Monday, January 30, 2012

The New and Updated Pond After Dark

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You may recall my post this past Friday where I showed you my pond. That post also talked about a few problems with the pond that have since been rectified. Like all things you do for the first time you might not get them right and that was the case with the pond. My main problem was the edging and how to hide the pond liner. Initially I had built a mound on the edge of the pond over which I ran the liner then tucked the liner in a trench on the back side of the mound. The top of the mound was above the water level so the liner was able to be seen when the pond was filled with water. Enter the new way I have now edged the pond. I removed the rocks and the mound then dug out a flat trench about 18" all around the pond. I think this is what the professionals call the coping shelf. The bottom of the trench was level or a bit below the projected level of the water based on lining up a level with the water depth on the skimmer box. I laid the liner flat in the trench, than stacked rocks on the liner and folded the back side of the liner up alongside the rocks. I then hid the excess liner with more rocks and backfilled. It is not a perfect solution but I think a workable solution. You can no longer see the liner with the pond full.


The next problem was with the way the water was running off from the waterfall rock and bouncing on the back rock wall. The water was leaking out of the pond so Mr. Fix-it had to rework the waterfall rocks and wonders of wonders, he actually found black waterfall foam in Home Depot!! This was a boon to our endeavors as it enabled us to finally fix the pond and refill it with water late last night. I had ordered some waterfall foam online but it's not like it is an instant gratification thing. I am still waiting for that can to arrive. We have found you need several cans of black waterfall foam in order to really do a waterfall up water tight and the stuff really works! The waterfall foam held the rocks together well and has sealed up gaps in the rocks where water might leak--at least as far as we can tell for now. 

We have a floodlight shining on the pond and it really looks nice in the evening. The garden along side the left side of the pond is now backfilled and planted with moss phlox. I also had the opportunity to divide my horsetail rush and native irises. There are two pots of the irises and one pot of the horsetail in the above pot. When I divided the pot from the bathtub garden I disturbed a frog sleeping in the pot. I was not certain if any frogs would hibernate in the bathtub pond but now I know. I hope it finds a new spot to burrow in for the rest of the winter. Soon the two koi from my bathtub pond will be moved into this pond. It is not a moment too soon either as the koi have really really grown. I don't normally see the koi because they are still rather dark colored (but their colors are coming in) and rather shy but when I removed the pot full of horsetail rush I had a good opportunity to see them....

in the garden....


Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Friday, January 27, 2012

The Next Stage in the Building of the Pond

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The first of tens of thousands of daffodils have begun blooming in Tiger Gardens! All the other foliage you see in the above picture is muscari foliage-they'll be coming into bloom in another few weeks to a month or so. 

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25 January 2012

Despite bad weather and other commitments the pond is still progressing. Mr. Fix-it and I turned the pump on for the first time on 24 January 2012 and it was a happy day! The waterfall makes a wonderful sound (video below) and helps to block out the traffic noise. It was such a delightful thing hearing and seeing the waterfall that I kept coming out of the house during the night just to listen to it. We do have some issues though. Mainly, the water falling from the waterfall hits a lower rock that is causing the water to hit further back rocks (left side of waterfall in the above picture) which is causing the water to leak out of the back of the wall of rocks. So, it will be back to the drawing board for us. My problem is not so much the rocks but the fact I did not seal the gaps adequately with waterfall foam. I could not find any black waterfall foam in Clarksville so I had to order it online. That means the pump goes off and we will wait until the rocks completely dry then try to either restack the rocks or seal the rocks so that the waterfall does not leak anymore. Right now the leakage is very slight and is contained in the liner portion behind the rock waterfall but it is an issue we must deal with before we consider the pond ready for operation. That being said this post is about the steps we took to get to the point where we are now. I have tried to show pictures from the same vantage point in this post of the before and after work but some pictures may be out of order. 

I'll talk you through it so you can see the changes and the work involved. It's a messy yucky job but with us building our own pond we saved more than 60% of the amount it would have costed us to have professional pond builders build this pond (based on comparatively sized ponds built in the local area). 60% is a huge savings when you are talking building a pond! I must admit though that we are blessed here in Tiger Gardens with great soil that is not rocky so the digging was easy. I also had plenty of spots for the excavated soil so those two problems were easy for me to manage. If you can't manage those two things you might with to hire out the building of your pond if you are thinking of installing a water feature. I enjoyed digging the hole. That is about all I've enjoyed about the pond building process but only because I was overly cautious with all of the other steps simply because I did not feel like I knew enough about the process to be confident. I am certainly good at digging holes so confidence was there for that part but the rest was a challenge for me. Thank goodness for my husband who did all of the plumbing and built the waterfall. He was with me every step of the way and is enjoying the pond as much as I am. 

The above photo and the one below are views from inside of the house or on the porch. What a difference some rocks and trimming the liner makes. You can still see the liner in the pond but the fact that it is black is a good thing as I feel it will disappear at some point. Truthfully it does not bother me but Mr. Fix-it wants to completely cover the liner with rocks. That will involve buying more rocks and rocks are a bit expensive. In our case the total cost for the nearly two tons of rocks involved in building our pond accounted for 23% of the total cost of the pond. That's a lot of money for rocks and I don't like buying rocks. Think about it, most people give them away for free but to find the right kind we had to buy a pallet of rocks. It just doesn't seem right to me.
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Monday, 16 January 2012
Pond view from the house after the liner was installed and before it was trimmed or rocked.


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25 January 2012

This view is while I am standing in front of the Front Center Garden facing northwest toward my sideyard and backyard. The big tan tarp is covering a swing which resides on the Broken Concrete Patio. The sound of the waterfall will carry to this patio but it is a bit muffled due to the fact the rock wall is between the patio and the waterfall. The rock wall really muffles the sound because while standing in front of the pond on the newly installed broken concrete patio the sound is quite a bit louder-very loud indeed.
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22 January 2012
This is the same view as the above photo but prior to the rocks being installed and the liner trimmed. This picture was taken this past Sunday when we began installing the skimmer and rocks. The weather was very bad this weekend and we did not get much accomplished but the skimmer was installed. I had drained the pond down quite a bit once I found out where the water level would be. The hole I dug for the skimmer was nearly two feet deep and more than two feet wide and nearly three feet long. I made sure to mount the skimmer on undisturbed soil and it was leveled front to back and side to side. Our plumbing from the pump (which sets inside of the skimmer box) exits the skimmer box above water level on the side of the box toward the house and circles the pond to the waterfall box where it enters the waterfall box below water level. These points are important to note when designing your pond. The fact our connection to our waterfall box was at the bottom of the box meant that we could not bury the waterfall box. Therefore we had to design the rock wall around the box and leave access to the connections in that area.
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22 January 2012

Here I am in my typical work clothes this past Sunday. I am beginning to bury the liner. When I am in the garden I either have a shovel or pruners in my hands and I am dressed in bag lady clothes-they are comfy to work in and for me that's what it is all about!  I had no idea how to trim the edges of the pond and this fact has bothered me more than any other fact of building the pond. What I had to do was dig a trench and build up a little mound where the liner would drape over then lay in the trench. I then took square limestone rocks and put them in the trench placing them on the liner to hold the liner in place. In order to cover the liner I was then able to place flat rocks on top of the mound and limestone rocks creating a little wall that was somewhat level and stable. I still have to either plant grass seed or move sod into this area of the pond The other side is edged a bit differently.
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22 January 2012

My friend Naomi is dressed nicely when she works in the garden. She came up from her nearby log cabin home to help out and to see the process of installing the skimmer. Naomi has a very large concrete pond of her own that she personally built. The waterfall of her pond is about 10 feet tall and comes down from an old furnace area on her property. I have posted about Naomi's pond before but in case you want another look check out the above link. Naomi does not have a skimmer in her pond but is interested in installing one so she was very interested to see how ours would work. Cutting the liner for the weir door while installing the skimmer was very scary for me. I just knew I'd get it wrong but with Mr. Fix-it's guidance it seems that everything is working out well and it is sealed. Fingers crossed it stays that way!


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Thursday, 19 January 2012


The above picture shows the pathway between the pond and the Front Center Garden. I simply show it because I had to build up this area a bit so I used some subsoil from the pond hole. The path is now very mucky and messy but I'll soon cover it with some sod from a new garden that is scheduled to be dug into this area-by me of course.


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Thursday, 19 January 2012


This is a picture of the left side of the pond area prior to it being covered with sod. I have been wanting an iris bed forever and finally think I have found just the spot in the backyard. In order to get the sod for this pond area I began digging the iris bed (which is in the backyard) and moved all of the sod to this spot to not only build it up but to cover up the sticky subsoil. I always sprinkle bonemeal under new plants including under this sod. I hope it helps the sod settles in nicely. The black material is actually tar paper I laid down in order to be able to walk on something not so mucky.


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Saturday, 21 January 2012
Here we are looking at the same side after the sod from out back has been laid down. I always remove sod from new garden areas. I either use it to build up low spots or to fill garden areas (after turning it upside down). Moving sod in this way is time consuming but not difficult and it makes all the difference when establishing new gardens. It also gave my pond an instant finished look and sure made for walking in this area much easier.
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25 January 2012


Here we are looking up towards the east and the driveway. The house is on my right and we can now see the new concrete patio area with the small metal dinette situated on it. The newly installed sod has built up this side of the pond nicely. I also added a rock wall on the outside of the trench on this side. The liner and plumbing pipe are buried in a trench in this garden. I also used the rectangular rocks in the trench on this side. I have not backfilled the small garden on the outside of the trench as of yet. I intend to grow only moss phlox in this area. The moss phlox should drape over the rocks edging the garden and fill in among the rocks lining the pond in a nice manner. I think it will carpet the area in one year or so. Moss phlox is evergreen and makes a great groundcover. It will not block our views of the pond from the house at all. In the foreground you can see part of the Redbud garden. I do have a few variegated hydrangeas and perennials in this area. I suspect this garden will evolve as the pond evolves. I jumped the gun by planting and rearranging in this area prior to the pond being installed. I've had to make quite a few changes already and many plants have been trampled.




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22 January 2012


This view looks toward the house and is simply showing the line up of the waterfall to the skimmer. Ideally these two parts of a pond should be directly across from each other like we have them here. This ensures there is a good water flow to the skimmer from the waterfall. I can vouch for this action because while the waterfall was running the water has an evident current directing everything on the pond surface to the skimmer box. I cleaned the filter in the skimmer box and found a lot of pine needles in it already. I plan to net my pond to keep out debris and also to keep out the herons which are quite common in my neighborhood.
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25 January 2012


This is the same view after the plumbing has been installed. We are not yet done with this area. Because our plumbing enters the waterfall box on the bottom (you can see the white fittings on the right side of the waterfall box) we cannot bury the pipe or block this area. I have a UV light that will be put into place in this area should it be necessary once the water heats up. While I cannot see this utility area from the main enjoyment area of the pond you can clearly see it from this view. In order to reduce the view a bit I plan to plant a few evergreen shrubs. I haven't chosen which ones yet but am leaning toward aucubas. This area is shady and backed by a mature cedar tree which gives the area some shelter from the sun. There is a shade garden which is walled in this area. I have paths that traverse this area. This area also faces the road and is a little used area but I still want it to look good. The location where water is leaking from the waterfall is along the liner on the right side of the box in this picture. Water is very tricky and always takes the path of least resistance. We wish it had found that path straight into the pond but it's okay, we'll fix it soon. 






Here is a short video showing the waterfall in use where you can hear the sound. I used YouTube's newly established enhanced privacy code in order to embed my video. It restricts cookies on your computer when you view the video. I really appreciate all of these enhanced privacy controls and hope improvements continue to be made.


in the garden....

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Thursday, January 26, 2012

I'm Still Alive!

BY SKEETER



Long time no chat from me!



Here is what's happening in my Georgia Garden right now. Spring popping in January? Yes, we have had a really mild winter thus far. And now Spring is trying to arrive. Daffy's, Phlox and Hyacinth are here!



Hellebores are here and the Butterfly Bushes never left us this winter! One crazy winter for sure but as we all know, Winter is not over as of yet. Some below freezing temps at night and days in the 70's make for scary times.


I fear for the Peach Farmers here in Georgia. With this type weather, they can loose their entire crop over night. So what has been going on with Skeeter you may ask? Well, we had house guests over Thanksgiving. We took walks to several of our wonderful county parks such as the one above with the Saint striking a pose.
The Saint attended a Trade Show in Orlando and I accompanied him on this trip. I hit the Outlet Malls for some Christmas shopping as the Saint was occupied with the show. We enjoyed our free evenings at fun places such as Downtown Disney. I was captivated by these beautiful pots of flowers in December! Mickey is watering these beauties...It is fun visiting such places during the holiday season with all the pretty decorations and fresh flowers. And the bonus, this trip was on company travel and hotel and full-up free breakfast. Free is my friend!
We visit Gatorland and had a blast! First of all, The Saint got in for free for being a Veteran! I received a 20% discount for being with a Veteran! We were thrilled from the start. We found this place most interesting with Birds and Alligators seeming to be friends.
We had up close encounters with Alligators, Crocodiles and Birds of many different sizes. We thought we would spend a few hours checking out this place but 5 hours later, we had to drag our self away as we had to depart Florida. The place was clean and basically a nature preserve of a swamp.
I wrangled a Gator...
The Saint skinned it...
And we ate the thing! Ha, not really. We did eat the gator meat and it was pretty good...The park was full of blooms and had a wonderful boardwalk through the natural swamp.
Again, it was awesome to see such beautiful blooms in December!
We took Highway A1A on our journey home. Although we only stopped for a picture or two, we both had our first visit to Daytona Beach!
We had the entire beach to our self as no one is there during the month of December! We actually saw signs advertising hotel rooms for $39.00 a night! We were so tempted to stay the night but our Fur Baby's were home awaiting our arrival. We continue to enjoy our drive along the ocean front until Jacksonville, Florida where we jumped back onto the interstate.
Back to Georgia and the land of cotton. Nope, not snow but cotton still waiting to be picked in early December! Get busy cotton farmers...
A week or so home then off to Tennessee for Christmas. We stopped in Nashville at the Opryland Hotel to stretch our legs a bit after a 5 hour drive. I was captivated by this huge Christmas tree inside the hotel.
The garden's in the hotel are just awesome! And again, a wonderful thing to see such beauty in December.
We found it difficult to believe this hotel was under water with the floods of May 2010. It is such a beautiful place to visit any time of year.
Of course the reason for being in Tennessee, Christmas with my family. Here you see my dad looking over a Shadow-Box I made for him. This was my first go at a Shadowbox and I was happy with the results. I collected items from his "Trane Company" Union Days of the 1960's. Silly me, forgot to snap a picture of it though. Duh.... The newest addition to our family (Jensen) was sleeping soundly with 26 people gabbing away around him. We were in Tennessee for 5 days and was not able to visit everyone we had planned to visit, including Tiger Gardens and Tina. Sigh, but Spring Fling is on the way and we shall make up for that missed time.
Back home to Georgia where we ringed in the New Year with Grilled Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Black eyed Peas with Ham and Cornbread.A bit of rest then, I pulled the paints out of the closet and got busy playing a bit.
This little Pig and Squirrel now have fresh coats of paint to brighten them up a bit. They once sit on their swings in the Crepe Myrtle tree that we lost last fall. Now they are swinging under the Japanese Maple trees in the front porch planters.
I also worked on making my own Valentine decorations. I made a Wreath, 2 Swags and a Garland. They now brighten up the woods in my Display for the season. I shall snap a pic of that at some point.
We are currently dog sitting for the Saints parents while they enjoy some warm temps in Florida. They drove down from Virgina and dropped Minnie off with us. She is a good dog and is enjoying lots of outside time. She loves rolling in our beautiful Green Rye Grass. The cats are not too happy with Minnie intruding on their space but they are doing well thus far. We are taking great strides to keep harmony amongst all. Minnie and I spent several hours in the yard yesterday cleaning out a couple of planters. She is a shy dog in her home surroundings but seems to thrive in our woods setting. She runs through the woods, jumps the creek and has the best time while under our care.


Once Minnie has departed, I shall have a few days to prepare the house for 6 house guests! We shall all take off for our Winter Vacation.


With all going on in our life this winter, I have yet to feel the Winter Blues! That is a good thing as that so depresses me. I have been one busy gal since we last spoke and I continue to be kept from blogging. I am just popping in today to let you all know, I AM STILL ALIVE, In the Garden...

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

'Empress of China' Evergreen Dogwood

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In the fall of 2010 I took a little trip to Louisville to visit my daughter. Both of my girls are great gardeners and have a love for plants just as I do. That being said I guess you know what Liz and I did during my visit. We visited a few of her favorite nurseries. Louisville is about three hours from my home in northern Tennessee but I happen to think Louisville is one of the best cities to visit nurseries so I will often do so when I visit my daughter. The next best city to visit nurseries within a short driving distance of my home would be Evansville Indiana. You will almost never find me in a nursery in Clarksville or Nashville. I just can't find good deals on the plants I desire for my garden but nursery shopping might be best left for another post. Today's post is all about a small dogwood tree that my daughter and I both purchased during a very windy and dry fall day in 2010 during this particular trip. 


The nursery we visited is a unique nursery called Beryl Williams Landscaping and Nursery. It is unique in that its owner is a longtime plant lover and is always on site. I love nurseries when you can actually talk to the owner as he or she is usually the most knowledgeable person you'll find on site. I once called a nursery in Evansville to see if it was open and when a man answered the phone I quickly said with relief, "Oh, you're still there!" To which the reply was "Yes, it's amazing to me too!". The owner of that nursery was a very old man who was thankful for each day he was alive let alone working at the nursery-as I found out when I later visited the nursery. Back to Beryl Williams, not only is the owner on site but the son of the owner has his own little nursery on site as well. The son's name is Brian and he specializes in tropicals. The greenhouses were a lovely sight on this fall day with lots of tropical and exotic-to me anyhow-plants growing in them. Not only do tropicals grow in greenhouses at the nursery but they also grow outside! It was very strange seeing 20 foot tall palm trees in Louisville. The reason it was strange is that Louisville is a solid Zone 6 growing zone with temperatures ranging from -10F to 105F so growing tropicals outside is really pushing it. There were lots of wrapped palm trees, agaves in rocky hills, tetrapanax and many more cool plants-all doing well. But the one plant my daughter and I were interested in was an evergreen dogwood. The owner (Mr. Williams)  was not sure about its hardiness and had only two pots of the plant for sale. He was trying it out as he put it.  There's nothing like a good challenge to intrigue me and an evergreen dogwood sounded too cool to pass up.


Upon doing some research on my evergreen dogwood I found that my book Dogwoods by Paul Cappiello and Don Shadow states that Cornus angustata 'Elsbry' (Empress of China ™)-the type of evergeen dogwood my daughter and I purchased is semi-evergreen in USDA hardiness zones 7-9. The book also says the tree has withstood temperatures of 0F without stem or bud damage. Too cool I thought-an evergreen dogwood. I've not had luck with Cornus floridus so I tend to migrate towards any dogwood that is not of that genus and one that is evergreen is quite a bonus. My daughter and I both purchased a plant and I'm happy to report that eighteen months later my plant is doing quite well and has grown at least 18" in the time it has been in the ground here at Tiger Gardens.  That is an impressive growth spurt but the tree is still only about three feet tall-so small yet.


I had to bump out my long Northside Shrub Border in order to accommodate the new tree but it was a really good move because the tree is quite happy in its growing conditions. The growing conditions I planted it in sees it getting some afternoon sun, probably about 3-4 hours, it is in good organic soil that can dry out due to tree roots but the area can also be moist at times, and I have a good organic mulch in place in the garden. The tree did not bloom last year but the leaves have stayed on it both last year and this and it is growing so fast that I am hopeful I'll get some blooms this year. It is reputed that when Empress of China blooms it is quite a sight. I've not seen one in bloom but am most excited for it....


in the garden.....

Check this post out for a lovely picture of Empress of China in bloom on Janet's blog
 

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Monday, January 23, 2012

Mobile Paper Shredding and Recycling-On the Job

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I was at a business in Hopkinsville when I came out to a sight that made me smile. I never knew there was such a thing as a "Mobile Paper Shredding and Recycling" unit-but here it is-on the job saving our planet a wee bit at a time....


in the garden....

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Friday, January 20, 2012

Progress on the Pond-It is Now a Lined Hole with Water!

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January 15, 2012
The pond is coming along nicely-with lots of struggles and challenges but it is working out. Today I'll show you how Mr. Fix-it and I spread the underlayment and pond liner in our new pond. The above picture shows the pond filling up-the last step of a long day. I wanted to fill the pond completely in order to try to find out exactly where the water level would be located and also to find out how many gallons my pond would hold. This was the biggest shocker for Mr. Fix-it and I. Using generic pond calculators found on the Internet I punched in the numbers that would tell me exactly how many gallons of water my sized pond would hold. My pond is oval shaped and on average 12 feet long by 7 feet wide. Its average depth is probably 18". This is based on the shelves with the deepest being 34" deep up to the coping shelf that is approximately 8-10" under water. I had the mistaken opinion that the calculators told me my pond would hold approximately 1200 gallons and so I ordered a pond kit for this sized pond. Ha! The actual number of gallons of water it took to fill the pond was 730. Oops. For the record I will suggest to anyone building a pond to make sure you use multiple calculators and make sure you have a good average depth of your pond. The fact that my pond is a few hundred gallons short of what I predicted will not matter in the long run. I have read that in filtration the larger the better so I am good on that matter and am actually over good but that's okay. The pump I purchased in my kit is an Alpine Cyclone PAL4000 pump. It is supposed to be energy efficient being  260-310 max watts. I think that is a lot of watts but by converting the watts and the number of hours the pump will run daily I estimate (using Webmath.com) the pump will cost me about .56 cents per day to operate in Tennessee. Of course I am jumping ahead because neither the pump nor the skimmer are installed as of yet. Right now we only have a lined hole in the ground with about 730 gallons of water. Let's move on now.
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Installing a pond in the winter is not such a smart thing to do. I was lulled into safety and security thinking the mild winter would continue indefinitely. The mild weather enabled me to take my time digging the huge hole and figuring out what kind of pump, liner, and skimmer I needed. Then I ran into a problem. I finally figured out I wanted to buy the Gold Pond Kit from Pond and Fountain World and I ordered it. All seemed good but then the weather changed. Here I had a perfectly dug hole all ready for the underlayment and pond liner-but no pond kit. I had waited much too long to order the kit which caused a standstill in the progress on the pond. Not only did it cause it standstill it caused a lot of extra work and headaches for me. The pond kit arrived on Tuesday, January 10-a day when the temperatures were in the 60s but with a forecast of one to two inches of rain to come in that very night. After the rain the temperatures were scheduled to drop to the 20s-even to the teens. Brrrr it was cold! The weather caused my headaches because once it rained the hole I had dug then filled up with water and the water froze solid. Next, the soil froze. Ever see frozen frost heaved soil? The entire hole turned into a mud bath and a good part of the form of the hole had to be reworked as frost heaved sections of the soil fell apart and had to be removed. Yikes, it was a messy day.
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Here is a picture of the hole right before we put in the geotextile underlayment. I used tar paper on some of the shelves in the area where I was having the most problem with roots. I haven't read anything that says this helps and it may even hurt (I hope not!) but I figured an extra barrier between the oaks and pine tree and my pond could not hurt. I want my pond to last a very long time (who doesn't) so I try to build it right the first time. Once I put in the tar paper I had an old rag rug in the garden so I put it down on top of part of the hole. Once this was done the mud bath abated a bit. Mud baths in January in Tennessee are not fun at all.
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Fortunately I had an old pair of Army rubber boots laying around that were perfect for the job of keeping my feet nice and dry and clean. The boots unfortunately could not help keep me from slipping on the muddy banks of the hole and I can't tell you how many times I expected to land face first in the hole. Mr. Fix-it said he'd make sure I was okay before he laughed. I sternly warned him there would be no laughing today.With a bit of sliding I did manage to keep my feet under me.
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Here are the boots after the work had mainly been done. Once the geotextile fabric went in I was able to switch to soft tennis shoes in order to line the pond with both the geotextile underlayment and the pond liner.
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Mr. Fix-it and I had a quandary. We were not sure which side of the geotextile underlayment should be faced down. One side was more furry than the other. I searched online but could not find any instructions regarding the direction so we decided to put the furry side under the pond liner and the slicker side down in the mud.
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This is what the pond looked like with the underlayment in place. Mr. Fix-it is cutting away the extra underlayment in preparation for the pond liner. I read where you can cut the pond underlayment but NOT the pond liner-at least not right away. This geotextile fabric was good stuff. It was lightweight and seemed flimsy but when we went to trim it no scissors would cut through it. The stuff was heavy and dense but did not seem so. We both used razor knives to trim the underlayment. It was a fairly difficult job.
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This last picture shows us laying out the pond liner. I was very nervous about laying out the pond liner. We had ordered a kit that included a 20'x25' pond liner. We got a 20'x 27' pond liner and it was more than adequate for the hole I had dug. I was very worried about the size because by the time you add in all the shelves it seemed like the liner had to be really big. I worried for nothing because we had tons of leftover liner. 

The start of this weekend sees a lot of work still left to be done. Hopefully we'll get the skimmer and waterfall installed, the plumbing completed, and the pond edged. The weatherman is calling for rain off and on all weekend though so I suspect the weekend may become a washout....

in the garden....



Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden