In the Spring of 2008, we installed a bog to help filter the water of the pond.

Beginning with a cement-block wall, rubber lining was added over the existing liner and filled with a thin layer of gravel.  We added tubing with holes distributed throughout, and then filled in the rest with pea-sized gravel.

A pipe line was run to the upper pond to create a siphon to feed the bog.

The bog is wonderful!  I love the extra variety of plants I can keep thriving without watering them all summer long!

We pushed our luck this year, 2006, and failed to shut down the pond before a cold snap.  Luckily one more flush of warm weather is upon us and the water will come to a stop in a few days.  But the cold snap allowed us to see the pond in a new way.  The ice formations were interesting.

The gardening season is winding down!

This is the pond in the winter.  A strip of dense insulation is set in the pond before the water freezes.  It holds a stock tank heater and supports the frame on which a bubbler is suspended down into the water.   The bubbler is placed 12 inches under the surface of the water and this keeps a hole open in the ice for gas exchange.  If the hole does freeze over, which can happen in January,  the stock tank heater is turned on and the hole in the ice is opened back up.

An April snow storm reminds us that we still have to wait a bit until Spring.  No baroque today!

April snowstorms make for some beautiful pictures.

In the background you have a pretty good view of the solarium which replaced the original 3-season porch. Bethany’s orchids are very happy there!  The middle pond waterfall rock creates some cool icicles as spring nears.

Our bronze sculpture doesn’t look like he’s enjoying the cold very much!

Snow is beginning to melt and the snow angels that we made a week ago are developing a new look!

The pretty purple gazing ball that my children gave me for Mother’s Day, many years ago, decorates the sleeping landscape.

Our home at 1700 Ridgewood Lane, Roseville, MN.  Paul’s dad built the homes on the lane and we are fortunate enough to be the second generation to live in this lovely home.  Hopefully one of our three sons will want to keep the home in the family!

The front planter in front of the kitchen window is ever changing throughout the season.  Pansies smile first and then the begonias that are stored through the winter start filling up the planter.  Finally  impatiens take over and flow over the edges.

Purple Prince and Pink Impression add joy to the Spring time garden.

A favorite of just about anybody, Bleeding Hearts!

I have to show off some of the pretty summer time plants that make the backyard not just a pond, but a garden too.

The cannas and begonias are saved each year and started indoors by late February.  I also grow impatiens, wave petunias, ageratum, marigolds and lobelia from seed each year.

A new orange coneflower, “Art’s Pride.”  I am always game for a new plant!

I promised myself I would take time to enjoy the flowers this year.  The bubble bee must have the same idea.

Sunflowers can’t be beat!

Last year I missed the blooming of my daylilies.  I did not make the same mistake this year.

The boys keep the grass neatly mowed.  Paul edges the gardens.

In the springtime, we have seen a large possum stroll across the backyard,  but this little guy was running across the patio in the Fall, obviously looking for mom.

This squirrel had exotic tastes for our hibiscus leaves and buds.  He pretty much demolished the tree.  I wish he’d stick to acorns!

The next main project after completing the pond system was putting in the patio. That took two summers, 2004 and 2005. We put in 3 dump truck loads (more than 20 yards) of crushed rock (gravel) to raise the patio up, nearly to the level of the door to the garage.  Once the gravel had been leveled off and packed down, we got 4.5 yards of sand and put that down.  The black fabric liner was placed to keep the sand from going down between the gravel.

As Dad dumped wheelbarrow loads of sand down, Joe worked on leveling it out.

The process of putting in stones was a very slow process.  First we had to find a stone that will generally fit into the desired space.  Then it had to be cut to interlock with the adjoining piece.  The goal was to put in the large stones without much cutting, and fill in the triangular holes afterward.

We finally finished it during the summer of 2005, just in time for a summer work party for mom! Isn’t it amazing how deadlines make things get done:)

We purchased this nice cast aluminum patio set and have been enjoying get togethers out there since.

In June 2003 we rented a telescoping forklift to place the large boulders.  The rental yard let Paul drive this thing away with just a credit card!  Here, we are setting one of our favorite rocks, which looks like it is wrapped with a large pink ribbon:

The ‘hill’ that we have was created from the 30 yards of soil removed from the pond.  Most of the plantings were purchased at fall closeouts and temporarily dug in for the winter.

Here, Paul is excavating for the middle pond.   The larger boulders and waterfall rock are already in place.

The large black pipe is 3″ flexible PVC that is used for the main line from the skimmer and pump up to the biofalls at the top.  The green pipe on the left is 2″ tubing that was used to circulate water temporarily until the upper ponds and streams were completed.

Our home at 1700 Ridgewood Lane, Roseville, MN.  was built by Paul’s dad,  Joe Husby.   Paul’s dad was part of the Husby home building company and they built almost all the houses on the lane, plus many in the Roseville area.   We are fortunate enough to be the second generation to live in this lovely home.  Hopefully one of our three sons will want to keep the home in the family

Below is a composite view of our backyard at Ridgewood Lane before the pond.  Bethany had tended the perennial garden for Paul’s mother, Mary, for a few years when she was ready to sod it over, as she was getting up in age.   We lived 2 miles down the road and for 15 years we parked cars at our Midway Parkway location, only two blocks from the Minnesota State Fair!  But now  we could no longer park cars.  Yeah!!!, although the money was good, so instead, I spread a garden hose on the lawn, mapped out where to start digging and on a warm August day, the digging began.

Excavation began in late August 2002.  We carved out the deepest section first, and worked our way out from there. I had never see such clay!  There was brown clay at the top, gray clay in the middle and dark gray clay at the bottom.  Only one small vein of nice black dirt was found.  Not too many rocks, which was nice.  The main pond required the removal of about 30 cubic yards of earth, all done with shovel and wheelbarrow.

Here, excavation for the main pond is complete;  in the picture below, we have lined the dirt with old carpet pad from Paul’s office building.

The rubber liner is in place. This was shipped to us from Georgia in one seamless piece.  We left it on the grass fro the afternoon and almost toasted the grass!  Next we begin lining the walls with fieldstone, all of which we gathered and moved in by hand.  We had spent evenings scavenging for rocks.  Luckily the city of Lauderdale has a sewer construction project going on and from that glacial filled vein of earth, we collected the majority of our rocks after the workers had left for the evening.  Only once did we find another person scavenging too.

We did purchase river rock to cover the bottom of the pond, but that was a drop in the bucket compared to about 20 tons of field stones.

We got some initial experience with water gardening from a small pre-formed pond tucked between the house and garage at our former home on Midway Parkway.