Our old side yard was pretty ugly but was a nice place to sit, so we decided to paver it and put in a fish pond with
a cascading waterfall. This was probably our most fun project, since it was relatively small-scale. Since I was working
at home at the time, I would get outside when I needed a break and shovel dirt into buckets, since we had to remove
about 8" where the pavers would go.
<== Old side yard. The fence had already been replaced (we hired this out). There was a really nice old camelia (one of the
few plants in our yard when we purchased it) which
we ended up cutting down because it blocked the view and the light.The grass was in pretty bad shape since
the sprinkler system only had 3 heads on this side of the house. ==>
<== We moved the pavers from the driverway to the sideyard and piled them so that we could get to them without
having to walk over the screeded sand (right). ==>
<== Pavers laid. Sand is being spread between pavers prior to compaction.
<==Next, pond construction. We went down to Lyngso and got the biggest rocks that Erik could handle
to use as a basis for the waterfall. I had gotten a really beautiful Japanese Maple at the beginning
of the season. It was a variety which would not grow very quickly or very tall (rice-leaf, I believe).
We used a pre-formed pond liner and pre-formed waterfalls, which were really ugly, but we doubted
our ability to build the cascade using a pond-liner sheet and rocks and we were hoping that the plants
would grow around it and make it not very visible. We used the Japanese Maple as the basis for the
top of the cascade. ==>
<== Finished!
Photo shows flowering cherries, Japanese Maple, Pieris and Azaleas. (Note
electic fence around pond.) ==>
<== Goldfinches enjoying the new side yard.
Racoons, unfortunately, really enjoyed the pond also, and would get in there at night and wreck havoc on the pond, goldfishes,
water plants and irrigation system. Erik's first idea was to build an impact-sprinkler that would come on when a motion
detector light caught motion. This could be turned on and off with a switch so we could turn it on at night. Well, this deterred
the racoons a bit, but either they learned how not to move enough to turn on the detector, or they didn't mind the
water impact, so we'd still lose fish occasionally. Eventually I put up an electric fence around the pond, which is
ugly and manages to shock me when I'm not careful
feeding the fish or cleaning out the pond. Definitely unpleasant!
I'm sure
we've spent hundred of dollars protecting our three 25 cent feeder goldfish (now quite large).
We've finally replaced the plastic pre-formed cascade with a rubber pond-liner sheet and some rocks. It
looks a bit better (not shown -- waiting to purchase a new digital SLR after I make some money doing real estate --
wanna buy or sell a house? Know someone who does? I'd be very grateful for the referral!).
