Water Gardening: Small pond, 1 by missingrosie

missingrosie wrote:
Yes it is one long run (3- 5 feet wide perhaps narrowing and widening) ending in the large pond. Starts at the fountainhead where there is a small deep pool then the first waterfall immediately afterward. We just drilled a hole in a large flat flagstone and stood it up on end because I did not want to invest in statuary to serve as fountainhead ( no goddess pouring water from pitcher etc). Next a 6 foot run ( estimate) that curves 'round to run in front of the house with a bolder waterfall...then a looooooong run ( running the width of the front of the house ....( coming off the porch is where the walkway/bridge is over the stream) ...the water is rather calm there under that bridge -the channel narrows too .. ) then another pool and after that another bold waterfall then the large "supposed to be pondless" pond finishes it off.

No, the rocks don't move at all. The rocks that form the sides of the feature are very large boulders and they rest on NC red clay under the liner. My problem with rock displacement comes in the fall - I net the entire feature because of leaves...we live in the woods. We secure the net ( plastic bird netting) UNDER the top most rocks and then when we remove the netting come springtime we don't do a good job of placing back correctly and leave the liner exposed in areas. (I just blame it on the frogs eating the rocks!) Anyway, I think that is what happens. The neighbors huge dog also goes flying through there into the water when chasing deer and also the deer will try to break through the ice with a hoof in winter if we have had a bad (unusual) winter and they can displace rocks.
Sorry, I don't remember how thick the liner is. But there are lots of resources for do it yourself ponders with recommendations for thickness /specs. Important to excavate leaving no debris, roots, sharp stones. The river rocks that line the bottom of the long runs are 3-5 inch average and are very smooth. I put waders on and walk in there to clean - no punctures yet. I am ~ 133-135 pounds and I am stepping all in there. The pond itself (not the long runs) is jam filled with 5 inch black flexible plastic DRAINAGE tubing to take up space but yet allow for a reservoir of water to fill the tubing. Important to get the drainage tubing with holes ( not solid) because you want it to FILL/TAKE UP SPACE the huge pond excavation but still allow water to flow thru and around it. When it was "pondLESS" it was solidly filled with trash / concrete rock etc to fill the hole inexpensively and then top dressed with pretty river rock..... That all had to be emptied to give a large water reservoir to run the falls. A big mess. A MAJOR miscalculation that did not consider evaporation caused by the falls - MAJOR issue. You can't go pondLESS with long runs and falls.
So --- it is the liner (first) .....the plastic drainage tubing space filler (second)....plain old landscape fabric on top of the tubing to disguise it and to provide a solid base (third) for last component -- the river rock for esthetics. Those are the components of the large pond. The actual "run" containing the falls is a maybe 2-3 foot wide '50 foot long trench' containing a small deeper pool located right before each waterfall...all covered with the rubber liner and a layer of river rock at the channel bottom and bigger boulders forming the channel sides. The large pond is where the pump lives that sends water from the pond to the fountainhead. I think that answers your questions. We do not have naturally sloped land either and it is not needed. I don"t have many photos in IPAD but I will attach one where you can see that bridge better and I think it allows a view of how the channel goes into the larger pond. If you look at the photo of the large pond -- you can see an example of the drainage tubing because I took a spare piece and attached it to the gutter outflow to capture rain water for the pond. I think that plastic pipe goes a long way to protect the liner from punctures in the pond...it is not sharp..just all coiled up in there like intestines!! I do not walk much in the long runs -- but I think I could without a puncture risk since the river rocks are smooth. Sorry so long. Wanted to give Tropic an idea about construction and alleviate puncture and slope concerns. Apologies to all here for length since you likely know all this.

This message was edited Jun 25, 2013 12:41 AM