Sunday, June 24, 2007

Pond OverLord


This little Pond OverLord has been observing the activities in the lower ponds for many years. Thinking about what to do next.  I found out a long time ago that ceramic sculpture outside in the Minnesota winters had better be high fired or it will absorb moisture and break or moisture trapped in a pocket and unable to drain out will cause it to break.   
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Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Meditation Rock

This is a meditation area, it is in a quiet part of the garden. There is a rock path to it. When you sit on the large rock you can put the coffee cup on the floating rock and lean into the arm rest. On the left is a grassy hill and my sand garden. From here one looks down the hill. Where all the busyness goes on.
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Sunday, June 10, 2007

Siberian Irises


It's time to enjoy the Siberian Irises that are blooming right now. With all the pond work I haven't been paying attention to the flowers. That is wrong ! One should always have time for the flowers. They are a very adaptable plant the blue one is in a pond the white one is in a regular flower bed. They do like wet feet. The blue flags grow wild in the swamps.
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Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Fixing the Upper Pond


The top picture is the upper pond, it's quite small just big enough to start the waterfall process. You can see part of the old pool liner that was under the cement. The earth in this area is hard clay, the cement was only about 2 inchs thick , it's purpose was to cover the liner to allow one to walk in the pond and back then I guess I just liked mixing cement. With the winters we have here the cement cracked with the frost, that not being a problem for many years because of the liner. The liner I used at that time as previously stated was from a above ground pool and became quite brittle. Now I am using the .045 membrane. The black pipe comes up from the bottom pond to supply the water.
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Saturday, June 02, 2007

12 Things About Building A Pond

Yesterday my wife pointed me in the direction of one of the TV show she was watching on building a pond and waterfall. Ponds are in the air because then the daily paper came and it happened to have a article on rebuilding a 12 year old pond. They interviewed a pond shop owner, here are 12 points he suggests you should consider when building a pond.
1. Make your pond larger rather than smaller, as they feel larger ponds are easier to maintain.
2. The pond should be 2 1/2 feet deep to keep fish and plants over winter.
3. Place the pond in the yard so people can enjoy it.
4. The cost, they suggest a 11 by 16 foot pond will cost from $2,200 to $3,600 and if it were professionally installed it could range from $ 4,900 to $7,900.
5. Use the lay of the land to decide where to put the pond , avoid building a mound to have a waterfall.
6. Avoid the lowest part of the land to prevent runoff of lawn clippings and fertilizer into the pond.
7. Use correct size of pump.
8. Use a skimmer to filter out leaves and grasses.
9. Maintenance of skimmer once a month.
10. Chemical treatment of pond once a month.
11. Add lights, plants to add another level of interest to the pond
12. Use good materials.
These are some good ideas, I have to think about some of them thou.
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Friday, June 01, 2007

Fantasy Waterfall

This is a fun new service I just had to try out. I must confess this waterfall is just a touch higher than the one I am rebuilding right now.



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