I recently shared a post about our latest gardening update that we were undertaking in our front yard where we removed old plants and installed some nice pilly hedges as well as removing a tree we didn't like and replacing it with Iceberg Roses. The other new addition is the water feature we are currently adding to.
Growing up my grandparents has a giant pond in their front yard, it was like a mini grollo with a mermaid that sat in the middle of it although to small for people it was more for looks and design feature. In it were many Koi fish and I spent a lot of time out there as a kid. Often pretending to go fishing and feeding the fish myself. It was a lot of fun.
My kids wanted a fish tank and a pond which originally I was going to add in the backyard but I thought why not build something that the community can also enjoy while they go on walks around the neighbourhood. So we started digging a hole and purchased a cheap plastic pre fabricated fish pond its around 130 litres and will be a good home for 10 to 12 fish.
I have started off with just 3 fish because I will need to build a filtration system and given a lot of them are quite infact expensive I am deciding to build a bog filters which is a naturally occuring filtration system. I jumpe online and found a battery powered pump that will run off a cordless drill battery. It should give me an hours worth of filtration and pump around 200 liters in that hour. I have quite a few batteries so I can afford to run it for 3 to 4 hrs a day or at night.
I went for this set up because I don't want to run live power to my setup incase i decide to change it in the future. I also explored solar systems and I am not sure if they are best fit currently as the cost for a solar system is almost AUD 1000 which is more than what I have paid for my garden thus far.
So I decided to go for a cheap set up to see how it goes and if we like it I can move to a more permanent setup in the future.
All I will be doing is digging another hole above the current pond and running a line into it somehwere through the bottom and then layer it with charcoal rocks and plants. This will cause all the dirty water to push through the rocks and charoal leaving the sute behind and also feeding the plants. Then we can build a slight channel with a waterfall that will airate and oxygenate the water which will than enable me to get more fish.
So stay tuned as we redesign our front pond and built a mini fairy park! A wonderful little project for me and the kids and something the whole community can enjoy.
For the best experience view this post on Liketu
I could see the eyes of one of those fishes
That’s really amazing and I hope you enjoy your fairy garden