Water Garden/Coi Pond

[Timber]

Well now that the pool is done for the year I have decided to start my water garden and see if I can get it in before the ground freezes. The first thing I have to do is clear the area the garden is going to go





This stone is very large. I have 1 chance to put it were I want. It is balanced up on some other stones and I can only flip it once. I decided were I want it and then undercut were I want it to sit. Once I flip it were ever it lands is were it stays





Now were this large stone is now is going to be the area the waterfall will be built in and the side near the pool house with be the coi pond

 

[Timber]

Ok this is the 1st problem. The guy that built this place did a lot of things himself. When he ran power to the sub panel to the Barn he didn't bury the cable very deep at all. I did know this and had an idea were the cable was. How ever I miscalculated and I found it the hard way. Before I started digging I did kill the power from the main panel just in case





I was popping out some stones and put a tooth into the PVC and popped it up. I got real lucky though. I only pulled about 6 inches of slack so I didn't do any damage to my panel. I dug up the PVC with a shovel to work with it. I had to trip the main out and pull the slack back into the main panel before I re cement the PVC back together



Now I have to repair the pipe and I am sure every electrician is going to give me crap about this but this run is about 700 feet and I'm not digging it up



the repair kit



1st I sealed the hole with roofing sealer you could use any number of things



This is a rubber plumbing union. you will need to cut it to fit it around the pipe



Now just clamp it in place and you’re done. You really do not want condensation in the PVC. For me this length of pipe is going to be under my waterfall anyway so it will never see any weather.
I wanted to post this repair because this is something that any of us could run into. A word of caution. You can do a lot of damage to your electrical panels snagging power lines in the ground. You can actually rip it right off the wall so be aware and Do not do this in the 1st place. That said if you do wind up doing this be sure you shut down the Main before you reach into the panel to pull the slack back and when in doubt call an Electrician

 

[Timber]

Ok back to work. A lot of water garden is planed as you go because of things you can not see like what is in the ground and the material you work with. I spend some time laying out my stone & I think about were there going long before I get to the point they will be used. This is more of a sculpture than anything. It takes its shape as you go








I wanted to push the stones along the back in place before I start digging the pond. Many of these are to big to lift but you get pretty good at rolling and pushing. These are just the bigger ones, I will add more as I see fit







This is about all I want to do with the tractor. Shaping the pond is all done by hand with pick and shovel. Well that’s it for now. This project should be pretty quick as I am running out of season and the ground will freeze soon. Once the hole is done and the plumbing & liner is in it will be setting stone

 

[3RRL]

Nice project Charlie,
I thought you had a real job? How in the heck do you find time for all these projects?
Loretta wants a koi? pond so I will watch your progress closely. I noticed those rocks, some of those are big suckers. Are they from your property too?

 

[EddieWalker]

Hey Timber,

Looks like your having way too much fun there. With all your projects, your gonna run out of land pretty soon!!! hahahaha

I woulnd't worry about the repair, it looks like you did as good a job or better than I've seen the pros do. I think the secret is lots and lots of silicone in the conduit and then sealing it all up again. I've dug up old power lines that were just buried in the ground and found some repairs or connections with just black tape around them.

The funny thing is those wires and connections were working fine, and the only reason I found them was because I was installing a sprinkler system for a client.

I've built two ornamental fish ponds and found that you alwasy need extra outlets. One thing I did that I really liked was to put two exterior light switches on the back of the house so the client could turn on the water fall and the lights from there back door. Then there was the need to always add things needing more outlets. I had to come back to put in another line jsut for all the little water features the client bought after it was all said and done.

While you have the ground open, be sure to add an extra run of wire just in case. You never know what you will want there in a few years.

Is it spelled coi, or koi?

Thanks for sharing the pics, I'm looking forward to following your progress and seeing the finished results.

Eddie

 

[Timber]

Nice project Charlie,
I thought you had a real job? How in the heck do you find time for all these projects?
Loretta wants a koi? pond so I will watch your progress closely. I noticed those rocks, some of those are big suckers. Are they from your property too?

LOL I really have a real job LOL I wasn't planning on starting that project when I got up that morning. I was just going to clean up my rock pile, next thing I know I have them all over the place. That whole area was going to have a water garden from the day I bought this place. Now I have it started so I will go as far as I can till the ground freezes. All these rocks are from my property. I would say most are from building the house and that big one was under the pool. The track hoe set it down on top of some good size stone and I had several options as to where I could flip it. I actually thought that one out for a while. I have another pile to of large stone also. I tend to save materials for projects till I am ready for them. Large stone makes a nicer pond

Thanks Eddie
I have a lifetime of things to do hear I think. I have built 3 water gardens so far and I learn more with everyone. I am going to put some 2" electrical conduit down for my current need as well as future. I have the most expensive parts all ready, the filters and pumps and the stone. I will order the liner and the tubing as well as a new skimmer as soon as I determine the shape and size. I also have a pile of pool sand from the above ground pool I took down for just this project. All the stuff is hear for the most part

By the way it is Koi, I am totaly lost without spell check
My big fear now is not paying attention and backing my tractor into the pool That would be about the worst thing that could happen now

 

[mikim]

My wife's sister moved her Koi from the city to the country place to a much bigger pond than she had in town. She had planned on adding on to it making it even bigger, but with building a house etc.....then her dog died..... and then she noticed all these expensive Koi seemed to be disappearing ??????? .....(note her dog died) ..... She was standing at the kitchen sink one evening and happened to look up just in time to see a coon walking off with yet another disappearing koi ..... .... problem wasn't there as long as the dog was around.... she got another dog.

 

[flusher]

Nice project Charlie,
I thought you had a real job? How in the heck do you find time for all these projects?
Loretta wants a koi? pond so I will watch your progress closely. I noticed those rocks, some of those are big suckers. Are they from your property too?

That project is also on my list. Koi pond will be 10'x5'x4' deep, around 2000 gallons. Don't want to get too ambitious and bite off more than I can chew since this is my first attempt at one of these. I'll use a rubber liner. To minimize the amount of digging, there will be a 2' -3' tall masonry wall above grade so I only have to dig about 2' down and remove about 100 cubic feet of dirt. Won't start this project until next Feb or March in the middle of the rainy season when the digging is easy. Don't see much use for my tractors on this one except for toting material to the jobsite.

 

[Timber]

I was actually surprised at how well the tractor did dig with the fel. You have to dig the hole deeper than you want the pond. In my area I have to put in a sand base. Most of the work is done with pick and shovel though. There are a lot of things to consider about pond depth. It kind of falls in the rules of a pool depending on your local codes. There is also water temp. The earth keeps water warm in the winter and cool in the heat. This is important if you are considering fish. Elevated ponds are subject to radical temp changes and can have an impact on fish life. Then there is predator issues, You want the walls of you pond shear. If you let critters wade in like there at the beach your going to loose your fish. Raccoons have no saliva glands so they they wash everything they eat. They find your pond because they need the water, what a treat for them if there is food there too. The more difficult predator is the Birds Cranes being the worst and a hawk can do a number on it too and you can't even kill a hawk

 

[Timber]

water garden | garden pond liner | pond supplies

For anyone that is interested this is the company I buy most of my water garden supplies from. I have spent a lot of money hear and have never been disappointed. It is very tempting to buy from Home depot & Lowes but the supplies are very limited. If you going to put in a waterfall you really want a high volume pump so you can move enough water so it looks and sounds nice. Waterfalls also aerate the water so you fish can breathe. Filtration is a big concern too. You can't treat a pond like a swimming pool & I hesitate to call these ponds because there water gardens and really more of a simulated pond. The thing is a real pond goes through its cycles and nobody cares if it is in algae bloom or not. In a water garden nobody wants a slimy green pool. That said you have to think of you water garden as a life form and it goes through seasonal stages and you have limited control. The better the filter the better your pool will look longer. I personally use a Bio filter with a built in UV light. Algae are plant material and therefore what kills algae usually kills off other things as well. Blooms are just part of spring and it passes. Keeping the garden pool clean helps. I have a whole bunch of old filters, pumps, and fountains that never seem to do the job and you have to enter the pond to clean them well. The filters I use now are similar to a swimming pool filter but also very different. This is a great hobby but not cheap at all. I have had water gardens for about 10 years now and like everything I have learned a lot and wasted a lot of money on things that just do work well.