Liatris And Joe Pye

All the paths need mowing. All of them in both gardens.

For some reason I have not been able to bring myself to do that just yet.

The gardens do not care.

They can grow on without me.

Mowed or not, this is still an amazing feat of horticulture.

A gardener is taking a ride with the wild.

Suggestions were planted and sowed. If nature agreed, it took over from there.

My job is to keep the paths clear and ride the rest of the season in comfort and contemplation.

Excitement At Almighty Falls

The all important stacking beneath the falls is under way. That was the pile of rocks that needed to be moved today. Ignore the lower section. That is the rock fetcher's delivery pile.

I gave up on my 'ode to Appalachian walls' idea of making the channel edges look like dry stack stone walls when I realized it would take a lot more effort and a lot more rocks.

After two hours of stacking it looks like the ode will still be there. This section beneath the falls is not going to look natural. It is going to look man made. Given all the parameters I have to work with, that is just how it is going to be. And I am more than fine with that. It's my ode.

The sound of the falls has already begun to change. The initial roar is calming down as rock and flow begin to join. I just need to keep it all inside the lines.

There is an island to build where the stream parts ways. When I had to give up my 'ode to Appalachian walls', the island took on a new form in my mind's eye. It will look purposely man made, but what will my island be?

At Full Liner

The underlayment and rubber liner are now in place beneath the Almighty Falls. I opted to do it by myself in the peace and quiet. We are at full liner now.

The chances that the falls section will be 100% water tight are slim. I had to work with the falls I had and they were not the best.

I am going to give it all a closer look with water sealing glues and potions in hand. Adjustments are a given. The actual drop of water will be watched during the rock stacking. Final adjustments to drop and flow can only be done when that is finished.

Water loss will be kept to a minimum. Maybe I will get lucky and get it all. It's really all about keeping the flow inside the lines. Splash is another matter.

I see a splash here that can go away. That's were rock fiddling comes in.

The plan is to feed the spring into the pond from three, maybe four, different places where I can catch some of it. If water loss is kept to a minimum, these springs can easily make up the difference and then some. I expect that the pond will be operating on constant overflow as the fresh spring water feeds the system.

It will be an Almighty Falls for sure. There are just a few more rocks to stack yet.

Can you imagine thinking building an entire 120 foot long stream and water fall out of dry stack rock, plus a few other random processes, is the home stretch? It is. Praise be that I will have help.

Almighty Progress

The professional rock wigglers were here this morning. A brief description of what was needed was all it took. In three hours the two of them did this. I like it!

The one thing I am not looking forward to, getting the underlayment and rubber liner placed under the falls, keeps getting put off. There are piles of rocks to move and bodies to use. I think I will just have to let the next spare body that shows up help me do this.

Why do I keep thinking I need to do this by myself? I could use another set of hands.

My rock stacking looks a bit different than the professional wigglers at this point. Different rock pile, different base. They should blend together more as I go higher. I hope.

But I was in the hole today with two rock fetchers helping. The sun and I are no longer on speaking terms.

Dusty round river rocks and a black rubber liner on a cloudless hot summer day makes for scorching. I was completely soaked even though I had drained the pond down to the spit in the bottom. Drip, drip, drip.

Three years ago this was a sad patch of grass. I am making progress on the Almighty Falls. It can be done. Give me two more weeks to run time and a month of fiddling for aesthetics.

Botanica

The garden in summer

Headed down the driveway

The basement patio will make a great foundation for a shelter.

Long after the house is gone. Broken crockery is included.

This Is My Lawn

Around The Great Lawn

My brain is full of pond scum and my body is moving in some other time warp. I don't like it. I did have a rock fetcher today. That was nice.

My garden is amazing right now and with the long cooler evenings absent wet and rain, it is very difficult for me to go inside and sit.

A nice meditation is very good for finding peace with a mind full of pond scum. The body is another matter.

So I wander, moving in another time warp. How are the planted plants doing in the time of the Lush?

Most are doing quite well. Good editing does wondrous things.

The planted are now an integral part of the summer garden.

The wild dances around them.

I might pluck a thing or two as a wander for a bit more definition or elbow room, but the garden is content. I can take off my weeding glasses and consider the whole.

Apparently my garden is in the midst of the Faerie Land period. My take has more of a horticultural bent. Mostly I wander, just looking in silence.

Yes. The mobeel was a score. Two was fate. I did as the universe asked.

Will there be a heiau left in me after the Almighty Falls? I have a feeling it will be the last pile of rocks I stack in this life. I just need more rocks. Close by.

I move on after a long pause on the Great Lawn. There is more garden to see.

Eventually it is time to go in and sit. The body's time warp has slipped into another orbit.

Plumbing The Almighty Falls

Plumbing the Almighty Falls is rudimentary in concept. So is spreading out acres of rubber liner.

There is a pump at the bottom and a single water line that runs to the top. Pay attention to the white lines.

There is a filter at each end. In a normal world the skimmer at the bottom would be set in the ground outside the pond. I was given walls to work with.

The pump is connected. A water level check is underway.

The filter falls at the top has a more normal set up. It could certainly be sunk in the ground if needed. I was given a cement bottomed channel to work with in an existing hole of sorts.

Now it needs a rock house to hide it and a base for the rubber liner. The plumbing is connected.

There are of course plenty particular plumbing procedures for ponds. The rudimentary can veer off towards the complicated if you let it.

The real assembly of a water tight Almighty Falls is underway. There will be several test procedures along the way.

About those white lines. They are the water channel boundary markers, the base I built. You can scroll back up and look again. I had a vision about them.

I was given walls to work with. Instead of trying to make an obvious artifice look natural, I am considering building free form, serpentine, squared off, dry stack stone walls as the water channel edges, an ode to Appalachian walls. The bottom of the channel will still get rounded river rock.

The Almighty Falls becomes more sculpture. There will be three exposed portions of the solid slab of rock beneath and planting pockets along the sides. The Almighty Falls becomes more a sculpture in/on and blended to the natural.

How does that sound Miranda?

The good thing is I am a gardener and can plant a vine over the mistakes. It also wouldn't be that difficult to pull a wall like that apart and go all, as natural as I can fake it. Leaks are another matter.

I did stop and admire the chicory this morning before heading out to do the plumbing.