M
MariaTeresa
CountryEscape, you are right, I forget the the pond is rather bare at the moment but won't be for long. I'll just place a plant in front of the tubing!
I debated the planting shelves when I was planning. I made them on the deep side to discourage the raccoons, but because I wanted plants I knew I had to risk that they would climb in using the pots. I thought about floating the pots...that way they'd begin to sink if a coon stepped on one...but I couldn't think of a way to do it. Last year I used twine attached to the pots and then secured to rocks around the edging, but I learned that twine does not hold up in water. Maybe fishing line? The pots were still able to flip, but wouldn't sink to the bottom. I'm hopping that the coons got dumped into the water enough last year that they've decided to stay away.
Priscilla--I spent a lot of time figuring out how I wanted to do the edging. I really wanted a more natural looking pond that would blend in, but that would have given too easy access to the coons. Instead I used Pennsylvania field stone, piled two layers and then flipped the liner back over onto the second layer and added a third layer. This makes it so the water level is up above the first layers of rock. I like how it came out.
I spent a lot of time searching the internet for anything about using solar for a pond and found very very little...just those tiny solar fountains. Everywhere said that it couldn't be done. There are drawbacks: the solar panels don't exactly add to the appearance of the garden, the pump is half as powerful as it should be for the size of the pond, and using a bilge pump means replacing it every 3-6 months (although they are cheap). On the positive side, sunlight is free and usually abundant, there are no wires running through the garden that I have to watch out for, and it is was a lot of fun figuring out how to make it work!
I debated the planting shelves when I was planning. I made them on the deep side to discourage the raccoons, but because I wanted plants I knew I had to risk that they would climb in using the pots. I thought about floating the pots...that way they'd begin to sink if a coon stepped on one...but I couldn't think of a way to do it. Last year I used twine attached to the pots and then secured to rocks around the edging, but I learned that twine does not hold up in water. Maybe fishing line? The pots were still able to flip, but wouldn't sink to the bottom. I'm hopping that the coons got dumped into the water enough last year that they've decided to stay away.
Priscilla--I spent a lot of time figuring out how I wanted to do the edging. I really wanted a more natural looking pond that would blend in, but that would have given too easy access to the coons. Instead I used Pennsylvania field stone, piled two layers and then flipped the liner back over onto the second layer and added a third layer. This makes it so the water level is up above the first layers of rock. I like how it came out.
I spent a lot of time searching the internet for anything about using solar for a pond and found very very little...just those tiny solar fountains. Everywhere said that it couldn't be done. There are drawbacks: the solar panels don't exactly add to the appearance of the garden, the pump is half as powerful as it should be for the size of the pond, and using a bilge pump means replacing it every 3-6 months (although they are cheap). On the positive side, sunlight is free and usually abundant, there are no wires running through the garden that I have to watch out for, and it is was a lot of fun figuring out how to make it work!
