We had so much stuff taking over the rock ledge at the top of the liner, we knew we had to tear it out this year. That stuff had only been in maybe 5-6 seasons. People complimented me on how natural my pond looked last fall. Well it doesn't look natural now. I'll post pictures of the mess we took out and what it looks like now. I'm so lucky. Pete put on his old barn boots and got right in there and used a sump pump and finally the shop vac to get all the muck out. Oh and he did a quick rinse with the power washer too.
This was the root mass from some mini bamboo. I was told it wasn't invasive. It's been in maybe 3 summers and I had one little cutting of it stuck under a rock to start with. Again, we could hardly lift this mass of roots. I don't think I'm ever going to put anything in the pond bare root again.
But did we ever run into some messes. On one side of the pond, when we were laying the liner, he misunderstood something and cut a small hole into it. He thought he could lay it over a sprinkler head. I patched bothsides of the hole and we layed the liner right up against the sprinkler head. Well evidently the patch fabric isn't as heavy/strong as the liner and plants went right through it and found a way to get through the hole in the liner and then out the other patch on the back. I had been losing water more than I thought I should but not enough to really care much. I thought maybe it was a leach area in the waterfall. So that explains that. We were able to throw some dirt in and a rock underneath and bring the liner up enough to cut away the patched area. I don't think it'll cause a problem.
I had a round flat bottomed preform that I think is for a barrel planter. It sat at the edge of the pond. I had thought to put a pot with a lotus in it at one point but learned they needed lots of sun and that doesn't get it. So I put three small pots of Bog Bean, Yellow Iris, and mini cattails in the big preform.
Eventually it was so overgrown, Pete and I could hardly pull the mass out of there. We managed to cut the mass apart and find the three pots and cut them out. We just hacked and hacked so hope there was something left of what was originally there to replant so we don't have to buy anything.
We have the water running in to refill it and tomorrow we'll clean the Skippy and put the three feeders and the one mutt that survived the winter back in the big pond. I don't know if we'll start the pump yet or not. I don't think so, not yet.
Tomorrow I'll take a picture of it full.
