Waters_I_F
Welcome aboard. Do you have any pictures? How deep is your pond? How do you winter it over?
I bet it's lovely
Jeri
How many ponders are out there ?? List your names - Update!
DH has just started our pond - it's his project, but I have final say on the plants! It's meant to be a natural pond, no pump or waterfall (I know, I know...). He had one in England, but then he wasn't dealing with the sun exposure this one will have. We've visited a local nursery that has similar ponds and they use valesneria for oxygenating their ponds - has anyone used this? Their ponds are lovely so we are hoping to get some plants there and a little advice, too.
At any rate, we planted some native rushes a couple of days ago to christen it - we had a plant that was overgrown in another area, so we split some off. The slope on the left hand side of the pond will be planted in native roses to form a thicket. We want to keep things relatively low on the other side so we can see what's going on from the house.
Glad there are lots of ponders here at Dave's, we'll probably be crying for help soon!
Cheers,
Kathleen
Looks like you have a great area and loads of room to begin the project. I would definately re-think the pump though. You can make your own filter to circulate it through for very little cost.
I keep trying, Sheila, but he's adamant. There is no power out there and he doesn't want to deal with it, plus he really does want it to be a still pond. I see trouble ahead, but I've been wrong before! :-) Definitely have a lot of room - we thought this would use some of it up.
Kathleen
You can count us in. We have a couple of ponds and a stream, all HOME-MADE so to speak. Done well so far with fish, plants including LOTUS, which seems strange here in the winter wasteland of Syracuse, NY.
Welcome to Dave's Waters! Pictures when you can please. Lotus up there would be strange indeed. We did our own ponds also, but as we get older, we may need to get help down the road. Still glad we put them in.
I have several ponds on my property plus a 1/2 acre one just below my property that BLM owns but we have use of. One of my ponds & the largest is just a dirt bottom pond. We had a bog there & you couldn't mow or keep the grass looking decent, so a friend was practicing with a backhoe & came over & dug this bog out. It has 5 springs that keep it full year round. Here is a pic of it as we were digging, It took 2 days to dig, as the operator had to do it after his work day ended.
The springs did this much water in about 3 hours, this was the second day digging, It had completely filled in 5 days. Now over a year later it has lots of gold fish & 2 Koi in there. I do a pic of this last summer too.
Here is a pic of what it looked like this last summer. Only a few of the plants are actually "planted" in the bottom, the rest are in pots. I was told they would really get out of hand in the mud. There are some bullfrogs in there too, luckily they are smaller than the fish.
I also have a small stream running on the outside edge of our property, I move it about in the summer. It runs in a small ditch that goes through my lower yard. I have a nice sized pool on the stream. It is one of my favorite spots to sit in the evening. Only water skippers in there the fish always head down stream, so stopped trying to have fish in there. Here's a pic of it before I enlarged it. It does fill with DG after a couple of years, so I have to dig it out. This last year I made it much bigger when I cleaned it out! I have a small Kubota tractor with a backhoe so it makes playing in the yard that much more fun! The lg plant is a Ligularia, there in a couple of Cardinal flower plants in there & some other natural water plants from our area . It is mostly shady so not a lot of plants like it there.There is a bench to the left above the Ligularia (out of sight) . My dog loves to chase water skippers in here.
This is the "hole" that will become an actual Koi (or Trout) pond this spring. I have the liner & underlayment but the winter caught us before we were ready so the pond still sits as a hole!
A friend of mine said he'd put trout in it because it will be fed from our stream (fresh water) & they might do better than Koi would. The stream stays very cold all year. Trout are not as colorful as Koi but if they will do better, heck, I like fried trout! Not too sure about fried Koi! Yuck!
There are a few other water features on our property, just 1/10th under 4 acres, all are gravity flow from the stream, no pumps here! It makes it fun to play with, & all of the "moved" water returns eventually, to the large BLM pond (next Pic) below us, then back into the stream from there. I do have reparian rights to the stream. No one uses it below me tho, that is a shame as it is a nice clear stream. There is one pond about a mile down stream from me but they don't keep it up.
Last is a pic of that BLM pond, it is so pretty down there. We have a gate through our fence to go there. For a while we even had a small rowboat in there. But removed it when some kids from the neighborhood below us kept playing with it. We kept it locked to a tree but they still took the oars & turned it over to fill with rain, so we just pulled it home. (I think that is the boat in this pic.)
There is a lot of water in our area, lots of springs. I use the stream to water my Veggie garden & some of it runs under ground, so some of the stuff I don't even have to water. Sort of hydroponic growing. I never watered my tomatoes, squash or peppers the whole summer. I water when I plant them & I have to water seeds until they get lg. enough to reach the underground water. Shallower stuff like herbs still need water which comes gravity flow through a hose planted up stream. Sort of a country water works park!
Love looking at all the ponds, this was a great thread to start. Bj
I also have a pond. I tried the preformed ones with no luck. They just kept caving in and I jwanted one larger. We used a pond kit for our front yard with koi and goldfish and we keep the waterfall running all year. We put a small one in the backyard for flowers from a clearance flexible liner for under $50.00, put a little waterfall pump in there and it's almost as nice as the larger one. (Plans of course, to make it larger!) I believe there is no greater serenity after a hard day than the sound of the water and gracefulness of our fish. Our pond is all natuaral and our granddaughter sits on the edge and lets the fish nibble her toes!
This thread is so inspiring! Great resource - I'll be referring back to these gorgeous ponds often as I'm building my own. My courtyard re-design project is now officially under way and includes a small pond. This is what it looked like yesterday. It will include a weeping Japanese Maple and a small boulder. I'm tracking it's progress here http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/695809/. I welcome input from those more experienced.
Debra
Hi, - I've been a DG member for a year, but overlooked this thread until today. I'm a fairly new, but passionate ponder - having built my ponds and stream in May, 2005. My brothers and I built it with 45 EPDM liner. The falls is 7' high and 4' wide, and was built with the soil taken from the bottom pond. The top pond is 8' by 10', and 2 feet deep. It spills into a stream that is 65' long and 5' wide, with 3 levels so that when the pump is turned off, each level is an independent unit. The stream turns at a 45 degree angle at about the half way mark, and is about 6" deep except for the water holding depression just under each falls. The bottom pond is 18' in diameter and has three levels, with the deepest at 4'. All together the feature equals 7,000 gallons. There are two pumps - one for the falls - 3,600 gph, and one for the bottom pond and streams - 5,000 gph. I have the largest savio skimmer/filter with two UV filters. I have about 60 goldfish (I plan to give away about 50 of them this year) and 8 koi, which are just one year old. The largest is about 1 foot long. I must say that I LOVE my pond - don't know what I ever did before - I could just sit and commune with nature forever, but, of course, I spend most of my time puttering, cleaning, and maintaining. Here are five pictures from last year -
First, the top falls in May 2006.
The top stream in late September -
The mid-stream to the bridge, same date -
Wow! That is really beautiful! Nice job!
The bottom stream from bridge, same date -
Looking in the opposite direction, the bottom stream and bottom pond on Sept. 4, 2006 -
And finally, a pic of the fish in Sept. in the bottom pond. I will be moving the goldfish to the top pond this year, and keeping the Koi in the bottom pond. - Thanks for letting me share - Dax
That is your first pond? You were certainly ambitious - and incredibly successful. How long did it take you to build it?
Debra
Hi debra and brenb - Thanks for the kudos, I'll send them along to my brothers also. Both of them have worked in some type of construction for years and so in May, 2005, they both came for one week with all the equipment, and we put it together. I had done all the planning and had all the materials ready, and they brought the back hoe, skid loader, and construction knowledge. As my brother Jon, said, when I asked him about leakage, etc. - "All you need to know is that water always runs down hill, so just overlay the liner from the bottom up so there's no obstacles that make it go backwards." They also were the ones that made me put carpeting under and OVER the liner to protect it and make sure nothing could pierce it. Consequently, I thank them that I've never had a leak or puncture. Can you imagine how tough it would be locate it in all those sqare feet? A nightmare! Anyway, here they are relaxing after a day of hard work. I then built the gardens (and continue to) around the feature - I'm still puttering constantly, of course. Dax
Here's a view of the streams with the liner in, and the carpeting laid. The top stream and bog has the bottom pebbles in place.
That's incredible. Such beautiful, mature trees. Did the pond stress your trees any? Carpet below and above? I plan to carpet under my liner, but had not thought of carpeting on top of it. Do you just lay the carpet and cover with stone? Does the carpet not deteriorate in the water? It sounds like you did it right and should be able to enjoy your project for many years to come. I bet your neighbors tend to wander over and enjoy it, too? LOL!
Debra
Yes, that is true - we have regular visitors - from all around - and I enjoy it! Because it's a wildlife friendly pond, it has a walk down beach on one side. The best compliment I have ever received was from a mom whose 4 year old waded in with me and I showed him how to feed the fish. He was overjoyed - that was last summer and she told me he still talks about that neat place he went to where the fish nibbled at his toes.
I learned from my brother (in construction, he has had to dig around MANY trees) that if the trees are mature, as long as you don't disturb about 2/3 of the roots, they will adjust pretty easily. And that's happened at least twice in my beds where I needed to add some hardscape (I've got lots of mature trees). The trees you see are still very healthy.
I know lots of folks are leery about disturbing roots, but at least for lindens and oaks, they handle it well.
Also, yes, I put down the carpet, and then the rocks/pebbles directly on top. In the bottoms of the ponds, I don't have as many pebbles on the top of the carpet. My brother estimated that the carpeting would take about 10 years to gradually decompose, except that the pond naturally protects it with a coating of algae, sludge, etc. I was surprised that in looking at the bottom of the pond, after about 2 months you couldn't distinguish that the carpet was there (I did use fragments that were gray/black). It is clearly the best way to protect it from being punctured, and I can slog around cleaning etc. with no fear. I'm glad for my bro since NONE of the books I read about it talked about having that top layer, but when you think about it, it makes alot of sense - Dax
Maybe your brother should author a book about pond building. Sounds like he knows what he's talking about. Thanks again for sharing the great photos.
Debra
Dax080 you pond is great!!! Thanks for sharing your photos. Your plantings are bright and refreshing. That chair is so inviting. Makes you want to just linger a little bit longer.
Jeri
WOW what a thread and it's really gotten long.
Judy
We have two ponds - one larger one with fish and a smaller one above with a waterfall above. Here's a bullfrog sitting in the waterfall.
And here's the fish a couple of years ago.
here are my teeny ponds..2 preformed Lowe's specials...they have been there about 6 years now..i once had electricity but it conked out...now they have all natural pond weeds, tons of swordtails, a blue paradise fish...legions of frogs...and one very tame Southern water snake, that helps to keep the fish population down! I am pleased with the small size as i can personally keep an eye on plants, fish, snake, whatever! I do have to top up the ponds everyother week..(with dechlorinated water) All the water plants must be yanked occasionally as they take over the space! I get alot of pleasure and serenity from our hobby! thanks, sue
Here is the other one...there is a bog garden in the middle..these are more "water garden" than ponds..though both have tons of little fish! sue
The smaller of my two connected ponds has been drained and cleaned because of the Western Toads, They are talking/croaking loudly every evening . Mating and getting ready to lay eggs. As soon as the weather is warm enough we will clean the larger pool and repot the waterlilies. The fish think I should feed them every time they see me but the water isn't very warm.
Here is a picture from last summer.
Donna
I'm in but my pond is a major work in progress :)
We have had ours for five years and it is still work in progress! LOL!
I just finished setting up my new pond. It is driving me crazy not to be able to put much in it. I had a large pond in Louisiana and it was full of everything you could think of. I am renting now so could not dig a hole. This one isn't bad and will look much better when I get some more plants around it.
My pool is in this forum as I posted "On the shady side of the fish pool". But as I am a ponder, and have been for 15 or more years, figured I should add myself to this thread. Our pond has been in place since the early 1990s. It is actually the exhaust water from our water to air heat pump. We thought a fish pool would be better than just dumping water into the ditch out back. So Doug got out his trusty shovel. We had collected lots of rock on weekend trips above Clemson, SC while we were in school and afterwards. When we moved, we borrowed a stake body truck and our rocks came with us. We just did get the pool dug in time, those large edge stones are way beyond us now. We've since purchased flagstones and laid walkways, a sitting area, etc.
baagrant, very attractive pond. Is the bright green at lower left a kind of moss. Here in my harsh climate area, everything somewhat tender either dies over winter or has to be taken inside. In fact it is still too cold to put anything tender outside.
Donna
Hi new to this site. I have a pond with fish sort of. My husband told some of the elderly ladies from my garden club that I would adopt their fish when they decided to cover up their hugh pond. So one sat morning they called and we scrambled around trying to dig the hole, find the old water tank I was going to throw away because the bottom was out of it and couldn't water animals with it any more and then go get the fish and all the pumps and stuff before it got to hot. They did give us a big square pond to carry them in. All the time he was telling me its just a few fish, how many could they have. I wound up with 20 of vering sizes, I now have koy, shubumkin, butterfly gold fish and somen I don't know what they are and now they are having more. I'm giving some away tomorrow to a friend because my small take won't hold any more. I need help with getting the water to stay clear. I don't think we are pumping enough volume threw the filter. I'll try and get a picture of my not real fancy fish tank as my husband calls it. And my kids make fun of it because I had to put up a fence to keep the fish in and the dogs out and I built a shade over it. I am trying to start some plants around it and have water plants in the smaller ponds. I love seeing everyones that are all nice and designed. I may try some of the ideas around mine.
Welcome Susan505! We've all gone through trial and error with our ponds, so feel free to ask or discuss anything. Most times someone can answer something for you ahead of time and save you a lot of time and trouble before you take your next step. Post a picture, we'd love to see it!
:)