|
The
collapse and rebuild
Pitfalls of my pond
|
 We
sold our retail pond store after 13 years in Michigan and were
moving south to North Carolina! The above picture is my finished
pond when we arrived in North Carolina. Because I was bringing my
favorite fish with me from Michigan I needed to have the pond all ready
so we contracted to have the pond dug while we were still in Michigan.
Rich and I designed the pond and we found what we thought was a
reputable pond builder. Oh boy! what a mistake that was. The total lower
pond totally collapsed about 6 weeks after we got here. Seems during
construction the lower pond was filling with water and they chose to
ignore that fact and built the pond as planned. Duh! So much for a
professional that should known a hole that fills with water during
construction is a problem. By ignoring that fact the first major
rain that hit collapsed the lower pond by hydrostatic pressure. |
| The rocks
began to slide.
|
As I walked out to the pond early in the morning with coffee in hand as
I do every morning I could not believe my eyes. I thought I must
be dreaming as I screamed for Rich. In this picture you can see where
the rocks began to slide. By mid afternoon the whole back side of
the pond had collapsed in on itself. |
| The lower
pond begins to slide into the water |
You can see where later that day
the opposite side of the pond collapsed too. In this mess are 9 fish I
moved 800 miles from Michigan to North Carolina. Fish that I have
had for many years. I looked at the pond and wondered where
my fish were. The pump actually continued to pump until we shut it off.
But as it pumped, it pumped red North Carolina red clay through the
water. We had no idea if the fish were alive or buried under the massive
rocks.
Later that day we pumped the pond dry
and was able to find all 9 fish. Totally unhurt. They must
have felt the vibrations of the slide and moved to safety. Some of those
rocks took 4 men to get them out of the pond because of the weight! |
| The Mess
to clean up |
|
This
is what had to be cleaned up and rebuilt! What a mess! |
| Retainer
wall had to be built all around the pond |
 Because
of the grade a retainer wall was built all around the pond and a French
drain was added |
| Almost
ready for the new liner to be added |
 You
can see now how the retainer wall was built behind the back edge of the
lower pond.The lower pond was
enlarged by nature because when the pond wall collapsed it also tore the
liner in several spots. A new liner 50 x 50 had to be bought.
Once the old liner was out we had 3 days of heavy rain that enlarged the
pond! So in the end the lower pond is now about 1/3 bigger than the
original design.
Now in retrospect I wished I had gone
and looked at the ponds they had built because my pond was full of flaws
that one can not see but will notice once the water is actually moving
through the system. The flaws in other ponds they had built were not
visible in photos we looked at. Now 18 months later we have
corrected the most obvious flaws ourselves but there are some we must
live with as they are beyond correction without a greatly added expense
on our part. I could not see the flaws in the pictures that the
contractor emailed us to Michigan as the construction was being done.
It was indeed an expensive lesson for
us. Know your pond builder. Go and talk to the owners of ponds they have
built. Scrutinize their work and ask lots of question. Learn from our
lessons.
Now in retrospect I wished I had gone
and looked at the ponds they had built because my pond was full of flaws
that one can not see but will notice once the water is actually moving
through the system. The flaws in other ponds they had built were not
visible in photos we looked at.
Now 18 months later we have corrected
the most obvious flaws ourselves but there are some we must live with as
they are beyond correction without a greatly added expense on our part.
I could not see the flaws in the pictures that the contractor emailed us
to Michigan as the construction was being done. It was indeed an
expensive lesson for us.
Know your pond builder. Go and talk to
the owners of ponds they have built. Scrutinize their work and ask lots
of question. Learn from our lessons. |
| The Upper
Pond |
This is the upper pond in the summer of 2001.
The small fish you may be able to see are fry we hatched in a stock tank
and then put in the upper pond to grow. The sign is at the entrance to
our back yard and the upper pond is just beyond the sign and the Holly
tree. |
|
The Bridge and Streambed |
  
The upper pond falls down a waterfalls that
leads to a 30’ stream bed that has a wooden bridge that crosses over to
the deck. Rich and I designed the unique wood deck so that the deck sits
in the middle of all 3 ponds.
Iris line the sides of the stream bed that the
wooden bridge goes over that leads to the deck. Once the Iris are done
blooming I remove them and add another blooming plant so that I always
have blooming plants in my waterfalls.
Early summer Purple Loosestrife blooms in the
streambed once the Iris are finished blooming |
|
The Middle Pond |
 
This is Sunny in the middle pond and you can
see Mischief grazing on the Water Celery I grow in the pond for the fish
to snack on. The picture on the right shows Sunny grazing on the Water
Celery. |
| The
finished deck and furniture |
This view is from the upstairs window that
shows the deck, which Rich and I designed, that surrounds the 3 ponds |
| Middle
pond leading down to waterfalls and the lower pond |
 
 The
middle pond is about 4,000 gallons and has a nice plant shelf. This is
the pond I can see out my kitchen windows as I work around the kitchen |
|
The Lower Water Falls |
 
This is one of my favorite parts of the pond and
it is the part that makes all the peaceful noise of water running. |
|
The Lower Pond |
 
The lower pond is about 10,000 gallons. I
had a problem with the fish going over the waterfalls and I now keep all
the fish in the lower pond. One of the nicest things about them
being in the lower pond is that we can see them as we sit on the deck
each night and eat dinner. We love watching them doing their
antics and they provide all the dinner entertainment we need.
Stairs on the new deck going down to the lower pond
|
| Facts
about my pond |
| About the pond itself. A
skimmer feeds the upper pond from the middle pond and also from the
bottom drain that goes into a Challenger filter and the back up to the
upper pond. We designed the system this way so that we could have
maximum flow over the waterfalls. The upper pond is about 3,000 gallons.
Even though this picture was taken from an upstairs window you can not
see the upper pond in the above picture.
There is an additional 1,000 gallons (we are guessing here) in the
system that is in the streambed, 6 waterfalls, the underground pipes and
the filter.
The lower pond has 2 bottom drains that feed to
the Challenger filter. We use a 2 g.p.h. 2-speed pump to pump the water
from the filter up to the upper pond. There is also a skimmer with in
the lower pond that pumps to the middle pond. That pump is a 2700-gallon
pump.
The middle has a skimmer that pumps 2700 g.p.h.
to the upper pond. It also has a bottom drain.
The middle pond has a bottom drain also.
My fish in their new North Carolina home
|
| More
photos........ |
 |
"Bonnie's plants are extremely lush,
top-size plants at prices that compete with our local budget stores! I have
received another shipment from her, and, as always, it arrived in perfect
condition - the Bonus Plant was an
especially nice touch!"
~ D. Diamond
My Pond |
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