Re: NANFA-- I DUG IT

Jeffrey Fullerton (tcmajorr_at_westol.com)
Sat, 06 Jan 2001 03:24:51 -0500

Great to hear the stories of how others have built their ponds.
I started my 16' X 20' hole in late fall 1983 and proceeded to work on
it over the course of the winter whenever it was warm enough to work
outside. I was finished by the end of March and in early April I had the
liner laid and was planting. I did all of this myself with a shovel.
When I upgraded from polyethylene to PVC in 87 I enlisted the help of my
family to carry the much heavier liner up the hill to the terrace where
the pond sits. Pond construction and renovation is hard work -
especially if you make the mistake of spreading soil on the bottom the
first time around.!

When I upgraded again in 97 I had to move the 30 X 50 ft roll of 45 mil
EDPM which weighed several hundred pounds by myself because both my
mother and grandmother were no longer in any condition to help me and my
brother was living away. I had to unroll the liner on the grass and move
it a little at a time - like a gigantic inchworm to get it where I
wanted it to go. To get it over the wire mesh fence surrounding the pond
it was necessary to lay the fence flat and cover it with a thick peice
of old carpet to protect it and the liner. Miraculously I got the liner
into position inside the hole and spread it out - only to find that the
side I wanted up was down so I had to flip it!

Since my pond has a long inlet channel connecting to a series of
waterfalls that cascade down through a rock garden I bought an oversize
liner. I was just too chicken to try attaching a smaller peice like Ray
Wolff did with his Gar pond.

I am now planning a much bigger pond for the near future. This one will
be an absolute monster in comparison to perevious projects and I will
keep it's shape much more simple.

Jeff

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