Allow me to talk about rocks.
We live in the Lanark Highlands - a land of lakes, trees...and rocks! The rocks that I placed around my flower gardens mostly came up out of the ground when I dug the beds. If the rock was big enough I just made it a part of the bed. The same held true for the water garden (AKA my koi pond!). When we started digging we unearthed some doozies (see the 60-70 pounders below) - thank goodness I had Sam and David here for some added muscle!
I was able to use many of the larger rocks in and around the pond. One makes a small island in the shallow end, a few hide the liner on the edges. I did not have enough to finish the job though, so I went on the hunt for the perfect rocks.
Farming 160 years ago farming was a hit and miss affair in our region. Some lucky pioneers got deep pockets of good soil while others got...you guessed it!...rocks! I went to our friends land and picked through the big piles of rocks the farmers had "harvested" from their fields over 150 years ago. Oh, and because we are surrounded by glacial moraine, the rocks are varied and were probably carried many miles before being deposited here.
I searched for rocks with character, rocks with moss and lichen attached, rocks with interesting veins of quartz. I would come back with 8 or nine sizable rocks only to discover they didn't quite fit and another trip to the pile was required!
I am sure anyone watching my selection and placement process would have laughed. I would pick rocks like I was selecting paint colours and place them like I was adding the final brush stokes to a landscape painting.
I also wanted a few large flat stones - large and heavy enough to stand or sit on. Some of these came from an old foundation on our property and a couple came from a neighbour down the road who heard I was looking for flat rocks for my waterfalls (thanks!)
I decided early on in the design process that I would enjoy having a place where I could sit at the edge of the pond with my feet in the water...and I do enjoy it! - a very pleasant pastime! The rock I sit on (the big one on the right in the photo below) is actually about 2'x2'. It is so difficult to get an idea of the size of the pond from these photos!
The "sitting rock" is right beside the waterfalls - a perfect place to relax on a hot day!
I also used river rocks (brought to us courtesy of the last ice age) and some pea gravel (purchased from Canadian Tire! - very cheap!) to help hide the liner - especially in cracks between the bigger rocks - (see below) ...
...and to cover the bottom of the pond.
If you are making your own pond I am sure you will read about the vital role gravel and stones play in maintaining good pond chemistry. I will write about this mysterious thing called "good pond chemistry" later.
Finally, I went looking for some nice spill stones for the falls. The flat stones that I could find around my property were too thick and heavy for a small pond. I decided to go to a nearby quarry where you can get flat sheets of limestone. I got many big pieces to work from and it cost me a whopping $6.95!
Creating the falls was the most challenging task of setting up the pond. Challenging because I wanted to make the falls look like they belong.
The bio falls are basically a bucket of black plastic. Water is pumped into the bottom of the bucket, moves up through several filters and spills over a lip in the top. The trick was to have enough rise in the surrounding landscaping - a rise created by the soil displaced when we dug the hole - that I could hide the bucket and make it look like the falls were coming from a natural spring. The addition of moss, plants and river stoned helped.
I think that next year when the plants around the pond grow and settle in things will look less formal, more natural. By then I will be building another pond!
Comments