of it, but I was always curious. Unfortunately, that entire area was constantly overrun by poison everything and so my excavation project was always put on the back burner, until this year. After the snow melted and before everything started growing, I got my shovel out and started digging, and this is what I found.
Sure enough, its all topsoil/fill, not like the soil on the rest of my property. Also, there were plenty of old plastic tags for juniper and azaleas, so someone deliberately filled this in to use as a planter. (And then promptly forgot about everything they planted there) I haven't actually measured it, but I would say its about 3' x 6'. I dug down one side to about 3', where the topsoil turned into sand, so I assume the bottom isn't much farther. Still, I haven't reached the bottom yet. I began to wonder what the original purpose of this structure was. Could it have actually been a lily pond in a former life? The wheels began turning. The house certainly isn't anything fancy, and a lily pond seems to be a bit extravagant for this piece of property. I guess we'll never know.
A few weeks later, I went at it some more with the shovel, determined to turn this thing into more than just a mosquito hatchery. Along the way I found a couple boulders buried, so I artfully arranged them by tossing them back in.
In the intervening weeks, I've been enjoying watching the birds flap around in the water and hang out on the rocks, though I wanted more! I had a couple days off last week, so a trip to the local garden center netted me a Texas Dawn lily, a Pickerel rush, and a handful of water lettuce and water hyacinth. I managed to dig it a little deeper while still full of water to depth of about 12-18", and put my plants in. Looks pretty decent, I think, especially considering where I started with a mud puddle.
So that's the back story. Now, I need some advice. What should I do with this? I know that a good start would be to drain the water and complete the excavation. But what then? I love the idea of having a water garden, but I'd also love for it to have frogs, turtles, etc. Pump? Waterfall? Fountain? Shelf/beach? Lose the boulders? There isn't power back there, but maybe a small solar deal would be enough to keep the environment healthy? What would you do if it was yours? I'm open to all suggestions. Thanks for looking!
