Friday, January 6, 2023 was a big day. Concrete work for the koi pond is finally done! There might be some more random concrete in the future but our pond walls and lower half of the equipment house are finally finished

It took us about six months to decide where our last koi pond was going to be built on the farm purchased in 2020. We selected an overgrown area next to our garage and started work early spring 2021. In February-March 2021 it was a mass of privets and vines. Clearing the area took up most of 2021. We found some fun stuff in this area which was a little distraction.

2022 started promising with the area being dug up. I really expected the “construction area” look would last for a few months and the koi would be in the pond by Memorial Day. Unfortunately 2022 ended up being a full year of a construction site with mounds of dirt, equipment and wood pieces strewn all over, and lots of annoying orange clay dirt. The pond builder doesn’t do concrete on this scale so he started and completed a number of other projects on the farm.

It was really exciting to see a mostly flat, level area outside. Pond builder took a trip to the garden center for me and came back with some Sango Kaku (coral bark) and Bloodgood maples. These are smaller trees and hopefully they will thrive in the area. I will be planting companion plants for these trees and I’m sure we’ll get some more trees over the next two years.

The new equipment house is fairly large and will have two steps going in. We have yet to design the actual house part but anticipate building a wood upper with cedar shingles. We will order another rotary drum filter and place the large equipment into the filter house before completing the structure. The koi might have a pond ready for them this Memorial Day. Might being the operative word.

Today we put down a lot of grass seeds and some hay just to control the area from becoming another clay mud pit this spring. The chickens enjoy picking through the straw for the grass seeds. Hopefully they will leave enough to sprout. It will be really nice to see a green area again.

So a lot of tasks ahead to complete the pond including:

• cleaning all the concrete off the walls,
• creating the shoshugibon wood for the exterior of the pond,
• setting up the filtration equipment,
• building a waste system that will allow us to recycle the waste water,
• designing and building the upper portion of the filtration house,
• renovating the water pump house to match the area look (a little paint and new roof),
• creating the pergola,
• buying a lot more plants,
• maybe buying another koi or two,
• think about potential heating solutions for the pond,
• design a sitting area….

It’s basically a never ending money pit. Thankfully I have a pond builder who always supports me – hard working, talented, and uncomplaining (99% of the time). The koi and I are blessed to have him!

I’m excited to be able to share more interesting photos in the next few months. Some of them might include koi! 😊

[learn_press_profile]