{"id":2970,"date":"2015-10-02T21:34:05","date_gmt":"2015-10-03T04:34:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newearthcommunity.org\/?page_id=2970"},"modified":"2021-11-24T19:21:55","modified_gmt":"2021-11-25T02:21:55","slug":"ponds-in-the-garden-as-special-garden-rooms","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.newearthcommunity.org\/?page_id=2970","title":{"rendered":"HP 6.10: Ponds in the Garden as Special Garden Rooms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ponds in the garden were easily made in the initial earthworks for the house when the site was excavated in 1981 (34 years ago from 2015).\u00a0 Our land is is on a sandstone base four metres down below the soil surface. We have on our land about a metre\u00a0 of black sandy topsoil which becomes a heavy clay layer which then goes down to the sandstone base. With heavy rain,\u00a0 the\u00a0 water sinks down to the heavy\u00a0 clay layer and sits on top\u00a0 of the clay. It is like a vast underground dam and with slight southern slope\u00a0 of the land, this underground water slowly drains down the slope over several months. Three months later, this water\u00a0 is readily available at the surface\u00a0 if you dig a hole.\u00a0 Woe to you if you went down in a vehicle. The soil would turn to instant bog and you would need to be towed out by another vehicle on a firm surface (that is why we had many horizontal logs and branches laid down in our extensive driveway coming down to our house).<\/p>\n

When the heavy\u00a0 clay layer\u00a0 is broken into, this underground water trickles out and down to fill any depression in the\u00c2\u00a0 clay base below. It then becomes free water with an extensive surface. By excavating shallow ponds in the clay (some up to 0.75 metres deep), I have created four ponds that drain this water\u00a0 away from the house. One pond is a deep one outside the glass wall of our bedroom. It drains in different southern\u00a0 direction away from the house. See the three photos below.\u00a0 This pond had been planted several\u00a0 years ago with waterlilies\u00a0 which\u00a0 have large plate-like floating green leaves and\u00a0 produce blue flowers. These\u00a0 flowers eventually produce\u00a0 seed which sinks down to rest on the sandy base of the pond. The pond may dry\u00a0 up to bare\u00a0 sand and\u00a0 leaf mulch that\u00a0 year as the underground water ceases and the\u00a0 ponds\u00a0 slowly evaporate over\u00a0 six months.<\/p>\n

In the\u00a0 next year, the\u00a0 heavy rain will repeat the process and the ponds\u00a0 will\u00a0 fill again. The waterlily\u00a0 seed resting on the sandy base of\u00a0 the pond, quickly produces new waterlilies\u00a0 with their\u00a0 floating green leaves and blue flowers. Occasionally, wild black ducks<\/a> come to paddle in this\u00a0 pond and provide a sense of movement in the serene landscape.<\/p>\n

The two large ponds on the north side of the house, drain into each other and then into another lower level around the back\u00a0 of\u00a0 the Dipping Pool<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0 eventually down the hill to open land.\u00a0 With the new bore which was only drilled in September last year,\u00a0 we have abundant water for\u00a0 our garden in dry times and water to keep the ponds full. It is wonderful in having the contrast of the still\u00a0 reflective water surface and the ever changing three dimensional nature of the garden and surrounding bush.<\/p>\n

Harriet and I so identify with what the\u00a0 Psalmist David says: Psalm 19: 1- 4 GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)<\/strong><\/p>\n

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky displays what his hands have made. One day tells a story to the next. One night shares knowledge with the next without talking, without words, without their voices being heard. Yet, their sound has gone out into the entire world, their message to the ends of the earth.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Looking<\/a><\/p>\n

…\u00a0 Looking down on the Master bedroom area of the garden with its pond\u00a0 …..<\/p>\n

\"001aaa\"<\/a><\/p>\n

….\u00a0 The\u00a0 pond with a water lily\u00a0 and blue flower ….<\/p>\n

\"1.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"001\"<\/a><\/p>\n

…\u00a0 Pond 1 on the northside of the house drains into Pond 2 as shown below.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Pond 2 then drains into another lower level around the back of the Dipping Pool<\/a><\/strong> and\u00a0 eventually down the hill to open land …..<\/p>\n

\"OLYMPUS<\/a><\/p>\n

Pond 2:<\/strong> As of 10.10.15, this pond has been excavated to eventually form a billabong with a natural log on the other side. Brown creek sand was\u00a0 spread over the bottom up to 100 mm thick. This covered any exposed clay. This was then filled it with bore water over a night and day. It was to\u00a0 be used as natural dipping pool in the hot Australian summer period (it really\u00a0doesn’t have the depth for a\u00a0 swimming pool).\u00a0 Summer begins in December till February.\u00a0 Any excess water flows over\u00a0the\u00a0 top to descend into another lower level around the back of the Dipping Pool<\/a><\/strong> and\u00a0 eventually down the hill to open land\u00a0into the paddock below. The Dipping Pool<\/a><\/strong> is what we created at a later date so we could easily immerse under deeper water to our necks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"001\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"003\"<\/a>Pond 2: <\/strong>was filled with bore water which was very clean. This\u00a0eventually formed a billabong with a natural log on the other side.\u00a0 However, we then had four major thunderstorms in four\u00a0 consecutive\u00a0days in mid November\u00a0 of 2015. We had a small excavator coming out to do\u00a0some work in a weeks time which had booked a month before. With all\u00a0 the<\/p>\n

rain, the grading on the driveway was not quite right. This meant that the\u00a0\u00a0dipping pool received four doses of muddy runoff off the driveway. Since then\u00a0we have diverted all runoff to the other side of the driveway. The billabong was flushed out with bore water which will make it clean again.<\/p>\n

\"010\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

_<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u2026. Newly Built Garden Pond September 2015 \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

_______________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See the next post on our house and garden: Post 11: Animals and Birds on our Land<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

____________________________________________________<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ponds in the garden were easily made in the initial earthworks for the house when the site was excavated in 1981 (34 years ago from 2015).\u00a0 Our land is is on a sandstone base four metres down below the soil surface. We have on our land about a metre\u00a0 of black sandy topsoil which becomes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":4630,"menu_order":9,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2970","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"featured_media_urls":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newearthcommunity.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newearthcommunity.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newearthcommunity.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newearthcommunity.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newearthcommunity.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2970"}],"version-history":[{"count":40,"href":"https:\/\/www.newearthcommunity.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5230,"href":"https:\/\/www.newearthcommunity.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2970\/revisions\/5230"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newearthcommunity.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newearthcommunity.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}