[Dave Novice]

Please post any thoughts or suggestion

[kindredspirit]

Why are the slates there?

[Dave Novice]

Assuming your talking about the pile at the back they are my miserable attempt at a water feature i guess ill have to invest in one cant really complain this whole build has cost me the price of the timber .

The ones in a circle shape are there to hide the lining of the pond .

[kindredspirit]

You can still make a water feature out of your slates. You just have to think differently. No need to go away and buy something.

You could cover the surround of slates with gravel and plant sempervivums in the gravel. That'd look nice (and different too! )

[vulkan]

It has "structure and neatness" I guessed that the slates around the edge were to hide the liner. But they don't "look right", not laid like that with gravel (or what looks like gravel) on them.

Perhaps you could smash them up and then use them, like your "water fall"

A bit like



Your waterfall really needs support, and something to stop the water running where it shouldn't.

But who says you have to have a waterfall? why not have a pipe protruding just above the surface with water making a small arc ?



Like above, but only the one jet.

[Dave Novice]

I get what your saying about the slate' the main reason outside of covering the plastic was because its a straight drop down from the edges i did not grade them back although it does look a little dull maybe once plants go in it might jazz it up a bit. and as kindredspirit has said i can also cover it out a bit more with the pea gravle.

The reason for the water fall well to be honest it was something i had my heart set nothing massive just a nice flow into the pond,

[vulkan]

I wouldn't put any more gravel on if I were you, It stands a good chance of falling into the pond, broken slate is flat and should not move as much as gravel. I will give it some more thought.

Regarding the waterfall you need a couple of things.

Some way to support the slate (in your case) and then you need a way to re direct the water back into the pool. (Pond liner)

Off the top of my head, I would say cement.*
A "conical pile" and push the slate into it, and some where near the top would be the outlet from the pump.
The slates would all have to be at a slight angle downward and you would also need to turn the flow rate right down to avoid a jet where you don't want one.

The reason is that a waterfall has a "header pool" not just to look pretty but to reduce the water pressure but keep the volume, but with a small water fall you may get away with just reducing the flow. Another example is the water blade



Above is a "water blade" the water comes in lower down than the height of the outlet, then it reduces its velocity, then falls over the edge creating a nice effect.

*If you do use cement you will have to seal it with a pond sealant as the lime can affect / kill the fish

[ponddigger]

hi dave ,nice job ,like the lads said keep playing with the slates till you get what you want ,you could use waterfall foam to stick the slates to geather so the water flows over the slates,again nice job ponddigger

[Dave Novice]

Ok so i decide to chamge thing up a little could not get my head around the waterfall i am thinking that i might of been stuck for space so decide to go with the water fountain.




As always constructive feedback welcome

Cheers
David

[kindredspirit]

That's a million times better. Very well done.

You could plant Creeping Jenny among the rocks and solar lights so that it'll eventually hide the liner.

[Dave Novice]

Yep i am very please with how its starting to look

kindredspirit I found a chap today selling Sempervivum Ciliosum he sold me 4 pots for a tenner but there is 20 plus sprogs comming of them is this a good deal or have i been stung and am i best to keep them indoors untill next spring or should i plant them now.

Also picked up to water lillies the other day after checking in so many garden centres and being quoted 16+ euro per plant these were a tenner for too i thought it was to good to be true but i could not leave them behind and as it turns out one of them is a tropical lilly and from what have read wont grow in our climate is there any truth in this.

Regards
David

[vulkan]

No contest.

Much better.

Question, what are the 3 green pipes for?

I would also suggest that as a liner does not like being exposed to the sun (when we get any) could you not move the rocks forward slightly more, and raise the water level too?

[kindredspirit]

[Dave Novice]

Thanks very much vulkan and no there is nothing to stop me moving the stone further out if it stops raining ill see about sorting that tomorrow, the three green pipes are part of a home made filter system i did. You see i could not find a suitable filter everything was too big and powerful for the size of my pond so i took an old power head that i had from an internal filter that i had for my fish tank connected it up to one part of the green hose which connects to a 10 litre bucket at the bottom filled it with media and the other two send the water back to the pond. I tried to use to help make the water fall however it was not powerful enough to force the water up to anything above six inches over the pond.

Ill get onto planting Sempervivum tomorrow weather permitting and i thought that was the case with the lilies bit of a shame guess i can't keep the novice in me suppressed to much.
Thanks kindredspirit

Regards
David

[vulkan]