Pond Renovations

I couldn't take it anymore!


I hadn't wanted rocks all the way around the pond. I thought draping plants would be a nicer accent and I'm sure they would have been eventually, but in the meantime the black vinyl was just plain UGLY. There was also a tiny problem with those two uncovered sides; they were uneven so when it rained (not something I've had to worry about recently) some of the water drained out on the right side.

So last Tuesday, I began the renovations. I didn't need a lot of rock so I called my favorite dealer, Cortney's, and asked if they had any pieces available. They happened to have a broken pallet they let me go through to choose what I needed and gave me a great deal! At first I thought I could just raise the sides by laying the rocks. You can see by the big wet spot in the picture to the left how well that worked (of course, I completely laid out the right side in the heat before I thought to check!)

The second time around, I put inexpensive pavers under the liner first; putting some effort (but not too much) into making them level. If I had to have rocks all around I didn't want it looking too perfect and scream"landscaping!" Once the rock was laid, I climbed around applying cement while Mike handed me the supply. Finally, I could backfill and on Sunday, Simon and I lay newspaper in the bare spots and mulched everything. It looks much better!


The biggest obstacle in all of this was not the horrendous heat, but the dozens of tiny baby frogs surrounding the pond. I had to walk on tiptoe and wave my hands around the ground to shoo them out of the way before I knelt or laid any rock . Here's a picture to give you an idea of just how challenging this was; there were a couple of times I almost took a head dive to avoid a last minute jumper!


Oh yeah, and if all of that wasn't enough, one of the new rocks had a great shape that Simon recommended we incorporate into the waterfall. Fine-tuning the waterfall has almost become an addiction for me so I was certainly game! While we were working, we finally solved the flow problem we had been having. The waterfall would pump perfectly for a day, maybe two, and then the flow would slow to a trickle. It turns out we had a major leak in one of the plastic tubes! We put that part of the tube into the pond itself and the problem is solved! A perfectly flowing waterfall completes our newly refurbished pond! Now if only Fall would arrive so I could do some more landscaping...Of course, now that I've added the picture, I'm noticing how the top rock doesn't quite cover enough of the rock on the left...