Thanks for your appreciation. I have been living and working on my house for
10 years now, and I reckon another 5 years to go. Yes, a nice Dorset
cottage to work on is a nice dream, but 15 years of hard work is tunrs a
sigh in to ugggh. but I take it steady, make it a hobby and don't let it
make it a master. Why 15 years? - cause I haven't got $150,000 to pay
someone to do it for me, and I like creating things by myself with my own
hands. It took me 3 months to dig out the 2000 gallon pond - 3 years ago
now.
"Nedra" wrote in message
ink.net...
Wow! What a lovely garden you all have, Fireball. I noticed the pond
area
is
under construction. I think alot of us in the States could love to have
your problem of fixing up an English Dorset cottage.... sigh You do
seem to have the idea of a veggie filter.
I would really like to see you
sign up for Free Web space. Then you could post lots of your pictures -
especially
interesting would be pictures of your progress with the construction.
Please let us know your website address. Just post it beneath your name
....
Like this Freebie I have:
Nedra
http://community.webshots.com/user/nedra118
wrote in message news:418294e3@padme....
Thanks Nedra. Curiouser and curiouser. So you have a another sort of
'logoon' area that the main pond water is pumped into. You put some
plants
in it and this loggon area clears the water in the main pond. Hmmmm.
Interesting.
If I have described it acurrately, I have one of those by accident. Due
to
the configuration of my garden, as you see from my pix, it lends itself
to
having waterfalls. The lower part of the garden is still under
construction
after working on it all year, but that is what you get when you buy an
unloved old English Dorset cottage. Everything needs rebuilding after
200
years, apart from the walls of the cottage. All the stone work in the
waterfalls pix I have built this summer. For some strange reason I didn't
have the waterfall running when I took the picture. Strange but true.
So its my top pond that will have good water cleaning properties. The
gravelled intermediate area is completely waterlogged. the idea was to
grow
marginals, those plant that like wet toes by a dry body. My tree fern
absolutely loves this treatment, it has never been better and grown so
well.
What plants would be recommended for my set up? I have put a few roots
of
watercress in the waterrun a few months ago, and since then my wife and I
have had a few salads garnished with the home grown crop.
Fireball
"Nedra" wrote in message
nk.net...
Okay, sit back and just read 
A veggie filter is separate 'pond' buillt adjacent to the main pond.
You
build it
so that it is about 10 - 15% of the surface of your pond. For
instance,
my
veggie
filter is 4' by 8' ... which is a little more than the surface area of
my
pond. Volume
doesn't count here! I dug mine to about 18" deep then lined it with
regular
pond
liner. I used landscape timbers which turned out to be the easiest for
me
to
measure.
Build it like the Lincoln Logs ... Then I nailed 1 x 6"s around the
top
to
hold the liner down. My son built a
manifold to go on the bottom of the VF .... it is made of PVC with lots
of
holes drilled all around.
Next you want to get a pump (mine's a 500 gph) for that will allow
"dwell
time" ... that is slow enough for the
water to dwell in the Veggie Filter ;-) I put the pump on the opposite
side
of the pond -
attached a black hose that extends all the way over to the VF .... up
the
sides and over the top. I attached this end of the hose to a manifold
that
sits on the bottom of the VF.
Turn on the pump and let it fill. I start my VF in early Spring;...
i.e.
March in Missouri.
I have water iris that are several years old ... and really need to be
divided. Also Taro
and lots of Water Hyacinths. The roots of these plants filter the
water -
you will
be surprised at how quickly your pond will clear.
That's it from me. I know lots of others have built their own veggie
filters and besides
I've probably forgotten something or other ----
Good Luck!
Nedra in Missouri