My Next Project (THIS ONE IS BIG!!!)

[ROW FISH]

I have been planning this project at my parents house for 2 months now and I am finally doing it this weekend. My father is out of town on a business trip and my mother will be joining him tomorrow. I have convinced my mother to let me landscape an area of there backyard as a surprise for my dad. What neither of them realize is that they will be getting a large water feature. Which they have talked about for at least the past 10 years.

After building 2 ponds and landscaping my own yard I finally feel confident that I can do a good job for them. The plan as of now is to have a pointless water feature with a rock waterfall, an urn, a stream bed, and a bubbling rock or two. I have all supplies ordered and on hand. All that's left is to visit the rock yard tomorrow to pick out stone.

Here are some current pictures of the area.

 

[ROW FISH]

Supplies ready to be packed up

5

 

[j.w]

Wow so nice of you and do we get to see you doing this in action? Hope so! Sounds like it will be very nice.

 

[Lisak1]

Can't wait to see how this turns out for you and your parents!

 

[ROW FISH]

I'll do my best to take pictures during the build and potentially post durring breaks.

 

[j.w]

Pinky swear? LOL!

 

[Tara]

What a great present to give, hope you get a picture of their reaction, looking forward to the finished water feature.

 

[GBBUDD]

Good luck, I hope you have taken all the roots your going to encounter into your plans

 

[addy1]

How neat! You need to have them blindfolded and do a reveal while filming of course!

Good luck on your weekend build!

 

[sissy]

WOW your are a great son and if I lived close I would come help you .This is the perfect surprise and you will need to show all the build and the surprise reveal .I would love to see their faces

 

[ROW FISH]

Good luck, I hope you have taken all the roots your going to encounter into your plans

Yes I plan on roots being the biggest issue. My Dad LOVES his trees so removing large roots is not an option. Thankfully the area is already sunken in a good 4-6 inches and I dont plan on digging in much more than that it the area. This is not a pond but a water feature with a steam bed. So I am not overly concerned around the larger tree. However I will be installing a basin for approximately 80 gallons of water to be stored. This is where the roots will come into play. The block media will be made of some vintage milk crates from my grandparents house. They are supper thick and strong plastic and should work great. Using these individual crates will hopefully give me more flexibility on the shape of the basin to work around large roots if needed.

We shall find out on Saturday.

 

[sissy]

you have it all planned out so success is there

 

[ROW FISH]

Rock have been delivered. Total order was 3,250 lbs of moss rock, 1,700 lbs of Colorado river stone, 6 cubic yards of garden soil, and 2 cubic yards of hardwood mulch. Will also be stopping by today to pick up a half a dozen buckets of sand as well.

I also made the first trip to the nursery and purchased $200 of plants for landscaping. I'll make another trip today and then one more Saturday afternoon.

 

[Gemma]

Can't wait to see the finished product and to hear about dad's surprised reaction

y

 

[addy1]

We are cheering you on!

 

[ROW FISH]

All the plants are ready. Digging starts at 7AM tomorrow!

 

[j.w]

Lots of nice plants and it's gonna be wonderful!

 

[ROW FISH]

Well my parents come home in 4 hours and this is our current progress. Rain and heavy rocks have made things difficult. We were however able to finish 2 of the large flower beds and my mom's herb garden. I may be taking off of work tomorrow to finish things up.

 

[CometKeith]

Very nice progress so far! I would recommend to take your time and if it is not done by the time they get back they will be thrilled and rooting you on!

 

[ROW FISH]

Update:

This project has definitely had its challenges. There has yet to be a day that I have worked on this without it raining for at least an hour. The weather has been a constant issue and has slowed things down considerably. Another unforeseen complication is an unforeseen back injury the 2nd day into the project. I have had back issues for the past decade however this was a new symptom of a new issue that I am now having to treat very diligently. Luckily all of the heavy rock and digging had been completed prior to the injury. I have worked on and off for the past week a few day here and there to finish it up and I finally got it presentable yesterday. It was however dark when I completed it so no pictures yet. I will be over at the house tomorrow evening to finish up the electrical work and a few finishing touches. I will get some pictures to post then.

Unfortunately, I did not get nearly as many project pictures as I would have liked due to the slow progress, press for time, and mostly extremely wet and muddy conditions.

The project has turned out wonderfully though and my parents are very happy with it. Hope to get yall pictures tomorrow.