Pond Build, Next Steps

Next week will be The Queens Diamond Jubilee, 60 years on the throne is quite an achievement (only the second diamond jubilee in British history). Now I'm sure London will be packed next week with visitors all celebrating, but for us it gives us an extra day to push on with the Big Pond project. For those not familiar with British public holidays we normally have a holiday the last Monday in May, but this year that has been moved to the first week in June to give us 2 days off (with a bonus day for the Jubilee). Mark and I have taken advantage and booked three days annual leave, so we get a nine day break (including the weekends) from work for the cost of three days annual leave. I suspect we are not the only ones as many of my colleagues are doing the same.

The main border by the new pond

Nick likes to keep an eye on what we are up to

The current weather forecast looks promising and so it should allow us to get plenty done. The blockwork in relation to the pond is now all complete, so what lies ahead?

The Last of the block work was finished off

The next major item is to plan and build a pergola over the pond, to provide shade for the fish (and help prevent green water) and also to provide some privacy from neighbouring houses when we are sat on the decked area that will eventually be built next to the pond. Hopefully we will get this pretty much finished next week.

What its all about, our existing fish

After that we have to plan the electrical set up in the filter house. We will need to have an electrician set up a connection from our house and a fuse box in the filter house itself. This can then feed both lighting and electrical sockets for the equipment.
Whilst planning this we also need to think about the garden lighting in the general pond area, and we’ve seen some cool outdoor lights from Wayfair.co.uk. Whilst we are in construction mode its easy to hide any cables required to feed outdoor lights. We want to be able to enjoy the area even in the darker months, or in those warm summer evenings (lets hope we get plenty of those this year). Currently we are thinking of adding a light on the outside of the filter house, and then spot lights over the pond. In addition we may add some small lights in the deck area, possibly also an outdoor socket to make it easier to relax with a laptop next to the pond.
Several of the members of our local Koi Club has spot lights over their ponds and its incredible how much difference this makes when viewing the fish, they almost sparkle with the extra light.

Tims Pond, complete with spot lights and covered pergola

John's Pond, enjoying the fish even with the evening closing in.

After the pergola is built we can move the focus away from the pond itself and finish off the filter house, filters and then the seating area. It does now feel like we are finally on the home straight with the build!
Gaz