I may be a belle of dirt, but when it comes to water features I fear I’m more like a sad, ugly duckling.

After several days of working on our pond, I’ve decided that I absolutely hate it. I can’t get it to look natural, no matter how much rock I add  or which way I position them. I was also disappointed that I wasn’t going to get my waterfall with this configuration. So… after 3 days of moving rock and digging dirt and filling this thing with water, I’ve decided to scrap it and start over. It’s only the first of March, so I have time- right?
I keep thinking of all the other little projects that need my attention before we have plants ready for our veggie garden this year. Trellises to build, beds to prep, the lawn needs a dose of fertilizer and crab grass prevention, leaves to rake, clean up the pool area and build my daughter a sandbox- the list keeps growing and growing, faster than most of my plants.

But this pond has been sort of my nemesis in the past and apparently is rearing it’s ugliness again. My main gripe with it is that no matter how I dress it up; with rocks, with plants, carefully mounding dirt or sand all the way up to the edge, it always looks to me like someone dropped a plastic cattle trough in the ground. It looks manufactured and contrived and nothing like the tranquil- I- just- appeared- here- in- the- yard- of -my- own -volition- look that I really want. This year I added a ton more rock, I even found a nice flat rock to run the fountain over instead of having a black plastic fountain spraying in the air. My husband commented that this was a nice effect and he notices next to nothing in our yard. Still not happy with it.

I look at those black plastic edges mocking me and all I can see is FAIL FAIL FAIL.

After a very grumpy inspection of it yesterday, I went in to my computer, logged on to Amazon’s site and ordered stuff to build a new pond. I have a plan  in my head and 10 or so flat concrete blocks which I hope to build the waterfall out of. I’m going to have more digging to do, and some ground leveling behind where I want the pond to sit so the waterfall has a level base. I ordered an underlayment (protects the rubber liner from rocks, which our yard has in abundance), 2 rubber liners (one for the waterfall and one for the pond), some landscape friendly expand-a-foam (supposed to help direct the water and hold rocks in place) and more 1/2 inch tubing. I already picked up a pump last week. As soon as all this gets here, I’ll be starting over. . I may need to go pick up some mortar to keep the waterfall rocks in place- but only after I’ve lived with it for a few weeks and decided I’m happy and don’t want to change it again.

I’ll post pictures of the new version and it’s progress. Wish me luck!

-Belle