What it is and what it isn't

 No more calling the hole in the ground filled with water the p-word.  From here on in, I will refer to it as my water feature, which is what it really is.  I've had a few people misunderstand when I used the p-word, and they were thinking ye olde swimmin' hole...uh, no - nothing that grand.

Anyway!  Another day of deluge, and the p...water feature...is the most full it's been so far.  While the edges are clearing up finally, the middle is still quite murky.  The froggie doesn't seem to care, so I'm not going to worry.  This weekend I hope to set up a replacement fountain of sorts.  I can't wait to try it out. 😁  I bought some Ogon Sweet Flag plants for the edges of the water feature.  I really like the contrast of that yellow-green, grass-like foliage against the dark green of what's left of the grass and clover.  I'm excited to see it next year, when the area has recovered a little better. 

Froggie approved.

Happy first day of autumn!

(almost) Finishing touches and stuff

 The Rock on a Roll arrived and I'm not unhappy with it.  It's a bit like textured wallpaper, but obviously made for outdoor use.  I wish I had opted for the grey instead of sandstone, but it was more expensive.  I think once there is more water in the pond, and next summer when there are more plants in and around it, it will blend in better.  I went wading (holy cold water!) and did my best to scoop the sand and river rock off the black liner and redeposit it on the edges of the Rock on a Roll.  Obviously it roiled the water and it's cloudy again, but that will clear up.  I carefully placed rocks along the edges to hold everything in place, and while I was at it I rocked in the bog garden, too. 

I lost one frog; not sure when or how, but the OG froggie sat on the edge of the pond while I puttered.  When I was done, I climbed out of the water and he jumped right back in!  I also lost my floating solar fountain.  I didn't realize it was missing until I had finished the edges inside the pond and was half way through putting rocks around the outside edges.  I think it floated under the Rock on a Roll when I lifted it to scoop sand and rocks off the sides.  I didn't have the energy to pull everything apart to try to find it, so it's now considered buried treasure.

I tried to put the chunks of sod back along the edge; according to what I've read, you should have at least one area that has grass along the edge.  This gives smaller frogs and insects a place to hide when they leave the water, and many times the stones along the edge are too hot for little creatures to traverse, whereas the grass is cooler.  I'm not sure that it will take, but we have a couple more days of rain coming to help bind it back to the earth.  

Oh, that line of stones in the background?  That's the edging for my patio.

It's made from mostly square cut granite that's been lying around the farm since the beginning.  It's almost a shame half of the block is buried in the ground, but I wanted to use material on hand for this.  Now I just have to mark out the other edges and get some aggregate delivered.  I know it all looks rough, but that's how I like it.  If I wanted perfection, I'd use preformed blocks from Lowe's. I want this to look like it's been here forever.  I planted my yellow twig dogwood shrub at the end; I needed to get that poor thing into the ground!  Next year this area is going to look really good, once the grass grows back in and the patio is set up and the fireplace is out there.  Patience...Rome wasn't built in a day.  😊

If you build it, yadda yadda yadda...

 The day after the pond was (mostly) filled, I begged some water hyacinth off my mother and dropped them into their new home.  Lo and behold, the very next day, a frog had moved in.

See him there, just about dead center?

The last water feature I built had the same effect; it seems frogs just hang around the peripheries of your property waiting for you to fill something up with water so they can lay claim to a new home.  I can dig it.

I'm really pleased with how quickly the water cleared up, too.

I have a product called "Rock on a Roll" coming this week, and I can't wait to cover the edges with this material.  It looks really good in photos and video, so fingers crossed it hides the liner edges.  Hopefully it will reduce the amount of evaporation, too.  The bog garden isn't staying as wet as I'd hoped, and I'm going to try planting my curly willow tree near it to block the sun when it is at it's strongest [summertime] angle.  I thought this would be a shady enough spot for both the pond and bog, but it may not work quite as well as I hoped.

The frog isn't the only one taking advantage of the new features.  A little Phoebe has been happily using my garden stakes as perches when she hunts insects in the pasture.  In the past few days, she's discovered the bird cage and the lamp hook, too.

I'm hoping to start the second-to-last project this week; setting up for the second gravel patio on the lower level.  Summer is nearly over, and time's a-wasting.

Project #3 complete, on to Project # 4

 The privacy fence portion of my yard fencing is done!  I managed to create a pretty sad gate out of one fence panel, which I cut in half.

I started adding a few personalized touches here and there, like solar string lights and the lettering I've been collecting for a few years.  I also managed to get some blocks under the soaking tub and level it out.

 

 I had my tractor guy here to work on a few items, one of which was covering the protective bottom mesh on the back of the fence with soil and rocks to keep naughty kitties from digging under and naughtier wildlife from digging into the yard.  I used four foot tall plastic coated welded wire fence as the barrier material, which is fixed to the fence with heavy duty electrical staples, and lays out across the ground about three feet.

I'm still trying to decide where to place the lower gravel patio.  Until I figure that out and get the materials delivered, I can't put up my net cat fence.  In the meantime, I'm working on my pond and bog garden, AKA Project # 4. 

I laid an old rubber-backed area rug in the pond hole to protect the liner from sharp rocks (should have filled it with sand, but I'd rather use what I have on hand), then set a few key stones around the perimeter to hold the liner in place. For the bog garden I had my tractor guy scrape out about 8" of ground, then put a black plastic liner down.  I punctured it in the very middle to allow for some drainage, then put some of the soil back.  

 The next day I put a few bags of play sand in the bottom of the pond liner to weigh it down, then added some river rock and a few larger stones for the bottom to add structure for anything that might want to live there.  In the bog garden I mixed garden soil with humus and compost into the native soil.  I'm going to need a bit more of this material to finish the area.

 I rushed to get this part done, because the weather reports are calling for nearly two days of rain.  This morning, I was elated to find the pond half full.  The cloudiness should resolve on its own after a few days when everything settles.

Rainwater is supposed to be better for the pond than hose water, and with our well still being dangerously low I can't add any water.  I'm holding my breath hoping there are no pin holes in the membrane from my walking on it to spread materials.  I really can't wait to put water plants in it next year! 

While I had my tractor guy here, I had him pick away at the rock wall along the driveway.  He removed quite a bit of stone and shaped the bank.  He's also my plow guy, so opening up this area makes moving snow much easier for him.  The goal is to shift the retaining wall diagonally towards the old barn.

I had him move the boulders to the other side of the driveway, to create a more defined parking area.  At some point I may bring in more road pack to make the parking area less grassy, but for now the rocks are just a marker for how far into the pasture he can push snow.  We'll pick away at more of it next year. 

The hyacinth bean vines I planted inside the bird cage had a massive growth spurt the last few weeks.

The new plants I put in around it are all doing fantastic.  Mom and I went to the last sale of the season at a local native plant grower's and I picked up more cat safe, shallow rooted plants to add here and there.  I've decided to plant perennials along the privacy fence to hide the uneven bottoms.  I'm still trying to decide where to plant my magnolia tree, yellow twig dogwood, and witch hazel.  I have an ever-evolving end design in mind for the lower level of the yard, but much of it hinges on where the second patio ends up.  I'm also second guessing the bank, which I was planning to leave as is with grasses, weeds, and wildflowers.  Now I'm envisioning a bank of tall ornamental grasses that will sway in the wind...clearly I watch too many gardening shows on tv.  

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Later that day...

One rock is completely submerged - c'mon, RAIN!  Fill that hole! 😁

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Update, 48 hrs. later...

Not quite full but daaaang, that's a lot of water! 

Saturday Musings Part II

New plan of attack to keep the cats out of the vegetable beds - this better work.

 

And I don't know what's going on with the little pond.  Either I've put a hole in the liner, or the water is evaporating because I don't have floating plants in there yet.  At any rate, it's nearly empty, and I've refilled it twice.  I won't give up on it until I've put the floaters in and see if that makes a difference.  I have a few more weeks before it'll be warm enough for that, so it's a hurry up and wait situation.

The Little Water Garden

 A few years ago I decided to create a little water garden using a 35 gallon plastic stock tank I'd picked up at a yard sale or off Craigslist.  I set it in the ground, surrounded it with flagstone pavers, and filled it with water plants.  My little water feature thrived, and I even had frogs move in the first two years.

Last year was not so good.  I ended up having an algae problem and was too lazy to address it, so nothing really wanted to live in my little "pond".
Even though the tank garden worked well, it was still a pain to have to disassemble it for winter every year.  After the first killing frost in the fall I pull the plants out, discarding the water lettuce and water hyacinth.  Whatever perennials I can keep over winter, like dwarf papyrus and lavender musk, I bring indoors.  The dwarf cattails go into the basement in a bucket of water for the winter, where they never freeze and hardly ever see light.  Then I can drain the tank using a small sump pump, give it a good scrubbing, pull it out of the ground and flip it over for the winter.  Doing this prevents the water from freezing and cracking the tank.  I've decided that it's time to make a more permanent water feature out of my tank garden.

The first thing I did was pull the tank, then clean out the hole and remove the stone edging.  You want to be sure the hole and sides are smooth; the PVC pond liner is durable, but it's thin, and sharp stones or sticks can puncture it.  As an added precaution, I added two 50 lb. bags of play sand to the bottom of the hole.

Tutorials online also suggest old carpeting as an underlayment.  One thing to note - the pond liner (purchased on Amazon) has a shiny side and a dull side.  There were no instructions with the liner that told me which side was supposed to face up, and a quick search online resulted in the oft repeated answer that it doesn't matter.  I chose to put the dull side up because the water is reflective enough without a black high gloss shine coming from below.   Luckily, the 4'x6' sheet of pond liner I ordered fit perfectly.  I secured it in place with some heavy stones, making sure to leave a little give in the liner to accommodate for the weight and distribution of the water that would be added.

Before I started setting the edging stones, I mostly filled the hole with water to be sure I had given it enough slack, and to be sure the heavier stones would hold the liner corners when the pond was full.  I also started VERY GENTLY adding river rock to the bottom, and set a few larger rocks in the pond.

Once I knew the corners were secure, I moved on to the outer pieces of stone.  The black flies were brutal at this point and I just wanted to get it done and get back inside.  I didn't take the time to level out the stones and ensure they were locked in place with the stone dust.  I also only had one bag of stone dust, so later in the season I'll probably reset the edging properly.  Once that was done, I filled the pond to overflowing, to try to drain out some of the dirt and debris that had found its way into it.

I added some barley extract to help clear the water, and tossed in a small solar fountain I'd also ordered.  Hopefully these two additions will prevent another algae outbreak this year.  I pulled the cattails out of the basement and put them in there, too.  I normally acclimate them to the outdoors, but again, I was in a rush and I know they're pretty hardy plants, so this year I'm just winging it.
The next morning the water was much more clear, and the plants still look ok.

Not great, but not bad.  I wish I'd lowered the back edge so it was not so visible, but floating water plants will help camouflage that.  Once the really warm weather gets here I'll be able to add water lettuce and hyacinth, as well as the other perennials.

Materials and costs:
Pond liner (4x6)         $24
Solar fountain             $16
Play sand   50 lbs        $5 ea.

The flagstone was something I had on hand, as well as the river rocks and random stones.  The most expensive part of the water feature, I've learned, are the plants!