Top left pic:
The hole as I left it on Mother's Day with pond and waterfall just stored in it. St. Augustine had heavy rains that made this whole site too soggy to work for weeks.
Bottom left:
Indentured servant re-excavating pond hole after heavy rains reshaped it.
Top Right:
Newspapers spread as a cushion. We don't have rocks in the soil, so this step was probably not even needed.
Bottom Right:
The pond in place with waterfall flowing. The rockage is just stuff Mom had lying around. We are taking her some additional rocks soon.
She loves it and is ready to add koi.
The pea gravel surrounding the pond is kind of dark in that picture as it had just been unearthed.
When I was a kid, we had an outside eating/relaxing area called, "the screen house", that consisted of a few picnic tables inside a screened enclosure. For a floor, Mom and Dad had just spread about 6 inches of pea gravel so if a kid spilled something it was no big deal.
The screen house is long gone now, but as I was trying to landscape her pond last week and running out of materials, I remembered the screen house floor.
The area of the old screen house is covered in several inches of ferns and pine needles now, but when I scratched that away with a rake ... there was the the gravel.
Sweet.
So, I mined gravel from that site to spread around the pond perimeter.
In the picture, they are fresh out of the rich black dirt of Dad's yard, so they don't have their sparkle back yet, but it shouldn't take many rains to bring out their color again.
Reuse, recycle.
9 comments:
Great job. I can't wait to see it in a few weeks.
There is nothing nicer than a water garden or folly or whatever you wish to call it. What a nice thing to do for your mom.
What a great gift! You're a good son, FC.
FC,
Possibility of being in your hometown for 4th of July. Interested in kayaking parts of anastasia. Any suggestions? Done a few rivers recently...
mw
Jean,
Today it already had a pickeral frog, tadpoles, and a black racer hanging out around it.
3C,
She absolutely loves it :)
SCM,
If so, one of two. My brother and I did this together. Thanks!
Mike,
At Anastasia, try Salt Run. It should be pretty good.
Nice job, FC. I SO need a waterfall in my garden. Got any extras of those indentured servants hanging around? Very good mother's day gift.
Meems @ For the Love of Florida
Several years back, artificial wetlands were the rage, but much like you've found on a micro scale, would be nature savers discovered natural looking (and functioning) water bodies are very tricky to reconstruct. The alternative though is even trickier --> saving the ones we have.
looks good! happy father's day!
I'd love to have a Waterfolly! However, the folly would be trying to keep the deer from drinking it dry and eating the waterlilies! My neighborhood deer would probably eat the koi, too, they sample absolutely everything else.
Enjoy Father's Day being a dad, and with your Dad.
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