Welcome Visitor to....
Ok, now that we have peaked your couriosity,
here is somewhat of a step by step layout
of our pond being built. You might see a big jump from one picture to another,
sorry but
we got on a roll and forgot to grab the camera in the process. I will try
and walk you through
what you are seeing. If you CLICK on the smaller pictures,
you will see a larger, more clearer
picture...We hope you will enjoy these.
Special thanks to our New Sponsor
for allowing me a place to store my Pictures
All of the PondLife, Plants, Fish, Pumps and Filters were purchased from:
|
Slocum Water Gardens |
|
1101 Cypress Gardens Blvd. |
|
If it belongs in water, They have it or can get it! |
Clicking on Pictures will give you a FULL SIZE Photo
Photo
1 - Lays out the platform of the Waterfall base. Make sure you have enough
of a concrete base for the waterfall to sit on without cracking the base
or having the platform start to sink and/or settle in the comming year.
( we ended up applying over 6 TONS of rock )
Photo
2- Allows us to place the cinder blocks on the watertfall platform and
arrange them to ur liking before applying the concrete mix. Gives you a
look and feel before it becomes a permanent fixture to the landscape.
Photo
3 - A different angle of Photo 2
Photo
4 - Alter we were happy with the form of the waterfall, we carefully removed
the blocks (marking the order and direction they were placed)
and started to mix up the cement for the shell of the waterfall. This design
was for
a 5' high waterfall (area where the 2 PVC pipes are shown) to drop down
4' to a center holding area (this was to allow alot of splash for adding
oxygen to the pond but not disturb the actual pond) then to drop either
left or right 1' to smaller holding areas
(You can see the opening off the platform in the bottom center of Photo
4) And last
but not least, then a small drop to the actual pond.
Photo
5 - The half circle you see in the center of the waterfall built into the
ground was for a planter to plants and to cover some of the waterfall drop.
We also added into the actual waterfall design, so planters on the structure.
These will be able to see in a few of the following photos. Thank god for
my son (pictured here), I could not have completed this without him.
Photo
6 - Once our form was complete and let to set for 72 hours, we then started
to apply the rocks to the cinder blocks. This is a very time consuming
task. You need to try and group the size and style of the rocks ie. round,
flat, corner, etc. This will speed up the process when you are trying to
keep the gaps between the rocks to a minimum. May I suggest renting a power
mixer. Take it from me, I was elected the wheel barrel mixer. The waterfall
alone took over 50 bags of 80 lb cement.
Photo
7 - Phew, well now that all the rocks are in place on the waterfall and
have been allowed to set for over a week (and allow us to take a breather)
we now started to dig a small shape for the actual pond. You notice we
will need to relocate the Palm in the picture to a new location.
We dug down about 6" to get an idea of just how the pond would look
in comparision to the waterfall. As we began to build the waterfall, it
seemed to get bigger as time went
on. This required us to increase the size of the pond.
Photo
8 - Another view of Photo 7
Ok, here is where we somewhat jump ahead a little. We found that it required
us to rent
a small backhoe to dig down to the 4' depth. And after having to mix over
50 bags of
cement for the waterfall, I decided to order a cement truck to lay the
foundation and
the sides for the actual pond.
Photo
9 - Here you see an almost finished product after the cement had been poured
and allowed to set for 72 hours. You will also notice that we decided to
use the cinder blocks in a standing formation to line the outer edge of
the entire pond. This was a good use for the 'Extra' blocks I ordered (Opps)
and allowed a strong platform for the continuation of the same rocks on
the waterfall to line the exterior of the pond.
Photo
10 - Another view of Photo 9 You will also notice that as an after thought,
I decided to add a small island near the center of the pond.
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