A Do-It-Yourselfer's Story
Steve and Terry Metzler's pond
Steve and Terry Metzler shared their Do It Yourselfer's story
this month. Steve writes:
We began pond construction in Aug. 2005, first by deconstructing
our old pond of 12 years. The goal, like everyone's, was to make
it bigger and better, adding a stream with waterfalls. We had
gone on several Pond-O-Ramas and were always envious of what we
saw. We thought what the heck, we could do that ourselves. Ignorance
is bliss!
Overview
- Owner: Steve and Terry Metzler
- Location: St. Louis, Missouri
- Designed and constructed by Steve, Terry and Matt Metzler
- Size: 2200 gallons (16' x 20')
- Equipment: Aquascape filter and skimmer, 4500 gph pump
- Special features: Two streams with five small waterfalls, 20
koi
Our old pond was 600 gallons, just a kidney-shaped pond with a
home-made filtering system. As is always the case, technology
had leaped forward in the pond industry.
When we began digging for the new pond, we hit bed rock and had
to jack hammer most of the hole to get it at least 30 inches deep.
We used a back hoe and pick axe to fine tune the shape. By now
we were in just enough not to turn back.
Wooded area with one of the waterfalls
Once the pond was dug, we began working on the stream beds. We
brought in a load of top soil and our son, Matt, pretty much wheelbarreled
the dirt to the top of the hill and designed the stream bed which
became two since he felt we needed a split with an island of plantings
in the middle.
Matt left for college and the rest was up to us. We watched the
Aquascape video on how to install a pond in a weekend. Ya right,
not our pond. We attached the liner to the filter and laid it
out over the stream section. When it came time to rock everything
in, Terry and I just looked at each other with a lost look. The
first rock was finally laid in place and like a puzzle the rest
followed. We would haul several rocks up the hill and try them
out finally getting just the right one in place. We worked our
way down the hill till it met with the pond.
Oriental touch
Before we could rock out the pond, Katrina hit and when St Louis
got all that rain, our liner floated up. The pond filled with
rain water and mud. This forced us to remove the liner and rework
the shape of the pond and tweek the planting ledges again.
From start to finish was about 21 months. We were only able to
work on weekends and many of those were out because of rain or
other commitments (such as golf for me).
Flower border
The planting part of the pond was all my wife's doing. She started
planting in April of 2007 and everything was finished by June
2007. It required another load of topsoil. We both love the look
of a Japanese garden, therefore we do have a few items that relate
to that theme.
Up close and personal
We absolutely love our pond and garden and have had many people
come by to see it. Several even bring their own bottles of wine
and just sit and enjoy it. We still cannot believe we did this
and will never build another one ourselves.
One of their many koi
