Pond Reconstruction Project (+ Bog)

[brokensword]

HEY @Duxwig ; where the HAYELL is our weekly video update!!!!!!


Sheesh! Gotta do ever thin mahself...

[Duxwig]

I’m still round just had vacation and then work craziness between another vacation but a staycation week watching the kids this time.
Had to get Arnie the auto mower back online and now looking to pond again. Need to plant a corkscrew rush.
Funds low for now so going into coast mode to prep non-water garden to plant in spring. Lots of frogs and snakes at the pond. Has been fun.

Made a small fabric box to contain the corkscrew for a season or two and making larger as it grows.

Started as bringing the stuff in the house.

2 hours later I threw the spaghetti at the wall with a spur of the moment design and sewed it up w fish line.
Good enough for a first test I think and will be easy to conceal. Going to use the heat gun to round the sharp zip ties a bit (and lock them in place).

[brokensword]

I’m still round just had vacation and then work craziness between another vacation but a staycation week watching the kids this time.
Had to get Arnie the auto mower back online and now looking to pond again. Need to plant a corkscrew rush.
Funds low for now so going into coast mode to prep non-water garden to plant in spring. Lots of frogs and snakes at the pond. Has been fun.

Made a small fabric box to contain the corkscrew for a season or two and making larger as it grows.

Started as bringing the stuff in the house.

2 hours later I threw the spaghetti at the wall with a spur of the moment design and sewed it up w fish line.
Good enough for a first test I think and will be easy to conceal. Going to use the heat gun to round the sharp zip ties a bit (and lock them in place).

Glad the Dux-zilla is back in action! Hope you all had a relaxing time! Summer is movin' on though, so git 'er done!

Are you doing this to hide any manufactured line if you'd just lined a milkcrate or plant pot? Otherwise, seems a lot of work to achieve similar results. You'll probably have to keep the bag tied fairly tight to the truck if you don't want any roots escaping, or have the top be just at the waterliine.

I tend to favor frogs and don't want any snakes around (and have since learned garter snakes can eat FISH! And do!), so glad I patched up any small hole in the perimeter of MY pondhouse!

Any 'dux' come by and take a swim in your pond, yet? Might not seeing as it's past nesting time...Have the kids been able to swim in the pond? As long as you don't have anything in yet, I'd let 'em loose!

heh heh

Welcome back DuxKing! er, wig!

[Duxwig]

Work has slowed down even w the past week off. Had the kids while wife was on a Las Vegas work trip. Money and time crunches w other house and life priorities. One kid killed his iPad in the rain.
Got our automower back from the shop and had to monkey w the wires which sapped two days. Had to take out two stumps in the garden area behind the pond. In process, found a ginormous ant hive which weren’t happy and ate my legs. I let them win for 10 mins, nuked them, then finished the stumps the next day.
Tonsssssssss of water wanting wasps have now come (I’m allergic) - Found a ground wasp nest and a second in-between walls of garage. Trying to nuke or caulk them in. Nuke didn’t work, caulk it will be.

Doing a mini reno of our front lawn so had to prep for that as this is KBG pre-germ week before throwing her down next weekend to meet frost deadline again.
Still trying to make time to do my capstone and finish school before 9/30.

Removed all the landscape rocks, relaid/added more flag steppers going around the pond which was a day process.
Feel I need 10 naps lol.

Feels like major pond work largely done in a lot of way and lots of tweaks still needed
Lots of rain over the week flooded the pond twice. Found some low areas I can fix pretty easy once I get an energy boost and time to backfill. Thankfully no water hippos w the weight of rocks but it had to have taken on a considerable amount with ~6 inches of rain total since last Sunday and lots of overflow time. Found areas the water was wicking up/out of fold creases with a vacuum effect I had to fix on other areas (somewhat fixed w normal water level).

Took down the log waterfall.
A majority of the log was out of the water. The non rain days were ~90s and wood dried out good. Seemed to be a bit more structurally compromised by this. Thought of the winter elements and organic already rotting issue- likely a quick matter of time before the log would give in so I just put the whole thing in the pond to preserve it longer hopefully (and wife liked it better in water for the animals). Think imma put a hole upright so I can put a plant growing out of it. Seems more sustainable.

Not sure of any fun effects to do w the second line yet without the mini log falls, may just leave it as an in-water churner until I think of something stable.
In its place’ish, I Took the large drift wood and laid like it fell in which the wild life and wife are seeming to enjoy.

Yes - Doing the homemade bags to conceal better in certain areas/contain. I measured the min water level, max water level, then made the first off those thoughts - even though the corkscrew probably would have been fine no matter.

Picked up some non hardy clearance plants. Two small things of blue Moneywort (all they had), a happy Cleo canna, golden variegated sweet flag, and some sunset loosestrife (never heard of before), and a hardy water iris. Really like the color of the blue Moneywort but going to need to baby inside over winter to reuse.

Current bog plants are doing so-so despite putting in some fert tabs.
Have two iris from our garden which seem to be trying to hang on but slowly fading with leaves falling over (but still green) so I zip tied them up. Thinking I didn’t dig deep enough for roots or tubers or whatever.
Wife’s sister gave us spider plants and wife wanted them in the bog. I yammed about the space for basically air plants but they went in. They actually started rooting super quick and moved them to various small rock pockets instead.

We had a small Hosta I transplanted into the far corner of the waterfall box to in hopes it grows over the box to conceal it. It’s acclimating hard and getting sun nuked so may need to get a SunPower variety next year.
The water iris had a nice tuber/rhizome base but was a bit root bound, some yellowing also but hoping it rebounds.
Creeping Jenny also trying to hang on but def not thriving like the banked/soil ones we have.
Everything in bog is free rooted vs bagged.

Hoping it’s all just part of the process. Guess it’s hard to take the transplant stress in 90 degree full Sun.
Water is still clear, rocks starting to build up a film of bacteria in pond but nothing really in bog yet.

Realizing I don’t have lots of free flowing water in various areas where I thought of plants going.
Stuck creeping Jenny open roots in a pocket but it was without water and it crooked fast enough with no-daily watering.

My solution will hopefully be custom sewn grow socks I can fill with litter to retain the moisture and allow me to stick in areas I wanted, without water reaching from the system, then just watering every day or two.

Turned system off and used an entire can of waterfall foam on the top left flag stone, first pool/flag drop, and two other areas. The last two worked as intended and just need rock work to help stuff along.
Lots of water rediverted to the right with the foam and cascading frontward (still). I’m still fine w the front chaos cascade since the second pool I’ve realized is tiny, doesn’t fit lots of rocks, and with the redirect, found a new gushing river between hidden rocks I can foam and redirect more appropriately.
Water pooling behind the first drop, but found a hole which is the easiest drop. Got two more cans of foam to play w another time.
Feel like I wasted some - was pushing it into creases once it had a skin cured, but skin cracked and found out it is largely just air inside as it expands - an ends up like a popped balloon of goo which the takes away the redirection aspect once popped, so I had to refill the spots.

Lowered the river banks as even w the overflow there was lots of height head- which means larger rocks which sapped the width for “rivering.” Lowering bank I can use small rocks and blend up better.
Need to create some steps on the right side to start rocking appropriately once the pool is working.

[brokensword]

Looking good, @Duxwig !! You've been pretty productive (and not just with pond stuff!), so good on ya!

As I was reading, first thought was 'and the tweaking begins!'. This is how you know you're officially a ponder, heh heh.

Can fish be far behind??? I don't think so...

[Duxwig]

Back but not lots of changes, but lots to do, probably just next year at this point. Wife took the purchase power away until next spring so it is where it is until next year. Lots of liner out, per the company, no worries as it’ll fray to show the age. Need to find a way to tuck the liner around the bog. I had it somewhat folded which created a suction with all the folds which siphoned a few inches overnight and I had to just put it straight up in the air so it didn’t leak. I have a feeling I’ll have a rock heavy edge to keep the liner where needed so doesn’t siphon.
Was cutting other side liner and accidentally made an edge too low and covered with rocks before I knew. Lost about 1/3 of the water overnight just with that ooops. Thought it was a major leak or bog. Took about 3 hours until I realized where it was hidden under the rocks.

Wife ended up throwing rocks randomly around edges at another point to “help”, I just had to shrug and redo it next year when I put plants in the edges. Still Need lots more 3-6” rocks for various areas. Have only big/small left. Prices went nuts though locally. It was running around $.15-.25 per 3-6” rock and with inflation it’s at $2 per rock now. I think I just need to head over to the lake and kindly “borrow” (until I’m dead) some freebies.
Have to move lots of rocks out of the bog/stream bed which aren’t meant to be there, but using as side weight to make the dirt compact where I filled in.
Lots of big rain storms (including another today with hail) so found lots of spots to build up with dirt, but dog keeps frog hunting and making it crumble inward faster. Tamping hasn’t help as much to keep compacted. The good- no hippos anywhere!


Dog is also being let into the pond while at work and has tipped over two of the lily and peat gravel top. Need to get that good ole pond vac I’ve been eyeing up to suck that crude back out.

Algae started about two weeks ago and I threw some bare root iris in to help out for the time being.
Haven’t spent tons of time on pond plants due to season and still a bit worried about how hardy the bog stuff will be. Thinking of sewing a hay cushion to put on top to help insulate a bit still.

Too much time spent on the garden as wife said she was overwhelmed and I’m at the helm. Had some irrigation snafus in the garden after removing a tree form of a dead lilac or hydrangea. Valve box under that rock in the video is still 4” under soil, no energy to try and raise it up and all the associated issues.

Plant wise I need to start making some winterizing plan for the pond regarding the canna, lilies, corkscrew, variegated sweet flag(forget if that’s hardy zone 5), non hardy loosestrife, and non-hardy blue moneywort as I have 0 intention of running the pond into freezing temps/on all year. Planning to drain and bringing in the non-hardy stuff. Have some hankering for a grow light for Xmas but maybe not needed.

I’ve been spending too much time online reading on perennials, looking at diff pix of them, varieties (mainly dwarfs due to size area), and going to local greenhouses for ideas of the in person. I’ve currently got 148 tabs open on my phone browser for plants in the main, and separate garden/pond phone tabs with another 56 and 24 respectively. Soooooo many plant things. Trying to angle mainly for perennials.
Trying to figure out growing heights of diff types/species so I can layer and not block the view from the house. Think I’m going away from the cardinal flower and cattails on the far side due to blocking the view. Thinking phlox, sea thrift, ground juniper, blue fescue, and dianthus close to the pond edge for low cover on the far side. Lots of sedums growing in again on the sides.
Wish there were a program I could superimpose/resize pics of plants to get an idea how I want to layer.

Planning to have the mentioned shortie globe dwarf spruce prob where sunflower are, but back middle, and a small smatter surrounding of small feather reed grasses.
Thinking of doing a mix of grasses and flowering perennials as the main theme, maybe a large(for me) rock accent or another drift wood. Rock probably be hard to see as it would have to be hand movable.
(Drawn pics just examples/though - not as planned, just the layering of grasses and flowers)






Went to the dog park and found lots of rotting lots and was able to peel off moss strips to try and establish on some of the rocks. Probably make the milk/moss slurry next year and see how it grows. Want some on the rocks in back in the walkway behind the pond again.

Used two cans of pond foam so far in some areas (mainly to the right while I’m still not happy with on flow/angle)
Still want some plants poking from the other circled areas in some deep cracks. Haven’t come up w much other than maybe more sweet flag for something small sturdy upright, and not bush to block the views. Thought of putting some foam at the bottom of the cracks to produce a “base” the water will run off of (instead of straight down) and allow plant to be higher than ground level trying to outgrow 12+” rocks.
Green = new moss(added after vid this morn)
Yellow = plant spot with some water running to it.


Capstone/degree program otherwise completed after a 40+ page paper, front grass dead zones all replanted and on their way, and lining up our roof replacement (another major hailstorm led to nearly everyone In our neighborhood getting new roofs). Still successful!





Winterizing and spring planning are my main worries right now.
I think I’m going to create a new thread for future posts as construction mainly done.

[j.w]

@Duxwig all is looking pretty darn good! You've accomplished a lot and too bad you can't just let it run all year round. Too many hard freezes? What state do you live in? Over here in the PNW I'm glad I don't have to shut mine down. Too much work for me to bring in the fish and all the plants. We don't get many freezes here. Pretty mild, thank Heavens!

[brokensword]

Winterizing and spring planning are my main worries right now.
I think I’m going to create a new thread for future posts as construction mainly done.

Overall, it looks nice! I'm liking your left water fall and can see on the left side some plants there would help soften. I don't know that you really need more rocks there (if I read your intent right), just add some soil between for some plants.

Re algae; you're GOING to get algae on the UW surfaces--it's natural and desired. Now, without fish to graze on it, it might get longish. But those UW surfaces and its algae will be part of your equilibrium so don't diss it! And once your lily pads fill in (and they will, probably more than you want based on what I saw in your video), it will curtail much of that UW aggressive growth.

Liner; ah, you should know that saying by now; 'NEVER cut your liner' but well, we'll send newbies to you for further explanation of that phrase, now won't we??? heh heh

The low growing plant scheme at the water's edge sounds good and you have a decent start on it.

Canna; yeah, planted a canna in my basement, was 8" tall when I put it outside and it ONLY bloomed the past couple of weeks, so slow growth and production here, too. If you want to save this, you trim it all down, put the tuber in a cool dry place for the winter, and take it out after frost is no longer a threat.

No doubt you'll be experimenting with plants over the next couple of years, finding out exactly which you like best and what works for your vision. But, that's part of the fun of ponding, imo.

Careful having that iris in your bog; some are really aggressive and can be a b*tch to extricate from the bog if you wait too long to do any thinning. I put my yellow flag in a garbage can so it can't do that.

Irrigation; been there done that! A few years ago, was noticing my front section with the two huge maples didn't seem to be spraying as far/much, so did some sleuthing and found the line which went around the one maple was being pinched by roots that were thickening and forcing the line up. Had to cut it off, put a new section in and re-connect to the downstream portion. That's what 30 years of tree growth near your sprinkler system will getcha!

Good to see your vid and pics, Dux; I think you've done a great job with the remodel! Should feel good about that and finishing your schooling! Gee, with all this free time now, whatcha gonna do??? Here's a tip; don't start looking at koi auctions...

heh heh

[Duxwig]

Been a busy summer and finally back with an update!

Things have moved along well.

Plants are all barefooted now with the exception of water lily. Just wedged them in and some have smaller .5-1” rocks under for a base. I can reach into all the areas to yank and monitor spread except the very bottom. I didn’t like the oil pans to hold the lilies and our dog kept knocking it over last year. I used leftover plexiglass to measure and design a trough that fit the exact dimensions of the bottom. Canna and lily overwintering went wrong, both rotted. Lily looked fine but planted in pan, in 8” of water under the grow light with weekly water changes - it just developed white mold under water and I bought two new plants. sweet flag and corkscrew did fine in the basement except when I overferted the corkscrew and killed it. Got two more fresh from the nursery.
With everything barefooted going to try leaving them in the pond as the great freeze comes. May devise a cover pillow for things like I did the bog to make sure we get through the first winter before just allowing nature to do it’s thing.

Ordered marsh marigold sprouts, arrowhead, various iris, diff version of sweet flag, pickerel weed, and micro mini cattails online. Marsh marigold didn’t grow well under the grow light setup in basement. Started the arrowhead, but didn’t take off until I actually put it in the pond. The micro mini cat tails are still trying to establish themselves. I ended up buying a large marsh marigold from the nursery, which worked much better for placement in the bog. Got our first lily flowers and high-fived.

Put pitcher plants and water cress in the bog, and more watercress in the stream. Iris in the middle of the pond got hit with some type of bug eating it but it’s bouncing back.

Had to adjust the flow to the bog and falls to slow bog and increase falls. Don’t like the right falls really. Messed with it earlier in the year for a more uniform fall but the rock/setup isn’t conducive and attempt 2 sucked also. A chipmunk has taken residence under the falls, in the open areas between cinderblocks. Wife is out of town later this month and I plan to break it down and use rocks for a small cascade effect instead.

Went through string algae and NPS at the beginning. Wife complained and gave lots of suggestions. My goal was patience. I had to clean it at the beginning but it quickly self corrected itself and through high 80/90 degree temps for long periods without shade didn’t do anything until I decided to fert tab all the plants at once. A week of algae and then back to normal. Did some wizardry for water lettuce in my area. Plants were horribly disfigured when I got them but are now starting to finally multiple. Had some kind of bad scavenger beetle infestation, seemed like they were eating the roots entirely off (not the leaves) and I was trying to quarantine the lettuce in a bucket but they started to fade due to the small space and heat. I decided to war with the beetles directly and put the water lettuce back in. Took out all dead plant parts I could find to limit their food. Twice daily took the lettuce out to prune 25-50 tiny ass beetles off them each time and smash them in my fingers, and daily scooping with a fine net. I won for now and they haven’t came back for a strong round two. Looked like the beetles hatch every 30-40 days so hoping I don’t see an uptick again.

Got 15 Japanese trap door snails from pond megastore for shits and giggles. They give birth to live young apparently and suggestively don’t multiple fast. I now have -at least- 200-300 snails in the pond now. Enough I thought they werent trapdoors, ate too much carpet algae, and possibly causesd a bloom (it was plants / fert, not them). I actually called pond megastore about the number of them and worry they sent some invasive snail. They confirmed they were just trap doors and number of them must have been pregnant when they sent. They’re not on any plants causing damage but they’re EVERYWHERE in the pond. Teeny tiny shells everywhere on the rocks.

Realized I need Sun patients and not inpatients based on the amount of Sun. Inpatients not doing well. Sunpatients doing fine.

Spent most of the spring and early summer amending the soil in the garden to be less dense clay, then planted after wiping it clean. Gardens are expensive.

Left the back of the bog liner exposed and some other areas as I was monitoring for leaks or issues. Thought I had a leak at the seam and went at it again w seam tape and marine sealant. Per my measuring rock, I had to do a 2-3 minute water fill every 4-5 days. It was WAY better than the first year hole-in-liner or last years drainage, but still annoying. It was hot AF, lots of falls splash, and bird baths galore made me think there wasnt an actual leak. Seam wasn’t the leak area. The other past leak area was the bog liner wicking up/out. (Which is why I had turned flow down). Confirmed no leaks on the bog.
Still lots of open liner spots and detail rock work, but I wasn’t going to do jack until I figured it out…at some future date. While weeding, I checked an area the sedum was growing over the rocks. Seemed really wet under. Found out one of the girls coverage rocks was too heavy, sagged the liner, and was leading to the leak. Additionally, the liner overall was lower than the intended water level. There was ALOT of water over the liner when full and the clay soil must have been at capacity so it pushed the water out some other areas first, then slowly accepted the over which is why it was such a slow drain.
Fixed that area and havent filled it for 2 weeks since water level has been entirely stable.

Still no fish, but lots of other wildlife were getting to know. Our snake friend is back. A turtle came for a bit. Our pair of duck came to chill for a few weeks. Mr woodchuck is still around. A baby otter appeared out of nowhere on my wife’s birthday (story in itself when she purposely opened the garage door…..and it ran in!). We were frogless for the longest time. Then came the chorus frog night and since a few leopard frogs have been relaxing.
There were sudden “algae bloom” looking areas in small contained circles a few days ago. I tried to scoop it up but it wasn’t budging. After watching the water realized they’re actually frog/toad eggs and we have tadpoles everywhere.
Also while scooping and cleaning found lots of dragonfly larvae (had no idea what they were to start, yikes).

Birds LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE the pond and bog. Plants and wood discouraged them from the bog for now but the log/cattail area is apparently the daily bath area. They literally line up on the fence and one by one hop down to flap and do a crazy bath. It’s all day long. Enough I thought they were affecting the water level.

Hopefully start on some detail work in the near future to keep making it better!

Thanks tons for all the advice and guidance. It really paid off I feel like.

[Duxwig]

[Duxwig]

[Duxwig]