Now that I've discovered that I enjoy water gardening, I decided that I wanted to enlarge the feature a little. Originally I wanted to simply make a larger pool, but I got a great bargain on a used 80 gallon liner so I decided to do two pools side by side instead.

Craig once again kindly did the lion's share of the digging. He'd loosen things up with a pickaxe, and then I'd shovel out the loose stuff. We found several of Walter's enormous kin in the hole, but with the clever application of leverage and a bit of luck, we got them all out. They, like Walter, will probably end up a part of the landscape of the pond. I've learned that no matter how ugly they first appear, most of the rocks on the property are quite nice once you wash the dirt off. They all have lots of quartz and mica in them, and it catches the sun nicely.

I spent the rest of the week pulling up the old pond rocks and realigning them to work with the new outline. Can you tell which finger got mashed? It went through an alarming array of hues over the course of the week, but today the swelling is down and it's nearly back to its original color.

I relocated the waterfall for the original pond. The little pool is slightly lower than the big pool, so my plan is to create the illusion that the large one is feeding into the small one.

I also decided to try weed fabric under the mulch this time. The weeds always get so messy in this area, and it's hard to pull them while maneuvering around the ponds. I haven't ever fallen in, but I've come close a couple times.

I picked a great week to work. It's just warm enough to do strenuous work without wearing myself out. It's a bit chilly for short sleeves, but you can't work on a water garden without sticking your arm in occasionally. I had a damp right sleeve most of the week.

This is how it looks now. Although it's obviously two separate pools, I do think that the illusion of one pond feeding the other is successful. The larger pond has a bubbler that I made from part of a birdbath left behind by the previous property owner. It worked out really well, and it's fun to be able make use of it like this.

The feature isn't very colorful yet. The plants will be a few weeks filling in, and the lily leaves haven't surfaced. I also have to plant flowers around the outside of the new pond. I'll add another photo in a month or so when it's prettier.

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