Progress on my Pond!

[CeeJayH]

Looks really good, and as the rocks naturalise with lichen and moss, and it can only get better.

 

[haver79]

Really neat and natural looking.

 

[Usman]

I'm trying hard to make it look as natural as possible, with native plants and local rocks. The pumice is from Mt. Mazama and the formation of Crater Lake. I may call this Mazama Spring. There are many real springs in this area, most form instant large streams or rivers.

hi sir , how did you join 2 streams , the screw trick failed? what was the new way can u explain

 

[Stephen T.]

The two pieces of pond liner, connected with screws and washers is working just fine. This is the forth pond I've built in the last 20 years and the first joint that has worked, aside from where there is a large drop to overlap them with no way it can leak.

 

[Usman]

waiting for new pics of full new stream

 

[Stephen T.]

We have winter biting at our heals! I probably won't get anything more done to it until spring. It holds water and the goldfish sure do like to hang out there. It won't be long before the small outlet stream is frozen solid. No ice yet, but we've had a warm fall so far. We may get snow in a few days, something like a 60% chance.

 

[sissy]

So far no frost here and I already told winter he is not welcome .I do want rain .

 

[Stephen T.]

We're still getting nice days, but... Snow is predicted starting Wednesday. It might not stick yet. It's been really good weather, although we have had a few nights in the low 20s.

My work has been on the greenhouse lately, trying to make it so I can grow year round. As you know, I sunk it 42" into the ground. Now I'm working on the wall between greenhouse and sauna. It's about 2' thick, a hollow space of shelves with 130 gallon milk jugs filled with water. It's heavily insulated, (what I'm doing now). There are vents on the sauna side, top and bottom, that can be opened after a sauna, to heat the water. I am putting a 6" vent pipe opening on the top in the greenhouse and small vents across the bottom. There'll be 6" flex pipe down to the floor, with a vent fan attached to suck hot air and blow it across the greenhouse floor. I'll have a thermostat to start the fan when the air temp drops below 45. The greenhouse area is 10x13 and the transparent walls are double insulated.

I will have to use some supplemental light to give enough on dark days and to extend the daylight to 14 or so hours on the plants. I am pretty sure that we'll do fine with lettuce, carrots and radishes. We'll see about things like tomatoes. This is still in the experimental stage. It may be a bit challenging when the temps drop into the -20 range!

 

[Stephen T.]

It's so nice out! Now that things have fully thawed and spring has really got in gear, I've made some progress. First, my bog filter is working great and growing like mad. So far, my water is staying crystal clear. Compare this to the photo earlier in this thread, the plants are now bursting at the seams!

These are all native plants from local wetlands on ranches, where the cattle will trash most anyway. You can barely see the mares tail, lower to middle left. The rest I haven't identified, it will be easier when they flower.

The end of my lower stream is "embedded" but not connected to a lower bog or "rain garden", which should hide the abrupt end completely as it fills in with a variety of wetland plants with bulrushes and cattails at the right (west) side, which will block the view of the neighbors. It also will absorb any overflows from the pond after heavy rains (rare here except for thunderstorms).

 

[DutchMuch]

Its to good...
I cant look!!!!
ya nvm, I can

 

[CeeJayH]

Looking good Stephen

 

[Stephen T.]

Here's last year, with the bog just planted.

And now that things are established,

This is a modified bog/filter, with 2/3rd of the water bubbling up at the surface to imitate a spring. 1/3 goes under the gravel base. I also put heavy weed barrier with slits on top of the gravel, then 2" of coconut fiber and some rotten wood/bark. The understory looks much better this way and if need be, I can separate the organic matter from the gravel. So far it's working great. My water stays crystal clear.

 

[addy1]

great change!

 

[CeeJayH]

Looks great Stephen., glad it's working.

 

[Stephen T.]

It's exciting to have clear water! I never saw the fish last year, after early spring. This year I can't see the bog surface, it's really thick in there, with several plants blooming. On the other hand, the fish, frogs and tadpoles, along with lots of little water bugs are crystal clear.