Month: September 2015

The Cranberry Bog

In the spring I purchased one cranberry plant from a local nursery and kept it in the greenhouse over the summer.

2015-09-29 cranrootingjpgm

It sprouted runners which I embedded in soil in smaller pots around the mother plant. I ended up with 13 pots with multiple new plants  per pot.

2015-09-29crangerriesm

By the end of September, the mother plant had produced 3 berries and many extra plants.

2015-09-27cranbogm

I dug a small depression above my pond waterfalls, and lined it with old underlay and liner from the previous spillway of the pond.

I made the floor level by flooding it with water and then cutting down the high spots underneath.

I made the floor level by flooding it with water and then cutting down the high spots underneath.

2015-09-28bog-buildm

The tractor bucket filled the depression with fertile soil and peat moss.

The finished bog planted for next year's cranberry crop. (Theoretically!)

The finished bog planted for next year’s cranberry crop. (Theoretically!) An embedded 5cm drain pipe which will allow overflow to the pond will prevent the soil eroding from the structure.

FOLLOWUP FULL DISCLOSURE:   over winter, the rabbits ate them all down so this effort was a failure!!

Pond work on waterfall finished

So I finally finished the reworking of the pond fountain. Its now a cataract with a small  bog added as well for growing cranberries. ( see next post)

2015-10-04waterfall3
Water flowing.. and the banks are reseeded to grass and spring bulbs.
2015-09-26 waterrun2
View from the top down to the pond. 5 pools were installed with small pockets of soil embedded in segregated cusps along each of the 5 pools. Two input pipes are at the top. One for the recirculating pump and one for a buried 2 inch line that taps into a water run on the edge of the upper field.

 

Redesign of the waterworks at the Pond

I was never happy with the fountain I had constructed originally when I built the pond. It was more or less a temporary solution.  So last week I decided to redo it.

2015-09-10-dig-newm
Digging the path through where the old waterfall was to make what will be a series of 5 waterfalls at the north end of the pool.
2015-09-14underlyingwater-works
The underlying piping infrastructure. Included are a 2″ intake from the pond, a 2″ intake for winter intake from surface water flowing down the south side of the property, a line to three 3/4′ output pipes to spray water back into the pond, a 3”drain for winter water input from the field above the pond, an electrical line from the pump motor leading to an outdoor plugin above the pond, and a water input line to supply evaporative loss from the pond when the two upper storage tanks from winter rains run out. .
2015-09-17waterworks
The pipes are all covered now and concrete dams are built. Today some final stone placement is left to do before the cascade through the 5 pools for the water entry to the pond is finished. The orange level is to try to keep the lips of each pool horizontal.

The spillway outlet for the pond originally ran out the south end of the pond and this work is on the North end. Now it remains to remove the rocks from the old spillway, install a 4 inch  underground drain, and backfill the trench and lower pumping pond.