Reinventing my pond
- Thread starter Evguy1
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On the weekend I wanted to start to lay out the liner and had a couple of freinds over to see how much we could accomplish before putting out the call for more hands. On the bog I had figured out if I laid a piece of heavy plastic over the landscape cloth then the liner slides pretty easily. My neighbor has a commercial green house and we had replaced the heavy plastic on it last year. I borrowed a bunch of that and covered the fabric. The four of use managed to pull that liner out in 1/2 hr and once it was where I wanted it we easily pulled the plastic out from between the liner and underlay without disturbing anything. What I thought was a big bog at the back of the pond now looks tiny but I will extend it a few feet to the left as I had extra liner left on that end. Young Logan who gave us a hand with the liner is standing at about the 7 foot deep part.
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Nice! How are you going to set the boulders? The excavator looks pretty big—can it reach all the way across?
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No bolders on the far side. We could reach over the berm if I wanted a few but for the moment it will only be on three sides. I have some 18" ones to put along that side just to hold the liner in place. Smaller excavator coming to place the rocks in a few weeks. I'm too busy with other projects at the moment, just wanted to get the liner in before the rains came and delayed me yet another year. :>(
dustboy
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Wowza…go big or go home, eh?!? Love what you’ve done with the property.
Before you go cutting the liner I would surf you tube and look at beach areas or even just 6 inch deep areas where you can plants bog plants that like there feet wet but not the crown . Take my word for it these can be some crazy focal points. Wild life loves those areas more so than open water . Make I little channel through the area vary the depth . Get creative. Leaving a bald pond has its merits but think about deer a thick fabric layer with some rocks logs weighted down etc will give the fish breeding and hiding areas.
Where rocks/boulders are less practice do a sany beach but make a shelf to keep the sand from washing to the bottom
Where rocks/boulders are less practice do a sany beach but make a shelf to keep the sand from washing to the bottom
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Thanks GBBUDD I was not going to cut the liner till all the rocks were in as I'm sure it will move. Also was going to wait till it was full of water so I knew were high tide was and could adjust any low areas. We put the first rock in today as the excavator was leaving and the smaller machine we are going to use later on would not reach the bottom of the pond. There is a large raised pad at the far end of the pond that will be a Lilypad garden in plastic stock tanks? The end closest to where I'm standing to take the picture is shallow and could be a beach with a bit of a lip to retain the sand, I like that idea. I was going to build a bit of a dock at the shallow end as well. The next work will be plumbing the bog and filling it with drain rock and pee gravel. I can do that myself while I'm waiting for the rains to fill the pond.
Your going through all this work and your going to put lillies in a pot within the pond right ? I strongly suggest where u ou want lillies to dig out a depression under the liner so that your pot or oil pan or preform can sit in but the top will be flush with the bottom / liner it will look so much better not having pots sitting on the bottom of the pond it's one thing I would definately Chang e in a do over
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Thanks for the feedback, have to stick with pots for now. Just got back to the pond this week and got the rock retaining wall in along the slope side. Its not in the pond, the next row of rocks will be on the liner and hopefully in a few inches of water. The liner will come up between the two rows to keep surface water from washing into the pond. There is 6" of sand under the liner followed by a layer of Geotech fabric and anyplace I put a rock has a second layer of liner between it.
As far as the containers for the plants, how deep should the dirt be in them and any specific type of dirt?
As far as the containers for the plants, how deep should the dirt be in them and any specific type of dirt?
Your more the welcome to design and build your pond anyway you want. But there are some tricks we have learned that can save you a lot of money.
Instead of your line
R coming up between to rocks . One way that works so much better and even allows for evaporation ib to build a step all along the pond . Or at least where your thinking of two rocks to do the job . The idea is to have the one layer sitting on the shelf say 6 inches below the surface the rock sits on that. It the comes up higher than the outside grade where you take soil and create a berm again all the way around to prevent run off from getting in the pond.
Though it might seem like a lot of work to dig out the shelf for the rocks and the depression for the pots . Down the road once you see it else where you will probably have regret not having done so . The two rocks all the way around is very difficult having it not look like a string of pearls.
6 inches is all you need like a plastic oil pan etc
Instead of your line
R coming up between to rocks . One way that works so much better and even allows for evaporation ib to build a step all along the pond . Or at least where your thinking of two rocks to do the job . The idea is to have the one layer sitting on the shelf say 6 inches below the surface the rock sits on that. It the comes up higher than the outside grade where you take soil and create a berm again all the way around to prevent run off from getting in the pond.
Though it might seem like a lot of work to dig out the shelf for the rocks and the depression for the pots . Down the road once you see it else where you will probably have regret not having done so . The two rocks all the way around is very difficult having it not look like a string of pearls.
6 inches is all you need like a plastic oil pan etc
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Thanks for the input. The 2 rock thing is just on the one side where I need the added height due to the slope. The rest of the pond is just one rock high with the liner wrapped up behind the rocks and then backfilled. The pond is more of a holding pond in case of fire which we are seeing more of each year so aesthetics is not high on the list. :>) Our daughter's name is Pearl so a string of those would be OK. Its getting too cold to carry on for this year so its a spring project but at least it will get mostly full of water this winter.
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I have had my stream running for the last 4-5 years and last winter I added a bog filter. This is the first year that I have had string algae and it starts at the bog and is working its way down the stream. The pond at the bottom of the stream is still algae free but its headed that way. I thought the bog would clean the algae, not encourage it. The water is not flowing in the pic.
