Pond In Progress

I managed to line the ponds with extensive carpet donations, this hopefully protects the liner and stops the moles digging through and ruining the pond, perhaps the weight of the water will stop too much damage...they just seem to dig under the swimming pool. With the help of one of the children I managed to get the liner laid out in an afternoon, it looks easy, but I assure you its not..I waited for rain, I tried to rig up the pump from the stream to pump water in, but the pond is too high above the river. Eventually I filled it up with water from the hose, then it rained for 4 days........typical. I planned to hide the divide from the 2nd pond with rocks and hessian sacks filled with soil. I didn't appreciate how hard it is to manouvre heavy rocks without damaging the liner, I managed with the aid of some carpet and felt I've made a good job, but its taken me 4 days to stand up straight again !! I've got to do it again to hide the divide between the 2nd & 3rd ponds(when/if I ever finished digging it out.) I've also got to hide the edges of the pond, build a path down one side, finish the beach area, plant up the whole area, perhaps I might finish by next summer!



Whilst digging out the pond, tidying up etc etc we've also started on the other raised grass circle area. There are no natural flat area's in the woodland gardens, so after the success of the 1st circle, I decided that it would be good to mirror the flat area nearer the house and make it available to swimmers whilst drying off. It will also be a good vantage place to study the ponds. This circle will be higher than the other, so again I have a huge amount of soil moving to do, some of the surplus from the 3rd pond will be dumped here, along with spoil already dumped here from the large pond. Perhaps if I get to dig the overgrown borders over, all that can go here too.