The Leather Oaks Garden -- 2003 Summer

Is there a Schematic Stream??

This Page Created on January 26th, 2008

A whole season of growing after the big Pond Remake, and things are looking great!

A slightly closer perspective on the Leather Oaks Pond. My piping boy doesn't feel quite as vulnerable now that his protective greenery is beginning fill in.

What's that thing in the background, you might have been asking? Well, if we get closer, you can get a better look at the newest Leather Oaks water feature. It's a biological filter that's also serving as a small rapids.

The big box with the hardware cloth cover is a biological filter made by Lily Pons. Ever since the pond was built, it's been providing water purification services, but its outlet had been dropping out of sight before being fed back into the pond. After seeing how some other Pond Society members had used their filters as waterfalls, I began to get similar ideas. Thing is, many of those installations used huge pumps and produced Niagara-sized falls. I thought that would look out of place in my lazy-streamed pond.
I played with some buckets and pipes to produce a modest effect with the small pump used with this filter.

Fellow Pond Society member Roy and I worked out a plan to add dirt and rocks around the buckets and pipes to produce the effect you're seeing here. It had only been working for two or three months at the time these photos were taken.

      For some time, I'd been entertaining the idea to "make something" out of a bunch of those little pondlets the Garden Centers are selling these days.
      Perhaps you've been as dismayed as I at the pathetic effects they frequently produce when used with less than imaginative purpose. It seemed an insurmountable problem to try to make Plastic look like Nature!
      But, here's an idea, why hide them? As some folks have said (perhaps under less wholesome circumstances), "if You've got it, Flaunt it"!

Seven pondlets equal one Streamlet ?

A friend loaned his van for transporting the pondlets, that don't seem that small when they're in motion. Being lazy and also wanting each segment to be plainly visible above the ground, I only recessed the small section of the kidney pondlet into the earth.

Base Pondlet levelled and upstreamers tumbled

Closeup of Kidney pond levelled

The first concept photo!
I guess its about time to get out the hacksaw and PVC glue. Don't think I want to trust those old bricks and blocks for very long! It's sure good that this August day is not windy.

Precariously Placed Pondlets Ponder Permanence

The view from the South of the whole Streamlet. That is the collective term for a bunch of connected Pondlets, is it not?

     Remember Neptune? Remember that story about the falling tree, that by all rights should have flat NAILED the Marine hero? Remember Neptune's miraculous salvation at the hands of grasping grape vines? Well, Neptune was not about to let me forget it!
      I wondered why Lowe's had insisted that I needed two kidney ponds, when I was just building one schematic stream. You never know who my marine friend has contacts with. Anyway, he was somewhat placated when he had his own reflecting pool at least under construction.
      Is it Okay now, Neptune? Yes, I know, we still have to clear your pipes, I'll have the plumber look into it next week, okay? I need to get back to my skeleton, I mean my Schematic Stream. The hose should keep you occupied for awhile! Oh yeah, right. It is a lot better to get ponded than pounded, though, don't you agree!

Thanks for waiting folks, let's get on with the construction project. The link on Neptune's photo will take you there.