Thread: Buadhai Builds A Pond

that's a nice swimming pool. But, BH, you are doing all this work...whose house is it?

Originally Posted by Jet Gorgon

...whose house is it?

Excellent question....

Just got up to date with the thread, looking good BH and thanks again this will be useful to many in the future!!!

Originally Posted by buad hai

Who knows what these are for?

Another subtle way of reminding us your wife is chinese. I've been waiting for the pond to go in. Time to crack a beer and enjoy the read.

I continued with the plumbing yesterday afternoon. I had to remove some of the turf we put down. I used a machete to cut and remove sections of grass:


It went back in just fine.


I also put the Lotus seedling in the pond.

Nice pond BH. You look very relaxed among the frogs and lilipads. I hope to add some "relaxation points" to my house after the rainy season.

The first full year in a home offers great insight. Glad I didn't build my shed where I thought I was going to -- as it's now sitting 4 inches under water.

I guess if there's any bright side to not being able to move in to the house right away it's been the ability to observe it and its location throughout an entire year. I know how the rain runoff flows, I know where the sun rises and sets from solstice to solstice and I know which way the wind blows. All very useful in planning the garden and pond.

A few more plants in the pond now:



I'm struggling with the spacing of the laterite stepping stones:


Should they be touching? Farther apart?

BH. My feeling is that there could be about two or three inches more spacing between them.

Originally Posted by a. boozer

BH. My feeling is that there could be about two or three inches more spacing between them.

You're with Ms. B on that. I kind of like them butted right up against each other as well. But, then it's more of a sidewalk than stepping stones....

Thanks.

How about butted pairs with more space between the pairs?

You could even 'rotate' every other pair and add some pattern variance.

E. G.

Originally Posted by El Gibbon

How about butted pairs with more space between the pairs?

Good idea. But I'll need to buy a bunch more.

We spent some time measuring our strides this morning. She's 50 cm, I'm 60.

Here's 50 cm on center:

I liked them closer together but who am I to make coment. My garden is a mess. How much do the laterite blocks cost BH

^I also tried them butted right up against each other and that looked good, too. I guess the aesthetic question is all about bulk. Close together they form a rather large mass for this small garden. We'll keep playing with it.

The 20 cm X 40 cm ones were 23 baht each. I think the normal price is 25, but we got a bunch so the price went down a bit.

The square ones are 30 X 30 and, oddly, they cost 40 baht each. (You can see two square ones on either side of the stream at the right side of the photo. These will eventually be landings for the wooden bridge that will cross the stream at that point.)

Originally Posted by El Gibbon

How about butted pairs with more space between the pairs?

I would go with that. The single blocks are too narrow to make effective stepping stones.

The single blocks are too narrow to make effective stepping stones.

I agree. It makes me think of walking on train tracks even if they are well spaced to match my stride. From the pic, given the space, butted pairs would dominate the setting. Trade them in for square ones.

BH

Drink about 11 Chang/whatever, remove the bricks. Put on the Ms spike heels and walk the path. In the morning you'll see where to put the blocks and the rest areas (where you fell down), everything should be perfect.

E. G.

EG - I tried the butted pairs rotated as you suggest and it looks great. I'll do my best to convince Ms. B in the morning and take some photos. Thanks for the suggestion (and the second, MtD).

BTW - I don't think Ms. B has ever owned a pair of spiked heels....

i've been following the thread and i must say you have done a brilliant job!!!

maybe a few pics would give more ideas about how to use brick decorating your garden. i wish i could have come up with this earlier but i just figured out how to post pic a few days ago (with DD help, he's many times reminded me of the hand in adams family!).

there you go!

Thanks for the pics. Every time I want to buy more bricks Ms. B gives me a funny look and I just say:

"You can't have too many bricks...."

I'm especially fond of this little number:



(The wall on top with the little niche....)

I like the way the red bricks age with mould, whenever I suggest using bricks or clay type pots the boss says how will I manage to keep them kleen.

Well, the solar water pump should have been here by now. So, I wrote the company. Here's their reply:

Dear Michael,
Good morning!
Thank you for your message.
After checking your order status, I'm very sorry that the first shipment on 2nd Sept has been returned by the customs because our staff forgot to declare to the customs there was a rechargeable battery in the parcel. According to the customs policy, the rechargeable battery is allowed to ship but need to be declared in advance.

We just shipped it out again today by declaring to the customs correctly. Please expect to receive it within a week and enjoy the quality solar fountain kit soon.

Again I'm sorry for the delay caused.

Any other further inquiry, please feel free to contact me!

Best wishes.

Yours sincerely,

Wilson
Customer Support Officer

Solarkey Technology (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd.
No.16 Xiangmao Road, Gongshu District, Hangzhou,
Zhejiang, China 310011
Tel: 86-13376811871 Fax: 86-57185020097
Website: http://www.solarkey.com

Is it just me or do the rest of you suffer from this much misfortune?

Originally Posted by buad hai

Is it just me or do the rest of you suffer from this much misfortune?

Periodically yes, but not right now.

Oh, hope the pump gets thru soon!
I like the bricks together. I hate the space because you always end up stumbling on one or having to change stride to accommodate the distance between them. But, only my non-road-laying-person opinion. Looks fab tho, BH!

Just got back from the new house and discovered that someone nicked my brick hammer. I guess I foolishly left it out after cleaning it....


Here's the final path design as suggested by El Gibbon. The stones leading off to the left will be as is to sort of give a "road less traveled" feeling....


The stream has cleared up nicely. It has twelve bags of river stones in it. Six #4 and six #1. I need about six more bags.


The pond was also clearing up, but last night I put in 12 good sized Comets (goldfish) and they really stirred things up. I've put gravel in all the potted plants to keep them out of there. But, until the pump arrives and the stream gets a chanced to do its mechanical filtering job, the pond will be like this.