Goldfish and Ponds
At Linda's urging, I hand dug a goldfish pond during our first year at Chez
Benbrook. The pond is kidney shaped, 28 feet long, eight feet wide, and
originally was 18 inches deep. The dirt from the pond was piled up into a
large mound behind the pond which Linda landscaped. The pond was lined with 6
mil plastic, but that rotted away above the water line in less than six months.
It soon became just a dirt-bottomed backyard pond. We built three cascaded
water falls on the mound using the same field stone that was used for the
coping and kept them running for several months before we finally gave up on
that; they kept the water agitated and silty, so we couldn't see the fish. We
started off with fifty or so one inch long (9 cents each) goldfish; many died,
but many survived. They have reproduced each year and we now have goldfish
ranging from one inch to six inches in length. We originally installed water
plants (lilys, thrush, etc.) in planters, but they climbed out and rooted to
the bottom. The pond was essentially overgrown with water poppies and other
plants, making it impossible to see the fish again. Jim grabbed his trusty
shovel and dug up all of the water plants after draining the pond. (The
goldfish were moved to the horse water troughs.) He also deepened the pond
another foot and then had four cubic yards of concrete dumped in the bottom.
Jim and Linda then proceeded to mix 72 bags of redimix concrete and hand mold
the sides of the pool to complete the renovation. The pond has been refilled,
the plants are back in it, and most of the goldfish have been
reintroduced. A few were left in the horse troughs to help keep them clear
of algae.
The water remained clear until the runoff from the first rain
filled the pond with muddy water and we are right back where we started.
Sometime during the fall of 1999, I will add another layer of stones to the
coping to provide a dam to keep the runoff out and then we will clean the
darned thing out and try once again to have a clear, goldfish-filled backyard
pond. There's ALWAYS something to do around this place!