Author Topic: My new Pond & Garden! By Kristin F. (tutorial on building a pond in Iceland)  (Read 2749 times)

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Hi you all - long time no...

I've been terribly busy all summer - here is why:

I cannot emphasize this to often;
It is because of you, good unselfish forum-people who have taken the time to post building threads, answers to questions, helpful hints etc. that I was able to learn all the "how to's".

This thread is my contribution to all of you. Honest. THANK YOU! *BigSmile*

This is what my garden looked like when I bought the house, the photo is taken in March and displays the emptyness clearly .. but I saw the potentials immediately

 

Then I made a "photo-shop" drawing of the new pond to be. I decided that I would start with planning the pond and then create the garden around it.

 

I moved in on May 28th - my birthday actually and couldn't have got a better birthday present.
Before I finished unpacking and was half-settled in my new home, I started on the pond.
I just couldn't wait to get started! The fish were in a 26 gallon plastic container, and I was worried that they would suffer in there - though I found out as the days went by that they were actually ok since I did frequent water changes etc.

You can see the container in the following picture, this is when I  (finally) started the digging!

 

..and a "few" shovels later

 

I was so surprised that the soil is almost rock free and it is the perfect plant soil. Even better then the soil bought in a Garden Center .. so it was quite easy to move it.

And yes, I did it all by myself by hand, using my shovel, without any help from others .. this next picture is taken when I was finished digging. Notice the huge piles of soil - just wait to see where it went to - that comes later *wink*

It is 3 feet deep at the deepest, 1 feet in the shallowest parts.

 

and a view towards the house - the pond is formed like the number 8, the pond closest is the mud pond, the one next to the house is the lily pond. In between on the narrow part the future bridge is planned to be and the fish can swim back & forth ..

 

Oh my, creating this post and looking at the pictures brings back the memories - it was raining / pouring every day, thankfully it stopped raining every now and then for one or two hours, but the soil was soaked really at all times.

All my plants were stored in plastic bags in the corner closest to the house, actually it rained so much that I never needed to water them, not even the lilies!
..actually a few of the non-pond plants almost drowned, my apple tree was suffering for a while until I poaked a few holes in the plastic bag .. this next picture shows a few of my pond plants!
They all survived actually!

 

This is where I am folding out the underliner / isolation. It is four layers of plastic material used to cover boats and such - very cheap and the perfect underlayment because there are no rocks or sharp items in the ground, just soft soil

 

Then the liner arrived! It is a typical EPDM/Butyl/Rubber/Pond Liner ..

 

..unfolding it took a very long time, it is incredibly heavy and I had to adjust it to the curvy irregular pond shape

 

Day 3, starting to fill the Pond! (waiting to exhale)

 

Did I mention the liner is 36 feet long? ..and 13 ft wide ..
The Pond is 29ft X 6.5ft average width

I used garden soil in the mud pond

 

 

It took almost 6 hours to fill it up - but it was certainly worth the wail *LOL*
The tap water here is not clorinated. It is very pure and actually it is the same water that is bottled to be sold in Europe and U.S.

This young lady followed my every move - she was a stricht construction designer, ordered me to take a break every now and then and show her the same attention as the showel & dirt! *LOL*

   

Princess Pim (Miz Kitty) was to refined to join the fun - she stayed inside or in the neighbours garden during the prosess, obviously shocked by watching me ruining the garden .. believe me, it was A MESS. Mud everywhere and I was wearing rubber boots at all times in the garden..

After draining the roots of the Apple Tree, it actually started to bloom - still in the plastic bag above ground!

   

In this next photo, I have started to lay out the turf to create the edges of the Pond.

   

..meanwhile the fish stayed in the container, waiting to explore their new home

   

I used the rest of the turf to build a slope for the stream and waterfall. Here I'm creating it, to be honest I have altered it a few times later on - but the bird house stayes on top of the Skippy-thingy *LOL*
The Skippy is a 31 gallon garbage can filled with black floor scrubber pads cut up in irregular sizes ..

   

The plants went in, the round black thingy is the skimmer.

   

A view from the kitchen window - my favorite view from inside the house

 

Here I have started to add gravel and rocks - I went to the firm that sells the gravel & rocks and hand picked every stone and every rock. For almost 2 hours! The guys working there obviously thought I was mad because I loadet the whole ton of gravel and rocks in my Volvo sedan!
- yes you are reading it correctly, a whole ton -
I must be a idiot to do such a thing, but the car survived *LOL*

Notice that it is raining almost constantly, now the soil in the garden is soaked. We had rain in June every single day the whole month, actually there was only sun for a few hours spread on 4 days in total .. we haven't had such a "wet" June month since world war 2 according to the Meterologists..

   

The bridge and the garden bench are in situ..

   

Looking under the bridge

   

I just love this cute little fellow

   

This picture shows the liner and underlayment

   

This plant finished blooming before it reached the pond - don't know the english name ..

   

Same plant

   

Water is flowing and I continued planting
The Pond Pump is a Oase Aquamax 8000, it sits on the bottom of the lily pond and functions as a bottom drain as well as skimmer pump..

   

I moved this tree from the center of the garden to the end of it - by hand of course *BLUSH*

   

This is where it was located

   

Like I said, the garden was really a mess

   

   

Finally, after two weeks in the plastic container, the fish went in the pond

   

..and it continued RAINING

   

I admit that it was hard work indeed .. never underestimate yourself - If I can do it in 2 weeks, so can you! *wink*
..and my back survived, actually..

The garden is the main reason why I bought this place, I felt a strong need for creating my own peaceful garden retreat on my own property, when I contacted my Real Estate Agent I asked him to find a private garden for me - and that the house / apartment was not the most important issue "just find a private property at this price and never mind if there is a Hen-house to go with it instead of a decent living area!"
It wasn't easy to find a place in my price range, but I'm so happy here.

It is a decent 3-room apartment in a Terrace-house (sp. + term.?) The house contains 6 apartments in a row.
It is just 10 minutes drive north of Reykjavik, and much more peaceful and quiet then the stressful noisy city. I lived on a busy street in Reykjavik and the difference is great. Much cleaner air here as well.

Anyway, back to the "progress";

July came and finally rainy days were outnumbered by sunny days!
I continued planting, created the lawn and sowed grass seeds - I decided to create grass edges instead of rocks along the lawn side because the garden is rather small. I wanted the grass area to continue "into the pond" so to speak..

 

But on the other side of the pond I decided to have rocks on the edges, in the next photo, yours truly is stacking rocks I collected on a nearby shore/beach.
..This time, I transported the rock in two trips! *blush* -AND got help from a friend who took the photo

 

 

The next day I started to create the rock edge..

 

overlooking the finished edge - looking toward the neighbours yard/garden.

 

Heba Isabel got tired of watching me and decided it was time for a nap - English Bulldogs need lots of rest *LOL*

 

The Fuchsia started to bloom

 

And my lilies sent up new pads almost every day - so far I have only 4 lilies in the pond.

 

I decided not to use Lava around the Pond, because the stones are very sharp at the edges and might damage the liner if they would accidently fall in .. but I might use lava in other parts of the garden when I start to make flower beds next spring .. we'll se

Now - I removed the bridge to clean it and seal it with oil.
I used the opportunity to shoot a overall photo

 

"Mummy, that's much better"

 

Now what are you and the neighbour doing!??

 

We decided to build a fence around our gardens

 

 

urrgh, you people are crazy! I'm exhausted..

 

Mummy, don't listen to that fat lazy bitch -
I think it's a lovely gesture to close the garden to give us more privacy, and shelter it from the wind - mjau..

 

much better - now we just have to protect it with oil, maybe a little darker color so it won't stand out so much..

 

Okay - finally -
I took the following pictures just a couple of weeks ago

 

 

A close up of the stream & falls

 

 

From the side

 

 

The mud/veggie pond

 

Looking towards the house - as you can see, the garden is rather small, but it's big enough for one crazy lady and her dog & one cat *LOL*

 


 

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