Kristen's Project

how deep is the pond kristen where the stepping stone are going ?

 

@JWK its 6M water's-edge to water's-edge - plenty of Shore if that would help to anchor / counter-balance it

 

About waist deep - 1M or so

 

Thanks @JWK ... perhaps I could "clad" it in thin-ish stone, and then a fake side fillet of stone, to make it look like a solid lump. That's really the effect that I want. If I make a wooden one, even if only "clad", it will need maintenance and replacement over the years ...

 

So now it is the year after that

It was at this point that @shiney and I went to see Isabella Plantation in mid May.






Apart from the horseshoe semi-circle planting around the lake, this "mad colour combination" was the sort of thing I wanted to see first hand.

Here is mine :


I hadn't assumed this was going to be a "year or two" project, so bought some plants to grow on. Well they have Grown On and are now fed up being in containers ...

Managed to do some Spring Work this year too. Abandoned overwinter in Spring it was this:




Looking back at Azalea Bank from the far end (camera facing North)


Some plants ...


... Planted ...


... Didn't buy / grown-on enough :(


Then in the Autumn work resumed:


after chatting to various people about "how do you preserve the edge of a pond" and "have a shelf to put some edging stones on" (I figure the water will drop 9" - 12" during the Summer and I don't want to be able to see the liner around the edge) I decided I needed a concrete ring-beam around the edge. So I just need a shallow trench, all the way around the outside edge of the pond with suitable shuttering so the concrete will stay in place whilst it sets.

I've seen plenty of concrete that "burst out" of shuttering ... its heavy. So keeping the shuttering in place, on the open "pond side", seemed pretty difficult using Acrow props and the like over such a wide area. So I filled it back in again



Upside: Still had all the clay Downside: it was piled up 250M away

Put the concrete in and dug it back out again:

and that was pretty much it for the year

 

Created a "pad" for a Pagoda building



I put some more granite blocks along the far left corner bank

to make a narrow walkway from far left corner towards the left back along the edge of the pond (under the JCB arm-arch!)

Shuttered the ring-beam with some old, knackered, Perspex-type sheet material - nice and bendy


Poured some concrete:


Reinforced - these little spacers were brilliant to make sure that the bare ends of the reinforcing mesh where not poking out (and thus able to rust, expand, crack ...) and keep them an appropriate distance from the bottom


Dug a deeper bit for any fish to overwinter


... Sand in the bottom ...


... then Felt ...


... then liner. Blinking heavy liner!


All done ... except there should be a waterfall from where the camera is stood ...

Very (very) unsure about the narrowness of the return path (on the right in front of the bank). I want a Wisteria Pergola along there ...

 

Our Christmas card was interesting that year:

"Progress with Japanese garden: Filled in pond. Dug it back out again"

 

I'd be happy to get a faker with a trowel in if they can avoid me having to buy a 6M length of granite AND get it in there! What do you charge John? .. I suppose if I have to ask ...

Food for thought, thanks. My immediate inclination is that under foot it will be quite visible ... but we already have plenty of fake stone here - the whole of the Folly for example (notwithstanding that Mrs K says that "The whole thing is a folly" )

 

So now it is the year after that

but the good news is that this was last year ... so last full-season episode for now.

I bought some Rhododendrons using the Inkarho lime-tolerant rootstock. I don't understand why these aren't more common over here - plenty of Alkaline gardens in the UK ... and plenty of people who would love to have Rhododendrons. The big Rhododendron nurseries, like Millais, pay lip service - they have a fairly decent Inkarho range listed but most times I look at their website the majority are out of stock or only available in massive, expensive, sizes. Burncoose has 180 Rhododendrons listed ... of which only half a dozen are on Inkarho rootstock. My local Garden Centre has hundreds of Rhododendrons in stock when they are in flower and look their best, none of them lime tolerant, and we have no acid soil anywhere near here so Punters are going to have a dead plant within a couple of years.

So I bought about 20 from a nursery in Germany where they have plenty, in a large range of varieties and sizes ... and much more affordable. Daft.


From the entrance - up through the "Rhododendron Hill" - "Pretentious? moi?"


View back down-the-hill towards the entrance. Azaleas, on the Acid Bank, in foreground


View across Acid Bank and the pond beyond. Eventually I want them to grow up so there is just a "glimpse" of the pond from here


Horseshoe Azalea Bank ... not looking much like Isabella Plantation as yet

The reflection is important though and, I now realise, right where I was going to put the bridge :(. I need the water level up to "top" to be able to see where the reflection will actually be.

I'm also starting to think about the Pagoda. I went to Tatton Park which has a Shrine-style building. No way to get into it ... way too "authentic" for me.



but I like the roof shape and the Lotus finials on the posts



I also liked the Pagoda at Compton Acres

to my eye a good representation of what a Westerner thinks it should look like.

I didn't actually find the Tatton Park arch-bridge typical, but that is probably lack of knowledge on my part



and then a friend knocked up a model in his shed - "because he can"



Looks just like what I had in mind, just need a scaling-up-machine!

Come Autumn work resumed


with the delivery of some rocks




Started with the waterfall




The rocks are about 0.5 tonnes each




Built up the Gabions at the back


Testing the waterfall


I wanted to see what flow of water was needed. I don't have a pump powerful enough, yet - nor do I know what size I need - so I put an IBC at the top, filled it with my submersible pump, and then when it was full I let it out and varied the outlet speed to get a feel for the flow-rate required, and also if the "flat" rocks were going to spread the water or if it would just run down one-side.

Decided that my best bet would be to have two feeds to the waterfall - the main one to the top, and a second half way down, and a Tee and ball-valve so that I could vary the flow at the top, with any left over coming out of the lower outlet. The waterfall widens as it comes down, so that would increase the amount of water at the base too. Also found that the fall from the reed-bed was sufficient that I could bring the return onto the lowest "step" in the waterfall, so even when the waterfall pump is off that would still get flow, and provide an oxygenating drop.

 

The whole project has been based on working from one end, and then exiting the far end, so I have one-shot at getting everything in the right order. The exit is narrow, so having to do some-and-some at the far end to get it completed.

Rocks to hold the liner


Building up the final Gabion wall at the far end ... touch-and-go whether we have enough rubble, which is good - I would prefer to buy a little in rather than have to think of another project to get rid of left-overs! and there is always someone in the village building an extension or patio who wants to get rid of some.




Then started the rock bank. I need the far end to appear to be "rising ground", but I have very little depth to work with. My plan is to plant some Pines behind, to provide height, and then something that looks like rocks came tumbling down the hillside ... risk that it just looks like a rock wall though; it needs enough weight at the bottom to actually retain the soil!



Topping off the Gabion wall


Back-side of Gabion wall



It definitely looks like a wall ... hopefully planting will soften it


Done for the year



Took off, and reused, the topsoil from a narrow area behind the Folly that will be used as a Reed bed for water filtration



Decided that the walkway on right returning to Pagoda Pad is definitely too narrow, and that the Gabion and soil bank will have to go. Too late to get machinery in there, but as part of finishing Rock Bank the digger bucket reached part way, so eased the task somewhat.


Half gone ...


Gone

 

Just an idea, before you get all the rocks in place round the edge I was faced with the usual problem of how to cover/hide the liner. Especially in my original pond built on a slope. The higher side was very exposed. Draping/ground cover plants didn't cut it at all. Artificial grass! Not too expensive, it doesn't need to be a luxury version, but pegged around the edges and draping down into the water, it looks a lot better than liner, weed free and the frogs love sunbathing on it