Construction of our Garden Pond

Apr 1, 2015 Wed0
In June 2014 I took a week of vacation and was planning a trip to Ky to see the folks. Then someone shot the cat (again) and he could not travel so we decided to spend the week of vacation at home. Laurie has built a couple of garden ponds in her lifetime and I knew she wanted one. The 5 gallon bucket with two goldfish and a $10 pump on the deck was a pretty big hint. Her birthday was coming up and I always stress over what to get her so I told her we would build a garden pond for her birthday. I figured $500 and a couple of days would do it.

We had been toying with the idea for a couple of months after finishing a new deck. It did not seem like a big deal to dig a hole and fill it with water. And so this story begins....

If you are thinking about building a garden pond I hope this blog will help you. The first step is to decide what type of pond you want, how large and how much money you want to spend. A garden pond can be as simple or elaborate as you want. There is nothing wrong with the kits from Lowes but I knew I wanted something more. Use Google to see what other people have done. There is a lot of information out there. One series of videos that were a great help to us was by The Pond Digger. Be sure to watch all the videos.

Spend a lot of time thinking about where you are going to place the pond and how it will fit into your current landscape. Are there underground wires, water lines or septic tanks in the area? Do you want a waterfall, pools or streams? Will it be located where you can see it from the kitchen window? Or hear it at night with the windows open?

Jul 13, 2014 Sun 6:15:25 PM EDT

We changed our minds many times before deciding on a final plan. The plan continued to evolve even as we built the pond. We knew we wanted something that looked professional and seemed part of the landscape. We did not want a mount of dirt and rocks with water spewing out the top. With our pond we created a story to guide our plan. The story was we incorporated an existing natural spring and some man made rock walls into a garden pond.

I won't go into all the details of construction. The Pond Digger videos do a great job of that. I will just talk about our experience and things to consider that the videos may not make clear.

Have a plan before you begin. You can't just dig a hole in the ground. Determine where the water levels will be when the pond is full of water. We did all the digging by hand because we knew there were water lines, power lines and a septic tank we had to work around.

I bought a large 12x24 tarp and made a sun shelter over the area. I also had two window fans to create a breeze.

We decided to have an upper pool with a waterfall and a lower pool with waterfall. We used a skimmer box with the pump in the bottom of the skimmer. This keeps the pump along with its plumbing and wire out of the visible area of the pond. The skimmer is at the lower end of the pond so it creates a nice current across the entire pond. This causes leaves and floating debris to be captured by the skimmer instead of sinking to the bottom of the pond. It also creates a current in the pond so the water does not stagnate. The water is constantly being circulated to the upper falls, upper pool, lower falls, lower pool and back to the skimmer pump. This makes a healthy pond with lots of oxygenated water for the fish. And with proper placement of the rocks you don't see any of the hardware.

Jun 12, 2014 Thu 9:33:11 AM EDT Altitude: 400 ft Camera: iPhone 5s
The first load of rock my dear wife fell in love with.
Laurie
Rocks! You are going to need a lot of them. I think we used about ten tons of rock. You will need large "signature" rocks, flat rocks for the waterfalls, medium rocks for the pond walls and border, small rocks to scatter in the cracks and even stepping stones around the pond. Then you have to decide what type and color of rocks. The guys at Atlantic Mulch on 1010 near Apex were a great help. They were very patient with us. They described the different rock colors, types and which ones would weather well in a pond environment. They will sell rocks by the ton or by the pound. A couple of times we bought a single rock. I saw people loading buckets of pebbles in mini vans.

We went there one morning in a gentle June rain to just look around and left with a ton of gray flat rock in the back of the truck that Laurie just fell in love with. The pond project had started.

Just as a reference I will list the vendors we used. We had a great experience with all of them and would recommend them to anyone. We decided on the Aquascape brand of hardware as they seemed to have a quality product.

Atlantic Mulch - rocks and mulch.
Pond Liner - pump/filter/skimmer
Webb's Water Gardens - Firestone EPDM 40 MIL Rubber Liner
Yard Outlet. - automatic Hudson water fill valve



I will tell the rest of the story with photos. Be sure to read the caption with each photo or video.

Jun 12, 2014 Thu 10:10:03 AM EDT
In the beginning there was a pile of rock and decent grass. I was to find out this was not nearly enough rock.
Jun 23, 2014 Mon 10:24:31 AM EDT
The tarp is up to shelter the work area from the sun and we are beginning to play around with rock placement.
Jun 24, 2014 Tue 9:29:17 AM EDT
Digging the outline of the pond and checking placement of key rocks and waterfalls.
Jun 24, 2014 Tue 5:50:21 PM EDT
A Troybilt Tiller and small trailer to haul away the dirt came in handy. All the removed dirt was stock piled and used to landscape around the finished pond. So I had to handle all the dirt twice.
Jun 24, 2014 Tue 7:02:35 PM EDT
I am done for the day. This project turned out to be much more work than I anticipated.
Bobby
Jun 25, 2014 Wed 1:26:10 PM EDT
Aquascape sells a felt underlayment to go under the rubber liner. I had some sand so we lined the pond with sand and then covered that with two layers of landscape fabric we already had in stock. Note the metal stake in the upper pool. The top of the stake is the level of the water in the finished upper pool. I placed a 2x4 with a level on the top of the stake to determine the water level around the walls of the upper pool.
Jun 25, 2014 Wed 1:26:37 PM EDT
Note the skimmer box which will contain the pump. We had to determine where the finished water level would be before installing the skimmer box. The notched area in the bottom of the pond will be a fish cave. There is also a deep area in the pond that will protect the fish during the winter. The back of the pond is sloped and will have smaller rocks. Usually there is an area like this below a mountain stream waterfall. Eventually with the proper plants and rock placement it will look like the water just disappears into the plants "downstream." We did not want an unnatural looking deep pond at the far end.
Jun 26, 2014 Thu 6:48:27 AM EDT
Placing of the 40 mil rubber liner. Looks like we know exactly what we are doing.
Jun 26, 2014 Thu 4:49:25 PM EDT
Checking the Hillbilly bath tub for fit. Note the hand stacked rock wall in the back. We wanted part of the rock to look like an old foundation wall for something. Maybe a watermill from years long past.
Bobby



Video


Jun 27, 2014 Fri
One of the first water tests with just the rubber liner installed and the lights. In my opinion lights are absolutely necessary. They create a whole different experience at night.
Jun 28, 2014 Sat 10:08:17 AM EDT Altitude: 477 ft Camera: iPhone 5s
We needed more rocks. They even sell them by the bag.
Jun 29, 2014 Sun 1:09:16 PM EDT
Lining the pond with rocks. Note the rocks on the left side of the lower pool are roughly hand stacked to match the wall in the upper pool. Again we wanted the pond to look like it was part of some ancient man made structure. The lower back wall mimics the upper back wall.
Jun 29, 2014 Sun 2:38:43 PM EDT
We used black foam to set some of the rocks. Warning: If you get foam in your hat then place the hat on your head, scissors will be required to remove hat from head.
Bobby
Jun 29, 2014 Sun 6:48:05 PM EDT
Phase one is complete. We are about one third finished. Again note the lower back wall roughly mimics the upper pool back wall with round river rocks in other places.
Jun 29, 2014 Sun 7:07:46 PM EDT Altitude: 383 ft Camera: iPhone 5s



Video


Jun 29, 2014 Sun
We got to a point where we could leave the pump running while finishing the pond. Someone sent an email to all the frogs in the area and there was an orgy in our pond. I did not anticipate this part of pond ownership.
Jul 5, 2014 Sat 6:23:04 PM EDT
Jul 5, 2014 Sat 8:34:46 PM EDT
Lights are very nice at night. The bottom light in the pool points away from the sitting area.
Jul 6, 2014 Sun 10:33:57 AM EDT
Running conduit and underground wire from a GFCI outlet to a power pole for the pump, UV filter and lights.
Jul 13, 2014 Sun 6:08:51 PM EDT
Finished!
Jul 13, 2014 Sun 6:14:53 PM EDT
Jul 13, 2014 Sun 6:15:25 PM EDT



Video


Jul 13, 2014 Sun
Jul 13, 2014 Sun 6:22:32 PM EDT
Jul 13, 2014 Sun 7:46:56 PM EDT
Jul 13, 2014 Sun 7:54:43 PM EDT
Aug 30, 2014 Sat 7:04:40 PM EDT
View of the pond from the upper deck a couple of months after installation.
Feb 24, 2015 Tue 7:25:47 PM EST

So in the end digging a hole in the ground and filling it with water cost about $4,000. Roughly $2,000 in rock, $1,000 in pond hardware, $500 for mulch, plants and fish and $500 for misc things such as electrical, plumbing and spray foam. We both worked from sunrise to sunset for 9 straight days (my week of vacation and the two weekends) plus a month of weekends after that. I am very pleased with the result. It completely changed the character of the backyard and is a very pleasant place to sit day or night. The sound of the falling water at night with the windows open is very soothing. The only thing I would do differently is make the bottom pool a little wider and a little deeper. I forgot that lining the pool with rock would reduce the finished size.

The finished pool is way above and beyond what Laurie had envisioned so she is very happy.

One parting word of advice. If you and your spouse/significant other can build a garden pond together and still be talking at the end, you are compatible. Every single rock in the pond was handled at least three times. At the end of a long day I had placed a 400 pound "signature" rock where I thought it needed to go. Laurie said move it 2 inches to the left, then, rotate it clockwise 90 degrees, then, move it right 4 inches. At that point I said if you want this _______ rocked moved again you climb down here in the mud and move this ______ rock your ______ self. I remember a shovel coming toward me and when I regained consciousness again we had a good laugh and continued.




Video



Time lapse video of the entire process.



Video


Apr 21, 2013 Sun
The year before we replaced the deck. Here is a very neat time lapse video of building a deck.
Bobby, Laurie, Tucker Riley, Bradley Taylor
The Email Said 'People Will Die'




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