A Pond Renovation

Along with renovating the rental house, we took on the challenge of renovating the aforementioned pond, which was in very bad health when we purchased our property.  It didn’t look too bad in the winter but when the weather is warm it becomes thick with green, mucky algae.  All the fish actually died last summer because it was so poorly maintained.  (I know you’re wondering, once again, why we bought this property!)  I have a little 8’x8’ pond on our current property but things are different with a ¼ acre one.  Do I need a pump?  Should I aerate it?  How about a waterfall?  What kind of plants?  How do you plant them?

We found some great answers at ThePondGuy.com.  What we couldn’t find on their website or catalog, they helpfully explained to us over the phone.  Between them and our excavators, we received a good education in pond health.  We gradually drained the pond, and the summer heat and drought advanced the cause by drying out the muck.  Charlie and three buddies jury rigged a pump to drain the last 300 gallons using over 100 feet of rope from each bank so they didn’t have to walk in the muck.  (The excavators wouldn’t touch it until it was almost dry.)

It’s always exciting when the big equipment arrives on the scene.  Our excavators dredged out the muck and made the pond a little deeper so that we could eventually install geo-thermal heating and cooling in our future home and still have depth to swim, if desired (hard to imagine in its current state!)    They used the dredged pond dirt to build up the causeway, giving us enough width for a driveway to the home site.   We also added a pond liner because we suspected that the pond had been leaking.  Since the equipment was already on-site we went ahead and replaced the old broken-down bridge at the other end of the property and straightened out the road to the home site.

In order to add aeration and flow to the pond water (confounding the algae’s chances) we decided to put a waterfall on the bank opposite the home site.  We also left some shallow spots for future water lilies and marginal plants.  While the pond was empty, we took the opportunity to begin building a gazebo and we also put in a pond pump for the waterfall.  Now the rains can come.  I’ll be curious to see how long it will take to fill back up (and pray that it actually will!) 

I think that our on-site work will slow down for awhile.  Now we can go back to planning the actual house. Whew!