I began by building a wall of concrete block and then covering it with rocks that seem to grow around here. It looks really good. What I meant to do was build a retraining wall on the low side of the pond, but I did it backward. I made the pretty part of the wall face the front. I continued the concrete block wall around and very close to the pond and filled in with dirt. The pond was perfectly level at that moment.
Since the yard also sloped to the side, I decided to expand the pond area as a garden. My friend, Brian, from England,was here. We decided that some of the larger bits of 2.5' x 2' logs left from the tree that had fallen over in the front yard would make a great back retaining wall. So we two senior citizens rolled logs down the hill, with very little control where they stopped, and somehow got a row of them set up to form the very back wall of a garden that would gently slope down from the top of the pond toward the center of the yard.
We went to Pet Smart and bought three feeder gold fish. These are fish destined to be fed to some other critter. He named them Marilyn, Diana, and, of course, Brian. I asked the Pet Smart lady how to tell male from female goldfish and how to get them to breed. She didn't know how to tell gender and said that I would never get them to breed because it takes very specific, special conditions. But the fish seemed very happy to be out of their tiny aquarium waiting to be something's dinner, and swimming around in their new pond. They didn't seem to care that the area around it looked ridiculous.
I began filling in the area that would be garden with sticks, smaller logs, leafs, wood mulch, and continued that for six years. I wasn't really in a hurry (obviously) and I really love how Nature turns this mulchy filler stuff into dirt. More than a few times my husband suggested I order a truck of dirt. He didn't get it. Living in an oak forest, we have lots of sticks and leaves and stuff to use as fill that would eventually turn into dirt. Every now and then I'd dump a bag of lime on it.
Of course, the big logs also had a tendency to turn into dirt, so I built a retaining wall with concrete blocks and wine bottles around a larger area, reinforcing the big logs, I encouraged some of the plentiful English Ivy to grow up the concrete blocks.
So back to yesterday. . . I decided that the mulchy stuff had more than filled the area that would be the garden. I went to Lowes and got 5 bags of top soil and 4 bags of sand and a bag of lime and because I had to - four plants. (The sand will be for the patio area - another curve in the "master plan.") I began stomping down the mulch stuff and making it as even as I could, then spreading the lime and the store-bought dirt over the top.
It quickly became apparent that I was going to need more top soil. A big ol' bunch of top soil. Then I understood it. Sometimes the top is on the bottom.
I'd been piling wood chips, sticks, leaves, weeds, and all sorts of organic mass onto that space for size years. So I moved the newer mulchy stuff from the bottom of the garden area and found the most beautiful black dirt ever. I did the dance of the happy dirt then began shoveling it to the top of the garden space.
While digging for the black gold, I also found two small copperheads. They were babies, but not tiny babies. I did as my B.I.L., Chip, insists (I don't usually listen to directions, but I almost always listen to Chip and Nan, my sister.) I killed them with a long handled shovel (not my hand trowel) and asked their forgiveness.
I planted a bit of pampas grass on the south side of the pond to give it some shade to keep the algae at bay. Then I planted the three pretty flowing grassy things around the back of the pond and moved the thyme to nearer the patio-to-be.
There is a moral to this story. Probably more than one. The next time I build a pond, which will probably not be in this lifetime, I'll have a better idea about how to go about it. Sometimes you have to dig a little to find the best stuff. I know the dirt will settle as the mulchy stuff becomes dirt. I can live with that. I'll put more on top. The thing about gardening is that it's never done.
Oh. . . . and the Pet Smart people greatly underestimated Brian. He, Marilyn and Diana have two tiny fish and one small fish. I reckon when they have babies they eat most of them, but some have survived. And the older fish have beautiful, long flowing tails. They seem to have thrived on the past year of neglect. But now they are big and happy in clean water and regular fish food in addition to the mosquito larva borgaschmord they get all season.
I really hope the patio and the terrace don't take another 6 years, but I'm not promising anything. A full day's work for me is only a few hours these days. But if it does, it does. By then I may have begun my hen house.
A few days ago.
Yesterday
The plastic bags the dirt came in, will go under the pavers. No, I don't have the pavers yet, except for some I've made, but I will go forth to Lowes today and return with some pavers.
I'm grateful.
