Today is Apr4il 11, 2019 and I thought it wouold be a good day to get started fixing the pond for the summer. Below I have listed some goals and ideas and a plan of action. Comments are welcome.
Status:
The pond has not been touched in at least six months and it is in relatively bad state. It’s full of sludge and debris and the upper portion needs to be completed. THe integrity of the pond-liner appears to be in good shape, though we have lots of vines and feeders succking the water.
Plans:
- Remove large debris from the pond area
- drain pond
- clear out sludge and additional debris
- trim back vines and leaf-producing plants
- place rocks to finish the sides and bottom of the lower pond area (see item 1 below)
- implement a cage for pumps and raise pumps off the floor (see item 2 below)
- implement rudimentary waterproof lighting (see item 3 below)
- refill pond
- determine how to implement the second pump (see item 4 below)
- consider raising the water level in the top pond
Considerations
Item 1 – Pond Rocks, Cement, Adhesive
I have gathered a large number of rocks from around the area and we just don; ‘t have enough rocks to finish the pond correctly. We need to get a small pallet of rocks. We also need to purchase 3 or 4 bags of water-proof mortar to mount the rocks and to point the existing rocks. Some adhesive would also help–probably 3 or 4 tubes of waterproof adhesive. Once we have these items we can finish the main portion of the pond.
For the last two years, I have purchased the necessary pieces for the pond out of my pocket. This year, I am going to leave it up to the Homeowners Association. I can put together a projected cosst for the supplies later today.
Item2 – Protect the Pumps
We need some way to shield the pumps from the leaves and debris. I figure by lifting the pumps slightly off the bottom, we can avoid some of ths sludge that clogs them up. I had built a cage to go around the pump to protect the leaves, but it never worked out right. I am open to any ideas.
We should also consider filtering the water. Good filtered water will help keep the pond running. Right now it gets pretty gross pretty quick. This may be an additional expense, but it would be work it in the long run. I will research some DIY solutions and we can work on this later.
Item 3 – Light the Ponds
While I am happy to provide the light that I used last year for Cinco De Mayo again this year, we should have a permanent solution built in that is weatherproof and hidden’ I currently have some rope lighting that will help light up part of it, but we may need to purchase a transformer if I can’t get the ones we have currently to work with these lights.
Item 4 – Second Pump
Currently we have two pumps in our system. Neither of which are real pond pumps.. One is a sump pump and the other a swimming pool pump. The sump pump feeds the top fountain and the second pump has not been applied yet.
I was hoping to make a traditional fountain out of the second pump, but ran into some problems and had to take it all apart. Currently, we just pump the water into the upper pond. I had set aside thee low-profile round pots that I planned to make into a fountain that cascaded down to each of the circles before exiting into the bottom pond but haven’t completed that yet.
Again, I am open to id3eas here.