As The Pond Fills, Day Four

Today was the final day of The Great Pond Renovation of 2008. Justin arrived just after 8 this morning and got busy shoveling gravel right away. Owing to another plumbing emergency, I was unable to get out to Nelson Water Gardens to choose plants for the bog. Since I have big plans for the weekend and won't have time to do any gardening, I'm practicing delayed gratification and waiting until next week to visit Nelson's. The good thing about waiting: I can buy plants AND fish at the same time! What kind of fish should I get? Goldfish, comets, Shubunkins? I'm partial to the latter because the name amuses me and I've already thought of several fish names that play off Shubunkin. I had 3 fish in the old pond for a very brief time several years ago: their names were Lester, Pearl and Earl. I'll bet no one guesses where I got those names. First one who does wins a prize!

Here's two views of the pond just after gravel installation.


Justin trimmed the liner, mulched around the edges, and put the water lily and hornwort back in before filling the pond and turning on the pumps, flushing the mud and dirt from the gravel bog into the pond. That muddy water should clear by tomorrow afternoon. Here's how it looked a few minutes after the pumps were turned on.
Obviously I've got a lot of planting to do and it's going to take time for the empty spaces around the pond to fill in and soften the edges. I'll admit to one misgiving about the design and that is my decision to make the back wall of the bog 2 blocks high. I do take full responsibility for that: Justin asked and I decided it needed the extra height. Now that it's all done, I'm not so sure! I think I'll be able to get creative and make it work, though. It's such a big change from what was there that it's taking me some time to adjust to the new vista.


I spent a couple of hours after Justin left, repositioning some rocks here, adding a rock there, starting the process of making the pond my own. I did run into a problem as I was watering a pot that I'd placed behind the electrical box. The spray nozzle was set on JET. Evidently water got into the outlet because the pumps stopped working. I had to let the outlet dry out for a few hours before it was ready to work again. Is this going to happen when we have one of our torrential rains, or was it just due to a freakish angle of the water stream from the hose? Will I have to come up with some kind of shield or cover for the electrical box? I guess time will tell.

I have to say that although it wasn't inexpensive to have this done, it was worth every penny to me. There's no way I could have accomplished anything like this on my own, or even working with a friend (NOT Essence Man because we don't work well together on such projects ... he gets cranky). I can recommend Justin and Pond Pros of Houston without any hesitation. Thanks for making one of my garden dreams come true, Justin!