I thought I'd try to post some pictures of my now partially disassembled first pond. Last year I built a raised garden bed and part of it contained my 225 gallon preformed pond. I had the water pumped into the bottom of a small veggie filter pool. It then traveled down a little stream and into the pond. These pictures (should they appear!) were taken about two months after the pond and garden bed were completed - or at least as far as they were going to be completed for Phase 1. ;) I've now decided to re-work the area and increase the pond size by using a flexible liner. I'll be able to make it bigger and deeper. Yippee!

First picture shows view from the filter pool down the stream into the pond.



Looking in the opposite direction.



Tiny waterfall



My fish. One comet is camera shy; I have two comets and two shubunkins. The stringy looking things are the reflection of a corkscrew rush.



Small filter pool



One last picture - I couldn't leave out my fish stalking Border Collie, Zoe. :)



I have more pictures, but I don't want to put any more into this post. If you'd like to see the rest of the pictures, they are at my webshots account. I think this link will get you directly to my pond album: http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/563611610ngPgrK

Donna

WOW! I love it!! B) B)
Good job!

Tia

Wow Donna! That stream is what I'll have in mind when I'm making mine over the next few weeks. It looks perfect.

You soo make me jealous, I can't believe how lush and green everything is. I'm in the desert and am not looking forward to trying to baby plants all throughout the year.

Donna, is that creeping jenny in the 3rd pic down?

Beautiful work! :D

Thanks Linda....of course, my stream is only about 3 feet long. :) And it did develop a leak toward the end of the summer as the soil around it settled. Easy enough to fix, though. There was a lot of trial and error involved in building the pond/stream. I think I enjoyed every minute; the payoff is amazingly worth it! I only wish I had found this forum last year. Everyone here is so helpful.

Donna

Thank you all for your nice comments.

For tlc - yes, that is creeping jenny. I had some in a pot in the water, where it did grow, but I think it's much prettier crawling along the ground and draping into the water. It's quite "enthusiastic" :o , though, so you may have to pull some out when it gets out of hand. I think I'll use it again around my new pond because I love the bright green against the other darker leaved plants.

Donna

Beautiful pond. Nice fish stalking Border Collie too.

Donna, you aren't digging this pond all up are you :o :o How are you going to make it bigger? Are you going to add on, or disturb what you have?? I think it is beautiful. I too am jealous of the lush green plants! Thanks for posting the pic's!

I agree with KK; the pond is too beautiful to destroy in order to make a bigger pond! It's too bad you can't just make another pond. You do need more than one!

I can't resist. Now that I've figured out posting pictures, here's a closer shot of her obsessing. The last one, I promise.



Donna

Cute pooch! :)

KK and Robyn - yes, I really am re-doing it. I have to admit that if I'd come across these pictures before I started dismantling it, I might have thought again. :o

There are a few of reasons for the change. First of all, the rigid liner settled out of level despite the fact that I worked hard to make sure that it didn't. I think that's a big downside of rigid liners. It's hard enough to hide the liner, but if it's not level it's really obvious. At least to me. Enough to drive me crazy. So, at the very least, I would have had to lift and re-level it.

Second, it's only 18' deep and has huge plant shelves, so the deeper section is not very big at all. I took the chance and left the fish in there this winter, even though the local pond store advised me against it. They said it would freeze solid. I did have a de-icer in it, and with our mild winter this year they did fine. It never came close to freezing solid. But I'm not sure how they would have fared in a colder winter, especially given that it's only partially buried in the ground. It's in a raised bed. With a flexible liner, I can have at least part of the pond at 24" or maybe even 30" and really increase the volume of water. I think that will give me peace of mind come winter. Plus, eliminating the plant shelves will help keep the dog out of the pond.

Third, and not least, is the fact that it's directly under two huge silver maple weeds....oops, I mean trees. :) Silver maples pretty much spend all of their time dropping various bits of themselves year round. But, I wanted the pond to be where I'd enjoy it the most, so under the tree it went. So, I really, really want a skimmer, which wouldn't work in my current set-up.

Fourth (is anyone still reading?) I love gardening in general, and decided to increase the size of the whole raised bed, thereby making room for a bigger pond. I don't mind redoing the plantings at all. That's the fun part for me, especially since they thrive in the topsoil/compost mix that we put in the bed.

My only regret, so far anyway, is that I'm not sure if I'll end up with my little stream again (string algae magnet that it was). I may just go for a slightly larger waterfall. Not large at all, just a bit more than the tiny one I had. I like soft water noises, and I don't want it to be out of proportion to the whole garden area.

Anyway, those are my thoughts about the whole thing. I've already moved most of the plants and the small pool and stream are gone. I've taken off all of the pond edging and have roughly mapped out the new bed boundaries. Tomorrow I'll order the landscape block to build the new back of the raised bed. I'll also order my liner and skimmer and keep thinking about the final design.

To end on a fun, fishy note. I noticed that within the last week or so, some of the baby fish from last year are starting to hang around with my four big ones. Today, for the first time, one of the little guys ate a piece of fish kibble! For some reason, that just about made my day. :D If anyone will understand the joy, you guys will!!

Donna

Hi Donna,
I re-did my pond for the same reasons as your #'s 1 & 2. I didn't put a skimmer in our pond, but sort of wish I had. We get a lot of wind here, and with the new construction site 1/2 a block away we've been getting a lot of dust blown in.
Our original pre-form pond was also out of level .... very frustrating.
The 18" depth made it easy pickings for predators ... and the temperature control reason too.

You did such a good job with the original pond that I'm sure the one you are working towards now will be as nice ... or better!

Nice pictures! I like your dog's markings.

It is fun to watch the new ones start to mingle and mix it up with the elders! ^_^

PG

Hi Donna, well as sad as it is to see that beautiful little pond go, lol, I am sure since you built one beauty that the new improved model will be just as nice! You have good arguments for needing a bigger pond! Beautiful markings your doggy has! It looks like a lightning bolt on her face, and she definatly looks ready to do some fish wrangling ;)

I took some pictures today to document the destruction of my current pond. It doesn't look anything like the pictures of it from last year. :o It was good to find out that Pool Guy did the same thing for some of the same reasons!

This shows all of the edging removed. The small pool and stream are gone, as is the rear wall of landscape block. You can see the the corner of the pond in the lower left is now lower than the rest of the pond. It sunk by about two inches.


The remains of the pool and stream. The plants have all been moved to the main pond with absolutely no rhyme or reason.


The rear wall removed. The line of block on the ground is the approximate new wall location.


View from above. Shows the new rear wall. The green bucket behind the tall grass will probably be the waterfall location.


Everything is mess at the moment, but my fish seem healthy and happy and my water is clear! I should get the block for the retaining wall next week sometime and then the real fun starts. :(

Donna

Donna,
Thanks for the pics. We're getting more and more great ideas!