The Big Koi Pond Reveal

We thought it was about time to share with you all the finished koi pond, 2013 was quite a hectic year for us. So much so that we have only now prepared the photos from our koi pond to share the final result with you all. The build of the pond has featured several times on the blog in the past with many references and a series of posts documenting the build (part 1, part 2 part 3 and part 4). But its high time that the final finished pond makes a full appearance!

Just selecting the photos to illustrate the pond was a tricky task, these were all taken in July at the height of the summer - we were originally planning to share the pond with you all at that time, but then events over took us with the garden fire and subsequent home renovation taking our attention and energies. As we mentioned at the time the pond was thankfully unaffected by the fire, with only minor damage to some adjacent plants. 

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A Look Back at the Year 2013

What a roller coaster of a year 2013 has been! Just looking back and reminiscing at the things that we got up to and the events that transpired in the past twelve months, some of which we didn't have any control of has reminded us how intense this year was.

Very intense, and what an insane year, whew!

What a difference twelve months can make. Looking back on our blog archives it's amazing how many things have happened in what is relatively a short period of time. Some of these activities we have almost forgotten about but were instantly reminded of the moment we read them all over again. And that's one of the many advantages of having a blog, it also serves as on online diary that we can refer to if we want to remember what we got up to gardening wise in a particular time of the year from the time we started blogging.

Ahh 2013, such an intense yea!. So many highs, a few unexpected lows, overall very intense. Intense, have I said this word enough? It is the perfect word that sums up how both us feel about this year.

We actually don't know whether to consider 2013 as a good year or a bad year for the both of us. One thing is for sure though, is that it was...well...intense! Too intense at times and that's not always a good thing.

So a good year or a bad year? We will pass judgement as soon as we have finished looking back and we'll deliver our verdict at the end of this post. Join us as we reminisce on the year 2013...

JANUARY

A snowy and mellow start to our year as we continued with the final stages of our big pond build and began its Final Countdown as we completed the decking next to the pond, as well as introduced you all to the Prequel Pond which gave us our first experience in building a raised pond. It is also the pond that jump started our koi keeping hobby and is the mother of our big pond build.

It's The Final Countdown.

The Prequel Pond

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Never the Idle Dreamers

A summary and a monthly timeline of our Koi Pond project from start till finish...

May 2010 - Clearing the area

June 2010 - Construction of first raised bed and pathway begins

July 2010 - the Big Dig has begun

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The Big Pond Build (Part 4)

We have had several reminders to complete the story of our pond build, particulary since it has been completed since Spring. We had planned to complete the story and share the big reveal in the summer, but with the fire that hit the garden and also house renovations we did not feel it would have been the correct time to have done that. Thankfully the pond was not damaged with the fire, other than some soot on the white paint work and minor damage to one or two plants nearby from radiant heat.

If you have somehow missed the earlier parts they can be seen in these links (part 1, part 2 and part 3). This series of posts left the project in August 2012 when the pergola had just been completed and we were preparing the pond for fibre-glassing.

In the last post we were fitting the insulation board to internal walls. This has two benefits, firstly it saved us having to render the walls to get a smooth finish and also would help insulate the pond from cold winter weather.

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Working Area

Beyond the koi filter house in a land far far away... Oops wrong story! I'll start again. Beyond the koi filter house is an area that has been featured in the blog only occasionally...

This area is going to be what we refer to as the "working area"; a general place to store and propagate plants, do some potting on and other garden related work, and storage of various tools and equipment. This will become home to two greenhouses as well. One of which has featured on the blog before - once when we moved it and a few more times before for the plants it has contained. This greenhouse was taken down again a couple of weeks ago to move into its final position and will be the smaller of the two greenhouses. It will eventually contain a small pond/quarantine tank for checking the health of any new fish before they are added to the main pond, and as a treatment tank if we need to treat any of our fish for illness. Having this quarantine tank will give the benefit of not needing to put in more chemicals into the main pond. And keeping it in an enclosed space like a greenhouse will help keep the temperature of the water up and stable, as well as clean. 

Out goes the glass again

Heaps of old bubble insulation and rusting staging were taken to the recycling centre

The second greenhouse is the larger of the two and we blogged about this quite some time ago when we collected this purchase two years ago (I can't believe it has been that long!!). This larger one will be dedicated to plants. Hopefully if the weather is kind, we will finally be putting this one back together next weekend.

Clearing up once the greenhouse had been moved.

Perfect for a coffee..

As well as having the space under glass, we will also have some space to place pots whilst we grow plants on. Hopefully this will help us keep the rest of the garden tidy and organised, time will tell if we manage to do this and avoid having small pots dotted about the garden!

I also want to create a small space for somewhere to sit, after all, potting on plants can be a tiring job and a nice place to sit with a coffee and the paper may well be high on my list of wants!

We do seem to have quite a number of areas to sit in the garden, something that is often commented upon by visitors or our neighbours, however it doesn't feel that there are too many to us, there is simply a place to sit where we may want to have drink and relax within the garden.

Now the first and smaller greenhouse has been moved I was able to complete the wall next to the filter house and add steps down into the working area.

And we also reached another mini-landmark this weekend...

The final small pile of clay/chalk was removed - here being put into small buckets to take to the local tip. This is something of a cause for celebration as the chalk has been such a pain in the garden during the pond built especially with the cats moving it about the place and bringing it into the house on their paws. But now, at long last, it is all gone - Hurrah!!

Gaz

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Up, Down, and Still

A little update about the new pond...

At the moment this is warming up:

and this is cooling down:

whilst they are staying still:

Just thought I'd do a little update on the fishy side of things in the new area, especially as they are the main reason why the project was conceived. The pond itself is now well and truly finished and the system has been running smoothly for a few weeks now. A couple of weeks ago we moved in the first two Koi to kick start the growth of filter bacteria and gauge how the rest of the koi will react to the new pond and water chemistry. So far so good and the first two residents have been happily swimming away since then. The only thing is, they look a bit lost and lonely, with their 'mates' still left behind in the old pond. 

So we're just waiting for temperatures to stabilize and come very close between the two ponds. The cold March and early April didn't help at all and prolonged the process but temperatures are getting better now and forecast for the next few days is much better.

The new pond is gradually warming up, currently it is 8.9C. The old pond needs to gradually cool down hence I removed all of its covers earlier than usual to help in this process and it is currently 11.9C (it was 13C with the covers on).

The two Koi that we had from the grow and show competition at Avenue Fisheries are still there as our pond was too cold to bring them home that day. And in addition to them we also acquired three more which we chose over the bank holiday Easter weekend. So the entire lot, five in total are all being kept there for us in a pond maintained at 12C.

The three we went for (top L-R Clockwise Doitsu Kujaku, Tancho Goshiki, Mukashi Ogon)

So it's just a matter of waiting until the temperatures are much closer to each other and when that happens we can move in all of the fish into their new home. It's important that the temperature difference is very little or as close as possible to help minimize shock and stress to the fish.

The hard landscaping is finished apart from one fence panel that needs to be installed (long story) but at least it's in the most inconspicuous spot so not essential. The little jobs left to do, cosmetic matters are all gradually being ticked off the list as the weather improves.

As for the plants, all of them are just about waking up from winter hibernation, again way behind than normal courtesy of the cold start to spring and we'll have to wait a bit more to see if we need to replace any. And which bits of them needs to be tidied up.

Tiny plant, big cheer!

Roll on spring! It took you awhile to get here!

Mark :-)

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Whatever the Weather

Whilst the weather is still on the cold side, with plenty of snow across much of the UK we are having to take a pause from some of our projects and plan ahead instead. We had started the repair and replacement to our red pergola a couple of weeks ago, but haven't been able to push forward with that as yet. The last weekend was also fairly cold so we may have to delay this project for a while longer yet. Things are looking a bit better for next weekend, so fingers crossed the warmer weather will arrive.

It can be frustrating waiting for spring, especially when you want to get stuck in to the garden. But there's no point letting the delay annoy or irritate, you just have to find other ways to enjoy the garden. Sometimes that can be achieved by undertaking a different task or by thinking ahead to possible projects for the future.

Hence last weekend trimming back the Sycamore tree as Mark mentioned, we hadn't planned on doing that but it worked well allowing us to keep wrapped up and even work up a bit of a sweat - so much so that cold drinks were needed whilst cutting back the tree.

We often think and talk about future projects, some we have shared on this blog, others don't get beyond a simple idea. Some will happen, some won't. But whilst they may or may not get off the sketch pad into the garden, the journey through initial idea to a design is something we enjoy.

When talking to my parents about our pond build, my mother often referred to it as a giant Lego set for adults. A reference to my childhood fascination with Lego, although I wish the concrete blocks had been as lightweight as a Lego block. This side of gardening, the creative construction of hard landscaping is something we both enjoy and with such a large project as the pond under our belt we both now feel that there won't be much we wouldn't feel confident in tackling.

Concrete blocks, if only they were as light as Lego blocks.

But back to the cold weather, it does give you time to think about new ideas, so we already have a list of things we want to achieve this year, top of the list being the pergola and then the greenhouses for the working area beyond the koi filter house.

As regular readers will know we are also thinking about changing the front garden. Currently this area is block paved, and we want to lift some of this paving to allow planting into the ground. However on the left hand side of the house we are aware that a number of utility connections are under the paving such as water, gas and electricity As we are not sure as to their exact location, I really don't want to risk cutting though a pipe or cable when preparing the ground. So instead of digging down in that area I am thinking about building a raised sleeper based bed over the block paving, leaving the paving in place and not risking disturbing any of the utilities. 

Although we wouldn't be planting dwarf conifers, this wooden planter from The Internet Gardener gives the impression of what I am thinking. If we add plenty of gravel at the bottom for drainage and sit this over the paving then I don't think that there would be any problems, plus if we really needed to get access to the utility pipes etc then it could be dismantled and plants moved more easily than if the plants were in the ground.

As well as thinking about the hard landscaping at the front we are also still debating planting combinations. Do we have a total break from exotics at the front or go for something traditional? Or embrace the south facing aspect and go totally tropical? Perhaps a compromise in between would be the answer.

I suspect we will go for something that feels fairly traditional, the garden has to work with the 1930's era of the house, but rather than being planted with more traditional plants we may go for a traditional style but using exotic plants, after all the gardeners of the 1930s would have used many of the same plants we love today. This project is still being planned in my mind, and no doubt will morph and change as we reach a final design before starting work.

But despite my mind rushing ahead with the cold weather, I need to reign myself back in and hope we get some decent weather to allow us to finish off the various small tasks remaining on the pond project. So fingers crossed we will get some warm and dry spring weather soon! 

Gaz

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The Small Water Feature

Next to our new pond we have built a small water feature. Some of you will have seen one or two photos of this during construction, but now that it is up and running I thought it would be a good time to pull together the various stages of its construction.

The idea behind this pool was simple, to create some extra interest by the main pond, and also to create some watery sound. The new koi pond is a silent pond, with the water returns all under water. This reduces any cooling effects of cold weather on the returning water and also allows for a still surface through which it will be easier to admire the koi.

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After Three Days, Almost Three Years

The Pond is finished....

It took the equivalent of three whole days to fill (spread over five if it includes the interruptions) and after almost three years of work there it was, the pond is finished.

37,010 liters or 8,140 imperial gallons it clocked on the water meter after the pond was filled. We made it past the 8,000 gallon mark, another reason for us to be pleased about.

The window has been installed prior to filling it with water and afterwards all the filtration has been tested and are now up and running, ready to start receiving new fish residents in the following days to come.

All we need now is warmer and drier weather to finish off the few remaining cosmetic jobs that need to be done to tidy up the area. Otherwise all essential and major works in the new garden, not just the pond itself have been completed.

The feeling is surreal, it hasn't sunk in yet. Earlier today we spent some time tidying up some of the tools and materials that we used during the build for we don't need them on this project anymore...

But that's it, we don't need them anymore. Perhaps some of them we will again on a new, future project but for now they can be stored away for the pond is now finished.

It will take some time but we'll get used to it. The feeling is surreal, in a very happy sort of way...

Mark :-)

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Waiting on the Weather

The weather at this time of year can get quite annoying at times! The days are getting longer and some days are fairly mild, enough to coax you into wanting to get stuck in to the garden. But it is still winter after all and the weather doesn't always allow you to get things done when you want to.

The pond project is nearing completion and with any luck we will finally have a weekend with good enough weather to fit in the window. The last few weekends have been too cool to allow the sealant to set properly. Given that its taken quite a while so far there is no point in rushing and risk a leak at this vital stage.

Once we have the window fitted we can then finally get the pond filled and test the pipework for leaks. I'm pretty optimistic on that as the first test when the small water feature was filled caused no problems. Hopefully even though the filtration on the big pond has more connections and bends there will also be no problems.

The small water feature has been up and running for a month now.

The new divide between the pond are and the future working/nursery area we mentioned that we built last weekend also needs painting. So if it's dry hopefully we may get chance this weekend - again weather dependent, dry and mild weather would be lovely!

However this won't hold anything up if it's not painted for a while, so if the weather doesn't look ideal it can wait.

The last of the chalk can still be seen beyond the screen, along with a couple of garden tools we managed to kill off during construction so may have to look for something sturdier. Some of the remaining spoil needs to be removed, however a reasonable amount will be used to back fill between the filter house and where the greenhouse can be seen at the back. With any luck we can get back on this fairly soon and shift away what has to go.

That greenhouse you can see will be moving; as mentioned before I haven't yet decided whether to build a greenhouse to my own specification to fit the space beyond the screen or whether to use that and the greenhouse we bought from ebay a year or so back. The existing greenhouse needs relocating and will move to just behind the screen rather than beside the koi house. Again the weather is key, we can't move the greenhouse until the weather is good enough to leave plants outside whilst we get things ready!

So as I said earlier the weather can be quite frustrating, to be waiting to get the last pond job done before filling it up with water is difficult. But we know there will be a break in the weather soon, so as long as it's dry we can get on with other things whilst waiting for the warmer spell to fit the window.

However whatever the weather we always manage to find things to do - partly as we both just enjoy being in the garden - so I'm sure this weekend will be a productive one regardless.

Gaz :-)

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The Pond that Spawned the Big One

Fondness... that's how I will always view the 'Prequel' pond, with fondness. Not only did it lead to us to building a much bigger one but the lessons we have learned from maintaining it have been invaluable.

Yes lessons, so many lessons learned and they are all valuable, like a string of real pearls (how aquatic appropriate!).

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The Prequel Pond

Prequels seems to be the trend nowadays when it comes to films, TV shows, books, and lots of other things. There are beginnings to virtually everything so no wonder there is a current trend to look back, to see how things began and what series of events happened that led to the development of how things are now (and in some cases, have been). But more often, the reason for a prequel is that sometimes it's just nice to look back.

Heck, even our big pond construction has a prequel to it!

Blast from the past, year 2008 - before the build of the big koi pond, there was the build 
of this pond, the 'Prequel pond'. The pond that started it all...

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It's The Final Countdown...

Those of a similar age to me will probably be thinking about the hit song by Europe at this point...

But that's not what I am referring to but rather we are on the final few things to do before filling the pond. I had hoped we would be able to get finished this weekend but sadly the winter weather that has arrived had other plans for us

Its not even as if there is much left to do; only a little woodwork to the pergola bases and then fitting the window into the pond. But for the sealant to set correctly around the window we need warmer temperatures, so that will have to wait. We even had a friend from our koi club lined up to help us fit it.

We had also started building the deck last weekend but again, with the cold weather and expected snow, will stop us from doing any more on that this weekend.

Lining up the joists

Fastening it all together. The white noggins were left over pieces from building the pergola.

Admiring my handiwork.

The final job we had started was removing the left over chalk and clay from when we dug the pond. Most of it was taken away last weekend, but I don't really fancy trying to dig into frozen soil this time.

Most of this pile has now gone.

The filter house itself is also nearly complete, subject to testing for drips when we fill everything with water. 

Talking of water one small job that we may be able to get done is fitting a water connection into the filter house. This will allow us to top up the pond from the filters rather than having to have a hose trailing into the pond. I haven't quite decided how we will do this, possibly by having a hose reel in the filter house itself. The other way may be to have a connection outside and then bring through a house with a spray gun on the end.

With it cold outside this week Mark has been doing one job a little bit at a time each evening. The small water feature will have a mulch of slate on the base, but as anyone who has added slate to the garden will know it tends to be very dusty. As we don't want the filter to get full of slate dust, Mark has been washing this in advance of putting it in the small pond. 

Small water feature

So rather then get frustrated by the winter, the best thing will be to just embrace it, and find other jobs to do in the garden or have a day out somewhere else. 

Has the song got out of your mind yet? Just in case it has, here it is again!! :)

 Gaz 

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Start of the Finishing Touches

Remember this photo that appeared on the blog post I wrote a few days ago?

The story behind it was that we weren't sure whether to bother cladding the bases of the pergola to hide the brackets and screws holding it down to the wall, or just paint them the same colour so that they would blend away with the rest of the posts. 

Cladding the bases, is it a necessary detail worth doing, adding extra time to the finishing of the project? Or save ourselves that time by just painting the brackets away, blending them with the rest of the posts so that they would be barely noticeable once that's done?

To help us decide, I painted all of the bases and brackets that day to see how it would look once they had been painted (the brackets had been left unpainted previously, assuming then that we would definitely put the cladding on). The thought at the time that if they were barely noticeable then we'd leave them, if not then we'll clad them. Also we decided to sleep on it for a few days to see how we feel and make a decision after.

Well a few days has passed and yes, it was still noticeable to us and yes, the idea of leaving them exposed was more likely to bother us. Since we had originally planned on cladding them we decided that we ought to really stick with it, no point scrimping now (and we had to decide before that pond is filled, for once it's full of water there will be no turning back).

Sometimes, the delays to the finishing of the project are self inflicted by our attention to detail. But I have to admit, I feel that's a good thing.

So this weekend we got crackin' with measuring and cutting the wood for cladding, but what took the longest time was chiselling out the notches where the brackets are so the cladding will be flush. They had to be chiselled one by one as each bracket is in a slightly different place then measured to fit. None of them were fastened on though, that will be done on another day as they all have to be painted indoors first.

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A Sense to Cleanse

Grapefruit and Beetroot - the first two items I picked up when we went to the grocery this evening. It's only me that eats and likes them. Gaz hates them but apart from the fact that I actually enjoy the taste of them, I also think my body needs them periodically to help detox my system after a period of over indulgence. Yes, it's January and it's detox time!

Berries are also good for detoxing, but not from this plant...

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Keeping Busy in the Garden

After the cold snap last week we thawed out over the weekend and the temperatures were quite pleasant again, so much so that we got stuck into a few more jobs in the garden. Just for a change (lol) we got stuck into the pond project again. The pipe work we started in this blog is now coming along nicely for connecting up the pond filters, all that remains now are a few small connections and having received a delivery of a couple more parts we can get that finished soon.

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Baby, It's Cold Outside

Widespread heavy frosts have finally descended on most parts of the country (some snow even on certain areas) last weekend and our garden wasn't spared. 

The way that some of the plants were bowing down due to to the freezing cold and frosty weather (and it stayed like that all weekend) looked like they were submitting themselves to the powers of nature. Or bowing down to welcome the return of winter. Technically, if you follow what the calendar dictates it is still autumn. But if you go by feeling and seeing what it looks like around you, then winter has definitely arrived. And often that's the best way of telling the departure of old and arrival of a new season, simply by how the way it feels.

Ooops, there goes this Begonia...

And so is this Colocasia. Both will be back again next spring.

I think these will be mush as soon as they defrost...

Bright Begonias no more

The frosted plants and biting cold outside made it unmistakeable, winter is definitely here.

A messy tangle of frozen Tinantias

What was once a proud Ricinus...

Droopy clump of Hedychium

Splat!

This flattened Gunnera reminds me of a fainting diva for some reason...

But, despite spending most of the weekend in the garden, we kept ourselves warm by working mostly in the filtration house. The insulation we have put in there last year whilst constructing it has certainly paid dividends. Keeping the door and windows closed, with gentle heating courtesy of a small fan heater and presto, it was t-shirt weather inside.

Getting organised with various bits and bobs...

Despite the cosy warmth inside, the pacing of the work there was also slow. Plumbing done by two non plumbers is not an easy task and the words frustrating and infuriating have crossed our minds often. Still there were some progress at the end of the weekend and we're definitely getting there...

At the end of a plumbing weekend, we're still gardeners after all. There's free space here, so why not shove in these plants? 

The song that was playing on the radio as we were packing up after a weekend of plumbing was Baby, It's Cold Outside and I thought how appropriate that was at that time. Any cold experienced during the few seconds journey back into the house was immediately remedied by mugs of hot cocoa!

Mark :-)

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