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Area 7: Pond Garden
May 04: It would seem that this has become a temp-bed of sorts. My intention was to ignore it until the fall, give it a chance to settle in and what-not. Well, it turns out I had a small surplus of annual seedlings and in the spirit of not being wasteful I decided to start dropping them into this area. I figure that the bed will settle regardless of what is growing in it, so it may as well have some colour for the summer.
I also came across a "dried flower" seed-pouch which contained five kinds of seeds, I had around 20 gladiola bulbs laying around, and my wife handed me a 1 gallon pot full of iris' which she had dug out of the patio bed and now needed a home, and let us not forget the packet of Parsley seeds which had been left to soak on the stove and overlooked when the herb garden was planted out. So, they all went into the bed as well.
The Construction: I finally have the before, during and after pictures of the work in this area. I'll keep them here for a little while to give you an idea of why I'm not putting serious thought into the plantings as yet.
This shot shows dip in the yard at the back of the house. We have already removed the concrete steps which led up to the patio in the foreground and up to the garage door in the background.
Most of the digging had been completed here. There is a well in front of each window which will take the galvanized steel window wells and gravel. A french drain leads from each window well to four-foot-deep dry wells, about the same distance from the house as the wheelbarrow in the photo. The dry wells are filled with gravel and the drains have the 'O-hose' (shown uncut in photo) and gravel. Other items shown in the photo are the barrels which will eventually become my fishpond, and the blue plastic sheet at the bottom-left, which covers the six-foot-deep hole where a crack in the foundation had to be patched.
Finally, this is what the new grade looks like with the pond and paths installed. I don't expect the pond to be moving anytime soon, but I still consider the paths to be temporary.
This area will no doubt be changing, depending on what decides to grow. I'll post a picture of the mess of colours if they actually bloom. I'm also hoping to go shopping for some pond plants next week, which will get this area finished off for a little while.
Thanks for stopping by,
Brett
Previous Entries:
April 21: Above is a picture showing how this area looked last week. The rough grading is finished, the wells are installed, the paths temporarily laid down, and the ponds installed. I'm going to do a little rough planting this year, but my intention is to play with traffic through here and re-dress the soil in the fall after it has had a chance to settle.
April 17: Over this past weekend I have spread another layer of topsoil over this area. The topsoil was taken from the veggie beds again. I also temporarily laid the patio stones for the pathways in place. After everything has a chance to settle I will lift them, put down a gravel pad, and some O-hose, to make a proper footing for them. This also gives me a chance to observe the flow in this area for a time and adjust as necessary. Finally, I added a small pond to this area. The details of the pond can be found on the Fish Pond page.
April 11: I have installed all three window wells, a couple dry wells, some additional drainage hoses, and raised the grade along the back of the house by more than two feet. This area is the lowest spot of the entire property and we have been having a bit of trouble with water in the basement. Hopefuly soon, I'm going to be installing a series of small ponds and creating an bed to accompany them. So pop back once in a while to see if I've been able to post pictures of the progress.
April 03: Two of the window wells are in place, and most of the grade been established by utilizing all of the sod lifted from the veggie-beds. The last well is to be set in the same location as the crack in the wall. I am waiting until I can get that area dug out, patched, dried, and filled before I set the well in place. I'm hoping to dig out and set the ponds in the next week or so, just have to move a few plants and settle on the location first. It's a big difference from what was there, and I'm fairly confident that it'll look good when it's finished. Another update soon :-)