Want a pond, but don't want to dig in Missouri clay and rock??

Solution: bring in about 6 loads of mushroom compost and build an island around a pond liner!

Dirt and pond in place.  Just before the heavy duty landscape fabric is laid in place.

In my case I used a pond liner that had been passed down to me through my dad. It was cracked and had been patched several times already. So, I knew it would need more attention than just a quick patch. But, it was free... and it was a 'form'. The first install I did was at the mushroom farm during the farms 'beautification project' about 6 years ago. It served as a beautiful pool for frogs and toads to lay eggs and grow their next generation in. The boys (now 8 and 10) have had quite an education on frog reproduction. ;)

When the pond was at the Mushroom Farm.
Robert, our eldest pictured here, helped me with this build.

When we bought the house in West Plains spring of 2016 I started working on the front yard right away. Currently I have added four trees and five good sized (some may say large) perennial & shrub beds, did a revamp of the one existing bed which had been overgrown with Bermuda grass (Basically a search and rescue when it came to 'what exactly is in there' type of thing) and added a couple of tree ring beds Just a "little" landscaping. (don't worry... I restrained myself with the pictures. There is more... much more! LOL)

Before

before front garden... there are roses in there!

before front garden

after front garden

after front of house

tree ring with day lilies, Iris' and trailing Periwinkle

Maple Tree - before

after front and north side gardens finished

North Peninsula Garden

Front bed

  Now that the island has had time to 'settle' it was time to tackle putting the concrete in the liner. First to try to duct tape the um... welll....( where the liner had caught air and did a tumbling act down hwy 160 behind the trailer as it ripped the 4" wide tie down strap in two... then got hit by a car that was behind us by about a block. It was an interesting ride) split open corner... ouch. You will see in the pictures that we did some last minute supporting of the liner using concrete bags and lumber. This whole area will be filled with rocks that are concreted together for a bench. then back filled as I go sand. I should probably be worrying about it... but, I'm not. ;)

The heavy plastic pond liner is in, the black plastic "liner" is inside it, the concrete is now roughed in and when it cools... WHEN it cools down (we are waiting for fall... lol)... the kids will hit the creek again to start retrieving rocks for the island. It needs a few rows of rocks for around and then enough to form a bench where the pond filter will be located. And more around the edge of the pond. They have a lot of rock hunting to do. Never fear... I will be working too... setting the rocks in place while they are retrieving.

The creek when it has water.
It is currently dry.

That reminds me... on the topics of team work and exercise. Yesterday and today were good examples of them! We were a well oiled machine yesterday in the 100+ degree heat! Miranda was in charge of the hoe... mixing the concrete in the black tub. Jamie was in charge of the hose - adding water just when it needed to be added. Together Jamie and Miranda got the bags out of the garage and brought them to the mixing area. There, Jamie brought one bag to the front of the garden cart and took a knife to the bottom of the bag of the concrete... slowly emptying the bag into the black mixing tub where he added water while Miranda mixed. Once it was ready I climbed into the pond and removed the concrete in large snowball type of handfuls to put around the pond. This was quite interesting. The one wall didn't have a break in it... it is just a two foot drop. It was too steep for the concrete to stay put and would sag. So, I did just half of that wall yesterday and the other half today. I'm not sure if my chicken wire plan would have made things go any smoother. But, that plan had been scrapped as we were pretty sure that it would tear up the black plastic. oh well. In all we mixed and applied ten 60 lbs bags of quikrete yesterday and two 80 lb bags of it today. While we were working... if anyone sat on the garden bench Joey would run inside to fetch a glass of cool water for them. We kept him busy. I sat while Miranda and Jamie prepared the mixture and they sat while I was forming the walls. This morning I spotted some cracks where the concrete had sagged before setting up. I dealt with those today as well as that wall that needed to be finished and the top ledge. I used a level for the top edge being that the original liner had been compromised with the whole transportation gone wrong thing... the one corner needed extra height. So concrete was added. It is all roughed in... next comes the finish work. Going with a finer concrete/mortar to set some mosaic tile in place and glass beads from the dollar tree for a little shine here and there. We also have a couple gallons of pool paint left from a previous project to use that will help seal the whole thing up. The boys have their eyes on some koi. I'll be happy just to get the giant fan tail gold fish and blue gill out of the aquarium in the house. LOL

Yes, Blue Gill. From what evidently was a stocked pond in the back pasture. There are catfish and possibly bass in there as well. We also have Timmy the Turtle and Timmy Junior to consider. Timmy has grown a LOT since he was found last year as a hatch-ling! And Baby Timmy needs to move to the 30L aquarium so he has a chance to grow. Bob and I question the idea of putting Timmy in the pond... we may have to come up with an alternative plan for him... maybe a custom build tank in the basement with special lighting? I can't wait for the new water feature to be completed! I look forward to looking out my bedroom window to a little rock water fall going into the pond and spending time on the garden bench in the shade of the maple tree.