Our garden began like this....

9 Jun '06 10:07 pm

Yeah... I was just spoofing. We both work too...it's amazing that we ever have time for the lottie at all! I'm going there now to give water and air the green house.

9 Jun '06 10:17 pm

Yeah I know
Hope you enjoy your lottie visit, Im off to sleep now, so I am nice & refreshed ready for the Weekends Gardening...

10 Jun '06 6:21 am

Goose ,does the water stay in the pond ? A pond was formed on our land many years ago ,for duck shooting (the ducks are safe now ,though ! ) It is near the creek which runs around the back of the farm ,and eventually joins up with the river across the Hauraki plains and out at Thames. In Winter ,the pond floods ,and all the trees I planted get destroyed ,and in Summer it dries out completely .I wish I knew what could be done to keep the water level .
Dixie.

10 Jun '06 8:55 am

Dear Dixie,

Of course I haven't seen your actual pond, but perhaps I can give you some ideas.

If your pond is going dry in the summer, this is due to a couple of problems that, when compounded, cause the pond to dry up. Also, flood control and management of water levels is not as difficult as it may seem.

Now from what I read here, it sounds like there is porous earth under the pond. The water leaches in to the dirt under the pond and when there is enough flow to replenish what is lost this way then you don't notice it.

The unfortunate part of my fix is that it involves heavy machines, like a back-hoe or a bulldozer, but being in a rural area you might know someone who has such critters putting around.

So you patiently wait until the pond goes dry again. In the meantime you move all the plants you want to save away from the pool. Once it is dry, then have the back-hoe come in and dig the pond deeper. The soil from the bottom is placed around the edges to build up the edges of the pond. A bulldozer would be more efficient for this as he could push the bottom to the sides. You could build an island if you want. Go deeper than you want by at least 2 feet. Have the machines enter the pond where the water will exit. Once the bottom has been scraped and the sides built up, then you need some clay brought in by truck and dumped in the bottom of the pond. This is spread out to a depth of about 2 feet. It depends on how porous the clay is as to how deep it needs to be. You could cement the bottom, but this an expensive idea. clay is more natural. Once the clay is evenly distributed and packed down then you need to build a method of controlling the water level. A simple lock is made by making pilings on each side of the exit. The pilings can be made of large poles or you cold build a cement forum. There usually is a slot that big planks slide down in to. To raise the level of the pond, you put in more planks. To release more water you remove some planks. Plank control is done through the aid of a long iron rod with a hook on the one end and a "T" handle on the other. The planks have an eye bolt on each end so you can dip the rod down and hook the plank and pull it up. The planks should be small enough so you can do this, say 4" x 4" beams or 2" x 8" planks.

Once your new pond is shaped out then you can start the landscaping around the perimeter. Build a bridge to the island.

Now you would have trapped the water and it would be deep enough as to not dry out. Higher banks means less chance to flood, plus the pond level control, if the water level was getting high you could remove a plank or two and release more water. If you noticed the water flow was slowing, then you could add boards to the lock to help keep more water in the pond.

Food for thought.

Christopher

10 Jun '06 10:09 am

Yes Christopher
We created our pond (dam) in a similar way. The differences being the overflow, we looked at your method and decided it was easier to install a drainpipe (much quicker).Having dug the pond we found Lime stone rock so we didnt have to put any clay in and as it was higher in one part we made this the island.We have not put a bridge over to the island as we leave it for the ducks and wildlife to nest in. The cats would cross the bridge and get even more ducklings than they do now.The biggest problem we had in the beginning was the overflow pipe was too high and we had torrential rains which made the pond overflow on the new bank which hadnt compacted enough to cope and started to erode (Very scary)
Visions of the whole thing collapsing and flooding everywhere. We lowered the pipe and fixed the bank and havent had any further problems (Touch wood). As it is quite deep the water level doesnt drop that much about 2ft is the most and it still looks fine.
Here are some pics to show you how the pipe works Dixie.

11 Jun '06 7:29 am

Thank you so much for your advice illustrated by photos -ours was formed by damming the natural drainage too -It seems that the overflow could be too high up .Smiley has three words for suggestions " Just Leave It " ,so I don`t know if and when we will work on it .When we first bought this place ,he was keen to develop the pond area.It is surrounded by hawthorn and privet pops up regularly .I must take a photo as it has beauty in a wild sort of way .Looks mysterious in a Waikato fog !
Dixie.

25 Jun '06 7:30 pm

Such an interesting and fascinating gardening tale to read, accompanied with lovely before/after captures! Bravo, Goose! Reminding me of the wild west pioneers! Smile

Thanks for sharing!

17 Aug '06 12:49 pm

Dixie I have just taken another look at your photo to see
your driveway which you mentioned in the wildflower post.
It looks a really long driveway and I think wildflowers would look magnificent. 'A challenge' But well worth it. If you do decide to do it I will look forward to seeing your pics. I found that my weeds take over so I have to start from scratch each time & spray the area again. But apart from that its a great way of gardening. Have fun.

22 Aug '06 2:57 am

I was very interested to read all the discussion of your ponds. On our property we have two ponds; one larger one in the back pasture (paddock) that drops it's water level during droughts, but usually never goes totally dry. The smaller one is in the area next to our entrance drive and is only about 50 feet across. It fills up in the winter and actually overflows into an area about another 50 to 60 feet long that we leave as a natural marsh. In the hottest part of our summer, however, this pond goes totally dry and the marsh drys up to become a wildflower area in the fall. The wildflowers are those that are native to our property such as Iron weed, Joe-Pye weed, Goldenrod, small wild asters and daisy-like flowers. There are lots of weeds and grasses mixed in, so I have not tried to add any additional wild flowers.

I often wish I could find a way to keep water in the pond year round since it is in such a critical part of the entrance to our property. I am afraid that it might cause problems during the winter wet season with too much water. It was great to read of some of the solutions others have found.

Your pictures are lovely and your pond beautiful.

Faith

Our garden began like this....

just joking

pond

Water Management

Water management

Thank you

Aerial Photo - Driveway

Ponds