Saturday, November 20, 2010

Foamie Creek Construction

I have wanted a foamie creek for a long time but never had the space nor the gradient to build one. After deciding to get rid of the tree that ate my house, I suddenly had space. My plan was to pull the tree out, stump and all. Then, I would use the hole left by the stump as the lower pond. However, after breaking a tow strap trying to pull the tree out, I ended up just cutting the tree down and leaving the stump.



The Tree That Ate My House!

The tree is gone and construction has started.

I got a garden pond quicker than I wanted one. I found the waterline by chopping clean through it. Water began to fill the hole, I quickly turn the water off. I then relocated and repaired the line around the lower pond.


Installing the lower 90 gallon pond.





Positioning the upper 30 gallon pond.

My wife Hayley looking out the window trying to figure out what in the world I was thinking when I decided to start this project.




I had to build a rock wall to raise the upper pond to get more gradient.

The rock wall is complete.




I had to haul in a lot of dirt to fill around the upper 30 gallon pond and inside the newly constructed rock wall. You can see the creek pools have been dug along with a rough ditch where the creek will flow.


The ponds are in place, the rock wall has been constructed and the creek has been roughly dug. It's time for the liners to begin the creek construction.




Look at all that gradient....




Here's the lower half with multiple drops, pools, and undercuts!




The creek is in place and the rocks have been positioned.


I installed a grist mill next to one of the drops.


The mulch has been added along with garden lighting.

Looking upstream at the foamie creek from the bottom after the mulch has been added.

After construction was completed, I determined that I have 19 feet of creek that drops 3 1/2 feet. That would make this creek 973 feet per mile. I used a 2800 gallon per hour garden pond pump. That is equivalent to 47 gallons per minute or almost 1 gallon per second. Now I gotta find some Foamies to see how it drops. More later once I get the foamies.

Till next time, pray for rain!