This weekend was finally nice, so we plunged headlong into yardwork. Bright and squirrelly on Saturday morning, we headed to the plant nursery. After dance class, of course.
Oh so stylish…she did at least wear her ballet shoes during dance.
We purchased some bushes for the backyard, a few perrennials, my annual herbs and the annual flowers for the planters…and a pond liner. We decided to put in two ponds with a riverbed in between them to capture the water from our sump pump. While being a good thing to do for utilizing water for our plants, we mostly are doing it because the water is overrunning our backyard. Its a bit soupy.
We now understand why.
Brian slaved away and dug both of the ponds on Sunday. The first went easier as there was some actual sand in the ground. The larger one was pretty much a clay-like muck, so that was a bit more hard on him. After the liners were in place with the little streambed inbetween them, he hooked up the pipes to empty into the first smaller pond at around 6pm. It was filled in about 2 hours.
When we woke up this morning, the larger pond was about half full.
We are thinking of getting a rain barrel to put some excess water into it, and then use the hose that you can attach to the bottom to help water the plants. Now we can really see why our backyard was so wet. We definitely must have a spring next to the house to get this much water out of it. Truly, it is amazing that so much water is going through our drain tile. We are going to be watering the plants by hand A LOT this summer.
At least the ponds will be nice for little guys like these…
Our backyard is looking better after massive de-weeding and the plantings. We just need to dry out a few areas and I can plant a few more things to fill in the open areas. Then…we need to landscape the ponds. Right now the plastic liners are being held in place by massive amounts of water and a few rocks. We need to get the edges of the liners all pretty and maybe put some little stepping stones around them. The children are really drawn to the ponds right now, and after seeing the Koi fish at the nursery, they are really wanting some fishies. Not sure if that will happen or not. I imagine that the fish need a stable PH in the water, right? With new water constantly going in, I’m not sure how sustainable it will be for fish. Any experience out there?? We will get some water lillies to at least make them look pond-like, though.
At least it will be pretty back there, after all the work. Too bad we don’t have longer seasons to enjoy it all, but really by Fall we are ready for a rest!
Can’t wait to see pictures of the finished ponds! And all of your beautiful flowers!
Sounds fantastic. Sounds also like you have the opposite problem to us. being on a slope, all the water runs off and doesn’t even penetrate the clay like muck we call soil here >:-(. Last summer we put in some pots with drought resistant plants and they did well. They’ll probably croak in the frosts this winter though :-(…….the climate here is ridiculous.
PS: LOVE the pink boots!
We have a really wet yard too. I think our soil has a lot of clay in it. I like the summer because it dries up the yard after the rains! I hope you will put up a picture of the finished/landscaped pond. I’m sure it will be beautiful.
By the way – I read your fruit dip recipe from the other day. I must make that as my kids would love it!
we have a little reprieve on the yard stuff,,,LOL
don’t want to put to much in cause we are hoping to start the new house soon. And that will change everything around….
hope Brian’s feet are feeling better.. all that digging would of been pretty painful if not????? LOL
Yeah, it turned out to be a weekend of garden projects for us too. Or really me, as Saturday my parents helped a little bit and we put some pole beans in. Sunday it seemed like I did too much and planted the flowers too. Now the husband is attempting to make up and over do everything else. Oh well. I like your pond idea though. No excess water around here though. 😉
You will LOVE having the ponds! My (ex)FIL has two in his backyard, and they are so much fun for everyone. They have fish and tadpoles galore…but they also have a huge saltwater tank and he’s an expert on all things fish related.