 |
Subtitled:
"Hey- I can't mow a lawn that steep, and besides- I have much better things to do than to expend all that energy trying!"
|
There are quite a few images that will load below, so you might as well do some reading....
This is the place to watch the progress on my latest project-from-hell; stripping sod off of an impossible to mow section of the lawn in the back yard, and fighting with a shovel to try to get a hole dug large enough to add a pond, waterfall, and a small stream. Someone in the rec.pond newsgroup said: "It's really easy- all you have to do is dig a hole, add a liner, fill it with water, and you have a pond!" Yeah, right.... the part above that kills me is the phrase "all you have to do..." They made it sound like this is as easy as making ice cubes. I don't make ice cubes- I have an automatic ice maker in the freezer to allow me to forgo this tedious task. I need one of them newfangled "automatic sod stripper hole digger rock remover dirt toting terrain leveling machines" like I've seen in the back of a magazine. Anyone out there have one I can borrow for a while? : )
This whole project started like this:
Home sweet home!
We moved from a suburb of Chicago to Eastern Tennessee, to a little town called Clinton, just northwest of Knoxville. It's a radical change of pace from where we were living before. The constant roar of traffic, gun fire, & car stereos thumping the whole house as they slowly cruise by has been replaced by cows mooing, a donkey braying somewhere down the holler (That's what they call little valleys here), roosters crowing, and HUGE bullfrogs in the pond down the road croaking their frog brains out all night long. Ahh, this is the stuff dreams are made of. What a great change of pace! (The theme from GREEN ACRES starts playing in my head at this point)
The LAWNTAMER! : )
We bought a house on Black Oak Ridge, a rather large house with more room than we know what to do with. Very cool! The house is on 3/4 of an acre that we own, and the only downside is that the lawn is just so steep that it's virtually impossible to mow, even with the new monster truck-like self propelled mower we bought at Sears. We're talking a workout that would bring even Jack LaLane to his knees, whimpering like a little school girl. (Yes, this is a doctored up image- although with the terrain around here Sears would sell a lot of mowers if they were built like this!)
The little pond that started it all...
We've got a built in pool in the backyard, and while rummaging through the shed that houses the pool pump and filter, I discovered a small pump, which, come to find out, is a pond pump. There was also a small peanut shaped pre-formed pond in the far corner of the yard with a few water plants in it. It was stuck way up on the hillside against the fence, and was totally useless since it is impossible to see it. So I had a brainstorm, which went something like this:
"Hey honey? You know that stretch of lawn that we keep sliding down when we try to mow? How about I drag that pond down the hill and stick it into the ground right here near the deck where we can enjoy it?" "Then we can add a small stream for the birds to play in, then add a waterfall, then plant lots of cool flowers and plants around it!" Sounded like a plan in the making....
I ran across a deal that I couldn't pass up at a local home center- a 16 by 20 foot PVC pond liner that they were discontinuing, which I just HAD to grab, being the smart shopper that I am. All of a sudden I've gone from a little toy pond to a full blown pond, but hey- that's even LESS lawn to mow! Sounds like a winner to me!
Where it will all take place.
I started stripping off some sod, (seen at top left) which has been simply back breaking work, to say the least. And no, this isn't trick photography, this is just how steep the yard is! The small peanut pond will be placed towards the top of the hill (just to the top left of the photo), the main pond will be towards the base of the hill, close to the edge of the deck. I plan on running a small stream effect around the left side to eventually dump into the main pond. There is a HUGE pile of rocks on the pool deck- usually 1/3 rock in every shovel full of dirt. Slow going, to say the least.
A side shot of the soon to be pond.
Kiss that grass goodbye!
Another side shot.
The excavation has started!
The outline of the pond has been dug, the hillside has been removed. What a job this was!
How hard was the digging? I busted brand new, heavy duty pitchfork that snapped in half on about the 5th plunge into the soil. Back to Ace Hardware I go for the super duper, extra strong deluxe version. They love me over there.
Eye level shot, showing the height I have to work with.
There was a LOT of dirt to remove to build this pond. Not only the hole had to be dug, but the hill side had to be dug back quite a bit as well. Tough work on mid 90's days with major humidity. Thank God for Gatorade!
Roots- my worst enemy!
This spot happened to contain a LOT of roots from an oak tree about 20 some odd feet away. I literally wore out the pruning shears I'm holding. An amazing amount of work to build this pond, but it was worth the effort now that it's done.
My impersonation of someone who's dead tired..
I'm telling you, this was incredibly hard, slow going. This soil is mostly rock, and is thick, heavy clay. And roots- did I mention the roots?
The liner is installed in between torrential rains.
Sadly, I have had to dig this pond out twice- we had some major rains here, and one morning I discovered that the rain had washed down tons of soil from the hill, filling the hole completely. The worst part is that it dried up solid as a rock, which made digging it back out again a real pain. The pond is stepped from a shallow end of about 6 inches, then another step of about a foot and a half, then steps down again to about 36 inches deep on the left side. The location of the roots dictated the shape of the pond. It's a lot smaller than I wanted, but there wasn't much I could do about it at all.
The waterfall is in!
The waterfall is finally in- although I've since torn it all out and rebuilt it since this photo was taken. Note the blue plastic stuff in the background- this is an old solar swimming pool cover, which I lined the bottom of the pond with. I also used it under the rocks on the waterfall so that the rock wouldn't poke or tear a hole in the pond liner, which is draped up the side of the hill and behind all the rock. That way it can spill out in any direction that the water wants to, and it will all drain back into the pond. It just made sense to me to do it this way, and is working perfectly. Note the lovely red, muddy water- some dirt had gotten into the pond as it was being filled, and it took a week to clear up.
My little green buddy.
We've got a lot of tree frogs around here, and I kept hearing a small croak, and couldn't find where he was hiding. I eventually discovered his hiding place- he was comfortably resting in the wicker holder for the tikki torches! These guys like to cling to the windows of the house, which, of course, drive the cats nuts trying to get to them. One enterprising fellow has been seen nightly sitting on the side of the back porch light, waiting patiently for a moth small enough to snack on to come within reach. These little green guys sure keep me amused!
Here's what's in the pond now- and there's a lot of it in there, as well as a yellow and a pink water lily, some grasses, a few water hyacinth, as well as some cool floating stuff with yellow flowers that a neighbor's sister donated from her pond. The leaves look almost identical to the pennywort below. And the neighbors sister's pond is an huge old fiberglass satellite dish! It works out GREAT! Ponders sure are a creative lot!
Well folks, that's all I've got at the moment- bookmark this page and check back every now and then to watch our progress.
Pssst! Want some pond tips so you can avoid the problems I ran into?
