Our first pond, stream, and waterfalls
Why and How
We celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary in March 2002. We've been pretty frugal throughout these 25 years and celebrated our other anniversaries very modestly. But for our 25th, we wanted something special. What could be special enough for this milestone? A trip to Hawaii, a week at a fancy resort? These might be fun, but when they're over, they're over. Plus, these ideas seemed rather frivolous to our practical souls.
When we thought about what gives us the most pleasure, we realized that it's being out in our yard and watching all the plant and animal life there. It's a real celebration of life. Besides being an interesting place to be, it's where we've spent a lot of creative effort over all these years - a constant theme running through our marriage. What would be more appropriate than adding something to our yard? What could be more special than a pond, stream and waterfall? This was something that could give us pleasure day after day all year around.
We got an estimate for an 11x11 foot pond and 20-foot stream - and thought about the expense. It was our anniversary, but ... Finally, we decided to purchase a kit and do it ourselves. The kit comes with an instruction book and a video. We've never watched a video as many times as we watched that video! The whole thing ended up costing about $3,000, but we also saved about $3,000.
We started digging our pond, with the (paid) help of our 17-year-old son. Unfortunately, we soon ran into a large bed of shale - and our son promptly requested a raise. The shale was a problem not only because it slowed down the digging, but also because it left very sharp edges. We decided to cover up these vertical edges with homemade mud made from sifted dirt, and we additionally covered them with old indoor-outdoor carpeting strips. Then we proceeded to lay the usual underlayment before putting the liner down.
The physical labor was only part of it, though. The practical design decisions - not just the aesthetics, but the functional ones - were difficult, never having done this before. The video and instruction book were helpful in building the pond, but were very sketchy on the stream and waterfall. As we continued, we were a little worried. What if we turned the water on and it all splashed out? What if the waterfalls didn't work?
Fortunately, on Labor Day morning, when we plugged it in ... it worked! It seemed like magic! Our yard is totally transformed! There's still a lot of landscaping and tidying up to do, but we already enjoy it immensely. The biggest downside - it's hard to stay indoors. We could just sit by the pond all day long!
Our next worry, though, is how it will do this winter. Our owner's manual recommends that you leave the waterfalls going all year. In fact, it says that winter can be the most beautiful time with icicles. The pond pumps 2,000 gallons of water an hour. In a 1,000-gallon pond, the water goes through twice an hour, so it shouldn't freeze too easily. But were they talking about Central New York winters? Will the stream freeze? Will the pond stay open? Will the fish make it through the winter? We'll have to keep a close eye on it, and I expect that we'll have to buy a heater for the stream since the shallow water will probably freeze. UPDATE: After a unrelentingly cold winter, with no intermittent thaws as we usually have, we decided to bring the pump inside - sitting in a bucket of water - so we wouldn't have to worry about water being diverting by ice dams and the pump being damaged by insufficient water. There was so much snow that there wasn't much to see anyway. The very mild 2001-2002 winter might have been a different story. Who knows about winter 2003-2004?
The ecosystem
The Aquascape system is supposed to minimize the work of pond maintenance by creating an ecosystem. (Hmm… sounds like a good idea. When will we realize that healthy ecosystems will minimize the maintenance of the earth??)
The essential parts of our pond ecosystem are: plants, fish, the rocks and gravel, the BioFalls/Skimmer/pipe circulation system, and the addition of beneficial bacteria. Although one must accept the fact that our pond/stream/waterfall is definitely artificial, it's a pretty good imitation of a natural system. We're optimistic that there will be more environmental benefits than there are negatives.
One negative of course is that it requires electricity, and we're gravely concerned about global warming and the devastation that may bring. We have minimized our energy use in all sorts of ways in our home and in our transportation choices (we have a hybrid Prius and my husband bikes or buses to work) AND we are purchasing "green" wind energy from our utility company. We are also planning to replace our roof with solar shingles in the next few years if that's feasible.
The big plus, though, is that we're providing habitat for an expanded range of plants and animals. Not to be discounted is that it increases our knowledge about and deepens our connection to yet another aspect of the natural world - and strengthens our commitment to heal and defend the earth, God's creation.
(Here are some photos)
Animals
I initially didn't want fish, but now that we have them (6-for-a-dollar feeder goldfish), I really enjoy them. For some reason, it's very interesting just to watch them as they swim around the pond.
One unexpected thing - the birds initially seemed to be extremely cautious about the stream. The blue jays even seemed to be afraid to fly over it!! It was pretty frustrating since I had designed the wide, shallow, pebbly stream with the birds in mind. I felt like shouting at them, "You've got wings - use them!" I guess life is dangerous if you're a bird - only the cautious survive. After a few weeks, though, they lost their caution. The goldfinches especially seem to enjoy taking a drink and bathing in the stream. During our first spring migration we were amazed at how many migrants the falls and stream attracted - especially a variety of warblers.
What we are looking forward to the most is getting frogs to come to our yard. We don't yet have lily pads, but we're hoping for frogs and more toads next spring.
Besides frogs, one category of animal I'm most interested in is insects. We already are enjoying the damselflies and dragonflies. (I just recently learned that there was a difference between these - before I thought they were just different kinds of dragonflies.) I'm also really interested in what I think are a type of water boatman. I have four of them and I think they must have come in on the plants. They're small, but fascinating.
Because we're concerned that the goldfish may be eating any dragonfly or frog/toad eggs, we've decided to build another pond, this one strictly for wildlife. Because it won't have moving water, we'll be using a mosquito dunk.
Plants
It's been interesting becoming familiar with a whole new category of plants. When we camping in the Adirondacks in the midst of our pond building, we frequently went canoeing on Seventh Lake and took special note of the plants growing there. So far, I have planted:
- Arrowhead "Duck Potato" Sagittaria latifolia
- Sweet Flag, Acorus
- Bog bean
- Bog arum
- Pickerel weed
- Marsh marigold
I've tried to use only native plants, although it isn't easy to come by this information and it's just as difficult to find a source of native plants.
I transplanted my cardinal flower lobelias from my garden into the top shelf of the pond. So far, it seems to be doing well (i.e. it hasn't died and has started leafing out underwater). It can't be any worse than it did in this summer's heat and drought. UPDATE: they didn't last over the winter. I've since planted new ones - some in my bog and others in the two wet meadows I created.
We haven't yet planted the water lilies, but we have three planting pockets (topsoil, kitty litter, and gravel) all ready and waiting to plant them in the spring. UPDATE: We've planted them, but as of mid-June, only one has leaves that have reached the surface of the water.
Finally, after reading in Robyn's Pond Page that watercress likes to grow in flowing water, I decided to get some. It said that you could even plant just the sprigs from the grocery store whether or not they had any roots. That was a good thing since it was difficult enough just to find the sprigs in the grocery store. I felt pretty foolish sticking these rootless stems under the gravel of the stream. I felt even more foolish when I saw what they looked like the next day. Had I wasted the trip to a grocery store on the other side of town just to "plant" these wilted, sickly-looking sprigs? I was embarrassed to even have anyone see them, sure that they would think I was crazy. But ... just a few days later, the little center leaves were dark green and standing upright ... and roots were growing from the stems! This was just in a few days. My next fear was that something so vigorous could get to be a colossal problem. But considering I have a finite area, I think it should be pretty easy to control - I've been looking up recipes that call for large quantities of watercress!
UPDATE: They lasted over the winter even though we turned off the stream. They are pretty vigorous, but they're pretty easy to pull out. I've removed some so that they don't interfere with the bird bathing areas in the stream. UPDATE 2007:The watercress didn't last long. Not only was it very vigorous (which could have manageable) I had wanted it partly as a food crop. After seeing the many birds bathing in the water, though, I realized that they probably were pooping, too, so I lost my appetite for it.
Some invasives that are commonly sold
I was sold Parrot feather, but found that it isn't native to North America - but more importantly, is potentially invasive to waterways. Although my pond doesn't connect to a waterway, parrot feather will grow in soil as well and so it could eventually move out of my yard, so I removed it from the pond.
Although the Yellow Flag iris is attractive, it's not native (although I believe it's considered naturalized rather than a new introduction). In addition to the fact that some states are reporting that this plant has become a nuisance, my objection is that it looks too much like a garden plant. I prefer more "pond-y" looking plants like the bog bean or pickerel weed. I can have iris flowers in my regular garden if I want.
LESSON: Do your research first and don't assume that garden centers sell only desireable plants!
