My mini-pond pics and stories

[pondbuilder13]

looks great love the waterfall part looks like its leaking through the rocks like addy said


:lol:~marino~:lol:

 

[WolfStock]

Google "hypertufa planters." You will find lots of information on how to make custom planters in any shape you want. To fit into a place between the rocks, you could line the space with plastic, then press the hypertufa mixture onto the plastic with a dowel stuck in where you want a drainage hole. When the hypertufa is set, you pull the whole thing out and you have a custom planter.

Thanks for the tip! I might do that at some point. Initially I think I'm going to try some plastic liners in spots (e.g. see green one in place), and some wood in spots, lined with pond liner actually. However I may do hypertufa at some point.

 

[WolfStock]

Looking good there! Wolfstock, find each place it leaked and seal with one of the tube sealants that peeps talk about. Per your picture it looks like it went between some rocks. Love the look of it. You could use liner, but it would be hard to hide imho.

Thanks. I haven't looked into the tube sealants yet (is that like silicone caulk?), though after I sealed it with Sika the other day, it's doing much better now - I ran it for a few hours with no leakage, just some slight splashing but not much.

I do figure over time I may get occasional cracks, especially in winter with freezing, though hopefully can deal with them as they come, e.g. with caulk or more sealant.

Latest issue is trying to get the durn rocks that are mortared around the edges of the upper pool to "stick". After the initial mortaring, with mortar mostly just on the bottom (for appearance), any decent bump would cause them to break loose. What I've tried now is to actually drill some holes into the bottom of the rocks, so that the mortar will hopefully hold them in place better, and also mortaring more around the edges.

One thing coming up I'm concerned about is the splashing of the upper waterfall, once I get it going. The lower one already splashes a bit, with about a 12-inch drop. The upper one as is will probably have an 18-inch drop, and into a smaller pool, so I'm pretty sure I'll get significant splashout, when I do that part. You mentioned in your pond to cut back on splashing you added liner and rocks - did you actually add rocks to interrupt part of the fall - e.g. at an angle (so that the water falling lands on rock and then "slides" into the pool, rather than landing directly into the pool)? Seems like that might work, though might detract from the aesthetics.

 

[hewhoisatpeace]

Plumber's goop, from Lowe's or HD, will glue tile or rocks to a liner's EPDM vertical surface, dependably. It would probably hold your rocks in place, either that or PL roofing cement.

 

[WolfStock]

Plumber's goop, from Lowe's or HD, will glue tile or rocks to a liner's EPDM vertical surface, dependably. It would probably hold your rocks in place, either that or PL roofing cement.

Thanks!

 

[addy1]

You want to use pure silicone. Plumber goop, 5200 marine sealant, pl flashing sealant, have worked for me. PL roofing cement pulled right off my liner. I have also used pl premium construction glue, mainly to attach rocks, but it supposed to be water resistant.

 

[DrDave]

You can't beat urethane. Thats what holds windows in 100 story buildings year round in sub zero and 100+ weather.

 

[addy1]

You can't beat urethane. That what hold windows in 100 story buildings year round in sub zero and 100+ weather.

yep forgot to list urethane, we used it to install our large sun room windows.

 

[WolfStock]

Yeah I remember another thread now talking about urethane. Will have to check it out if this latest attempt doesn't work.

 

[WolfStock]

Slow progress. A bit more stonework, finally finished the main planter section (over the tunnel), and another plastic planter. It's running well from the upper pool now, without significant leakage or splashing. I should be able to start the waterwheel within 2-3 weeks.

On the left side I'm embedding another plastic planter - a round one. At some point I'll fill in the front one with a wood planter; not as much hurry on that since it's filled in all around (want to get the functional parts done first; aesthetics later).

I'm pondering what to do with the backside - want to plant something tall in there; maybe a tree or some kind of tall fern or something. I'm open to ideas - probably it'll happen next spring.

Gourd plant's still going nuts. There are a couple of large hourglass-shaped gourds growing on it now; I'll have to post pics later. I may try to make birdhouses out of them at some point - seems like something neat.

One thing I've been immensely disappointed in is the New Zealand Brass Buttons stuff I had planted (a "steppable" - almost like a fernlike grass). It started out great, but now is dying off, even after fertilizing. It seemed ideal for the main planter area, with perhaps some kind of sculpture/feature in the middle. Oh well, need to try something else.

 

[addy1]

It always takes time lots of time. Looking good there.

 

[WolfStock]

Some updates. Got the waterwheel kinda sorta finished and running...

I added backfacing fins - that definitely did the trick as far as making sure the wheel has enough constant pressure to make it flow smoothly. Actually though it does turn a bit too fast now - james how is it that you limited the speed on your wheel? I haven't really tried anything yet - I had applied some vaseline actually to make it turn smoothly; I think with some tweaking it'll be OK, but if you have any specific suggestions...

Pics of the initial test setup with kludged-together trough - it worked well actually, with the water flowing right into the center of the wheel. I then applied silicone caulk as a sealer for the water channel, both in the trough above the wheel and in the stream below. (Discussion on that in this thread: https://www.gardenpondforum.com/sealing-cement-t5439.html)

It worked great actually, except...

 

[WolfStock]

Now the water actually flows too fast, and when it hits the bottom of the trough it fans out and some of it goes onto the sides of the waterwheel.

Dang. Works kinda sorta, though needs some more tweaking.

 

[WolfStock]

One funny thing - there wasn't really a good way to get mortar underneath the lip of the upper pool - so I used some Great Stuff to fill it in. I know there's similar stuff specifically made for waterfalls, though none in area stores and I was anxious to get it done the other day, so went ahead and just used the regular stuff.

After it had expanded some and started to harden, I cut a bit off the edge. The inner part though was still gooey and expanding - and overnight it crept horizontally out and around the front of the wood trough! It ended up pretty funny looking.

Also - one pic of the whole setup in action, and also a pic of rock additions with a high-tech (ASCE-approved, I'm sure) support system.

 

[WolfStock]

Another thing I meant to mention - as it is the water trough is a bit too far back. When the water starts flowing onto the wheel, there's not enough on the downstream side of it to get it turning automatically - I have to nudge it.

It works great then all fine and good, problem is if I lose and then regain power when I'm not home I won't be there to nudge it, and it'll spill all over until the pond dries up. So another tweak I have to make is to extend the trough some. Oh well. Live, learn, tweak... repeat.