Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Rookie welcomes ideas and advice, please

Ok Guys, here's the rest of the photos. Please offer any ideas you might have. Ive come up with some myself but very open to hearing from others who've done this before.

As far as muck, so far, it looks like anywhere from 1-6" of muck. As I rake out the debris, I'm hitting rocks. I'm wondering since I plan on getting a pump/aerator of some sort, do I really need to remove ALL of the silt/sediment/muck...if I get the majority of weeds, grass and vegetation?

The creekbed coming in from the left of the pond...well, I think I want to try to work with what's already there...even though the far hillside would be a beautiful place for a waterfall. I really want it to look as natural as possible. Since the creek bed and the spring are already there, I thought it would save me a heck of alot of work and money to incorporate the waterfall somehow into what already exists.

Thoughts? Have at it guys! :-) Anxious to hear your comments.

Shellie

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=...e=3&theater

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=601857643158929&set=a.286247368053293.80720.100000040962320&type=3&src=https%3A%2F%2Fsphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net%2Fhphotos-prn1%2F903470_601857643158929_422412360_o.jpg&smallsrc=https%3A%2F%2Fsphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net%2Fhphotos-frc1%2F391045_601857643158929_422412360_n.jpg&size=1632%2C918

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/305885_601858053158888_1603504536_n.jpg

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/399845_601858859825474_295367478_n.jpg

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I tried to post the first few pictures, but it said that they were unavailable.

I'll take pictures of a clients pond where they have a waterfall coming into their pond. They pump water from the pond to the waterfall. I will be there on Friday, but probably won't have the pictures up until Saturday.

Regarding the muck. The tree leaves entering the pond contribute to the organic debris, the water coming down the hillside will contribute dirt/sand/small rocks. With the trees in the area, it's going to be a constant yearly problem.

Catmandoo has a couple good threads on making a settling pond before the main pond. That settling pond traps the sediment before it gets to the main pond, and is easily cleaned out. Would it be possible to make that existing pond the settling pond, and dig another pond close to it?

Getting the muck out now, and then possibly using bacteria to keep it chewed down is another possibility.

The problem, as esshup pointed out, is the surrounding organic debris. There's too much contribution, and not enough buffer space, such as tall native vegetation to use as filtration system, preventing the muck from forming. Beside planting dense and tall native vegetation along the rim (at minimal of 4 feet away from the edge of the water), the alternative is to create a permeable barrier of large rocks and aggregates around the existing pond, 4 to 5 feet away from the edge of the pond. This will allow water to be filtered through the aggregate, while promoting aggressive barrier for the larger organic debris. This can also be done for the water that flows along the eroded path which form the pond. A natural process and design in nature.

However, cleaning the barrier every season is critical to allow clean and filtered water to enter the pond. I'm not sure if there's enough aggressive bacteria to chew that much amount of organic debris. It appears to be quite a huge amount in the surround areas.

esshup,

Ty for your responses. A settling pond?... I'd never heard of that... but actually, there is not an option of making the existing pond one and digging another. We just don't have that much ground available.

My plan is to do as you mentioned, rid the pond of muck, add plants and chemicals(if necessary) to attack and minimize further muck. I look forward to the pictures of the waterfall ideas.

I do realize the existing trees will be an ongoing maintenance issue, but I think my excitement for the pond overcomes the maintenance. I'll update you next year on that comment. :-)

Leo,

TY for the great advice. Regarding the debris, keep in mind this pond and areas surrounding have been neglected for quite some time. I'm hopeful that yearly maintenance will prove not to be so overwhelming. I guess we'll see.

Regarding the rock barrier, versus tall,dense vegetation...I think the rock barrier may be the easiest to start with and see how well it works. My question, then, is.... considering that the eroded, existing rock/soil area is soil & clay. AS of now, the incoming water is a constant trickle of water. 1/2 to 1" deep. So...if I just throw down 1 layer of rocks (maybe lemon size), that does not obstruct the flow...would that be enough to act as a filter or would think I'd need a thicker/or larger layer?

My experience with rocks as a filter is good and bad. It works very good to slow water movement and let the dirt settle. However it quickly gets filled in between all those cracks with the dirt, and then it just flows over the top of all the stone and becomes ineffective as a settling field. Then its hard to remove the stone to clean up and start again. Stones are good to get a quick foothold to the dirt so it doesn't wash away instantly till plants could grow.

Grasses, plants, etc, will filter and get covered up same as the rocks, but they will resurface and grow on top of that soil to create another layer of filtering.

Shellie, sorry about the late response. Fish n chips pointed out a very great insight on using aggregates, where the gaps of the aggregates will get filled up with fine sediment, as well as organic debris within a season or two of wet events.

There are several ways do do this. First is the method mentioned above, as a starting point. However, the maintenance can be a pain on several front. If rocks and smaller aggregates are your only budgeted options, created two levels of filtration approaches. Please forgive the crude text based layout:


Uphill

- - - - - - -
(Small lemon to apple size rocks at the base, up to 10 inches tall)

(Large rocks, base ball and larger, as second layer from 10 inches tall to 2 feet tall if you have to, based on how how much water is rushing through the vegetation above from the slope. The width is based on how much rocks you can pull together)
- - - - - - -

2 feet of buffer zone, which you can use compost during the spring/summer/fall months to encourage tall native vegetation plant growth.


- - - - - - -
(Large rocks, base ball and larger, as main layer, 2 feet tall if needed)
(Small lemon to apple size rocks at the base, up to 2 inches, 6 to 8 inches tall)
- - - - - - -

4 feet buffer zone before the pond

- - - - - - -
POND


That's the cheapest approach I know how using localized resources, bsaed on the photo of your slope. This will be more that sufficient to allow sedimentary filtration on the first layer, where all the major maintenance will occur. I would check the first layer every month to start out, and more often during major rain events.


Now, the secondary cheapest method:


Uphill

- - - - - - -

(Silt fence, 150 micron or larger to save money)
(Chicken fence-backing with wooden/metal stakes every 5 feet for reinforcement. Silt fence along will be ripped to shred during heavy flow)

- - - - - - -

2 feet of buffer zone to promote plant growth

- - - - - - -
(Large rocks, base ball and larger, as main layer, 2 feet tall if needed)
(Small lemon to apple size rocks at the base, up to 2 inches, 6 to 8 inches tall)
- - - - - - -

4 feet of buffer
- - - - - - -
POND


Let me know if you want to learn how to use the silt fence properly. I can do a hand drawn diagram for your location more effectively. You can provide me with more proper field walk-through of your slopes, the amount of buffer space between the trees/plants and the pond. We can come to a more solid solution that will not cause you a financial burden, while effectively taken care of the sedimentary and organic issues.

Leo,

TY TY TY for the generous and detailed instructions on aggregate use. As there is really not much flow, even during heavy rains from the spring, I don't think this will be too overwhelming.... ugh,.... did I just jynx myself? :-)

SO, I do have a couple questions on the BUFFER ZONES. Are you saying tht buffer zones should be plants and such to catch the sediment? And if so, are you saying that right where the spring stream enteres the pond, I should put plants there in place of simply letting the spring flow directly into the pond? Also, the buffer zone you mentioned higher up on the hill? ...should that be plants as well or more of a low water pool of sorts?

Shellie

PS... Intense muck removal this weekend :-/

Shellie, whether the flow is intense or just a drizzle, I would beef things up for the future years just in case of the freak storms you may encounter.

Rather than doing two double aggregates-rocks barrier, just start with one first, to see how thing pan out. The first barrier of the aggregates-rocks will provide that filtration. The buffer zones is always critical. Plan it out where you have enough room to create a secondary aggregates-rock barrier, as well as a 4 feet worth of buffer zone before the pond's edge.

Now, buffer zone between the last barrier, 4 ft before the pond, should either left compacted, lined with smaller 1/2 inch size aggregates as a filtering and stabilizing zone, or have low growth ever-green plants native to the area. If you can encourage moss grown within that buffer zone before the pond, even better. It serves as ultra fine sediment filtering bed, as well as great for stabilizing the soil from getting loose year round. However, if there are grasses that can be planted that are low in growth heights, go for it.

The buffer zone between the two barriers should also contain the same plant types. That buffer zone should contain plants that are not only drought resistance, but having good root system, dense in nature, and evergreen if possible. This will prevent the leaves turning into organic debris during the cold seasons.

Buffer zone from the barriers to the trees/plants in the hillside, you can leave them as is, or you can plant grass that are medium height in growth, as they can help with sediment control. Otherwise, since you indicated the flow to the pond is minimal during an intense rain event, you can simply use local ground up woodchips/mulches to control slope erosion. Just make sure to think about the wind that comes through there from season to season.

Think a few things ahead of time when planning out creating barriers either of rocks or plants:

1. Is this is are known for fire hazards. If so, stick with something like mulches and rocks as slope stabilizer and filtering barriers. If you need to, go with man-made synthetic silt fences.

2. Is the site receive enough rainfall or spring flow during the seasons to support the plants. If yes, use the combination of rocks and plants as barriers. If not, consider #1.

3. Is the site suffer heavy rainfall in the past? If so, you may want to beef things ups using #2, and may be ready to increase the defense using man-made barriers, such as silt fences.

4. Budget. Are you working at the low end, mid, or high end budget. Think about things accordingly. A low end budget project may require constant maintenance, where a medium and high end budget at first will only require very little maintenance, based on #1 to #3.

It's all about researching the historical data you have for your area.

By the way, I noticed the spring tend to have interesting concentrated flow from the past based on the photo. It may be one of the major contributor of your muck that you have to deal with, since the flow from the hillside flow directly into that spring. You may want to survey the spring from the pond all the way up to the sources.