Pond Project Day 2

Well, day 2 of the pond project took place last weekend between the spring rain, a birthday party and finishing my taxes.  Day 2 consisted almost entirely of digging the hole for the preformed pond, leveling it and filling it with water as I back filled the hole with sand and dirt.  Leveling a 65 gallon pond form is pretty simple compared to larger ones.  I used a 3 foot level mounted on a 6 foot 2 x 4.  I checked the level is each direction at the different sides of the pond around the perimeter.

I made sure to have the top rim of the pond ~2 inches above ground level so rainwater will not flow directly into the pond.  It also allows for me to landscape and mulch around the pond with clearance so everything does not end up in the water.  Within a 2 hour period I had the right shaped hole dug (including root removal!), a nice sand base laid down, everything leveled and the hole back filled.  By the end of the 2 hours the pond was filled with water and I threw the pump in to get the water swirling.

I have a self-imposed week long wait period at this point.  There is a really good chance I’ll need to drain and adjust the leveling after setteling occurs.  The simple act of backfilling one side quicker or tighter than the other can be enough to throw off the level.  I’m type A enough to know that if this happens it will drive me insane- so I wait for the major settling to happen before I go any further.

Soon I’ll adjust the level and move on to finishing the area around the pond with landscaping (plants, rocks, waterfall), add some fish and water plants I rescued from the old pool and hard install the pump system.

Pond Project Day 1

As with any project I take on, day 1 is really just day 1 of work with many many days of thought and planning proceeding.  I’ve been wanting to deconstruct the rose garden in my yard, dig out the shallow, round pool in its center and put in a real pond for quite some time.  Also like many of my garden projects I’ve had a plan in my head with out everything quite worked out so I could be flexible and not drive myself crazy on the details.

For a few weeks my son and I have been scouring the garden centers looking at the different molded pond forms.  I decided a while ago to not use a flexible liner.  I have built a sizable pond for my parents using a molded form and was happy with the results.  I wanted a 60-100 gallon form with a few shelf areas for marginal, potted plants but was not set on a shape.  The little gardener and I were settled on the 70 gallon butterfly shaped pond form Lowes stocks this year.  Like most plans we have it was open to change- we made one last stop before heading to Lowes.  As we cruised the isles of Home Depot my little helper screamed “daddy what about that one?” while pointing to a huge white box on an upper shelf.  The box he had spied contained a 60 gallon pond “kit” with a pre-formed liner and a tiny pump with 2 nozzles.

The box was huge and had 2 years of dust and crud on it but the most interesting part of the box was the newly placed clearance tag offering the “kit” for $50.  SOLD!  We wrangled the box onto our cart, paid for it and squeezed it into our car.  We had to rip it out of that crusty box to fit in into our vehicle and son gardener was hugging it like a new puppy most of the way home.

To help understand the scale of the area pictured- the pool in the center surrounded by the monkey grass is 4 foot across.

I knew the most painful part of the project would be moving the 20+ mature rose plants to a new, suitable location.  Early spring was ticking away and the roses were starting to sprout early leaf buds so it was now or never.  I had already decided the roses were destine for the south-east side of the house that gets great sun- previous years tomatoes have excelled on the same track of garden.  Moving rose plants is not easy if done right.  I used a long, narrow full-size spade I inherited from my dad to dig around each rose base a full 1 1/2′ to 2′ around each plant.  I dug slightly larger holes in the rose’s new locations.  After replacing the soil around the roses I broke out the hose for soak time.  Its been my experience that this is the most important step in successful rose transplants.  I’ll be soaking then daily for the next week to make sure the roots are well packed in their new home.

One last step needed to be done before I ended for the day.  With my spade I carefully eased the blade between the existing pool and the dense monkey grass and pryde back to lift the pond from the ground.  It had been set there at least 3 years ago (probably many more) and fought to stay but broke loose.  I dragged it out of the garden as a symbolic gesture to indicate day 1 of the new pond project was over.  All of the roses have new homes and the site where the new water garden will be is getting closer to being workable.

Next- digging the hole for the new pond form and removing that hideous brick border.