The Pond. Are we really doing this?

The short answer is yes! But perhaps not in the timeline I’d imagined. And that’s okay!

You see, as is my nature, I dove headlong into research and that invariably leads to logistics. The logistics of putting in a pond is no small bit of planning and quite a bit of work. No duh, right? But my enthusiasm for the project had me daydreaming of getting stuck in straight away and having a pond planted and in by the end of this growing season.

The space is going to be something like 8 feet wide by 28 feet long, though the edges are intended to be quite shallow for wildlife, that is still a whole lot of digging. The pond proper will be somewhere in the 5 foot wife to 18-20 feet long range. And no, I don’t know where we are going to put all the dirt.

However, have a few more pressing construction projects (the arbor arcade and fixing our very heavy garden gate, and a few things on the exterior of the house that are way less fun) that we need to get done as early as possible with the help from my uber-handyman Brother In Law. With the arcade in, we will be able to put in the last stretch of path that leads from the orchard into the main garden. And I’ll be able to plant a grape vine and some wisteria.

This will take up a good chunk of the early spring and, paired with some new plantings and revamping some other garden areas, won’t leave much time for pond digging. And we would like to host a garden tour for our Garden Club in the later part of summer. I don’t think its reasonable to get everything we already have planned for the garden done AND the pond area before the tour without it looking like a construction zone.

This means the digging, lining, and filling of the pond will likely have to wait until after the tour. I don’t think its unreasonable to get the bulk of the pond in place before snowfall (assuming it is a semi-normal autumn) and even get a smattering of plants in. This should leave part of August, all of September, and whatever we can eek out of October. That is, in actuality, a lot of time to get a project like this started. Then the remainder of the space can be finished come next spring- that will be the fun bit of planting and landscaping the surroundings.

This new timeline should give us ample time to plot out the space and what the pond will look like. We can source rocks at leisure and do a bit more research on which liner we want and what volume of plants we will need. And, with our water butts/stock tanks I should be able to buy some aquatic plants that I know I want when the stock is still available. There’s no harm in a few water lilies growing in the stock tank!

I’ll keep you all posted as we go along- I’m already so excited to see what the fruits this project will bear- I hope it becomes no only a focal point for an odd and difficult spot in the garden, but a haven and lifesaver for wildlife.