A while back I wrote an entry (Peg’s Pond) about building a pond for my sister-in-law Peg. . A planting season has gone by, and as you can see by the pictures, the place has changed quite a bit! Peg now has some Koi and a few goldfish, and they have taken a real liking to their new home. Peg has really done something right, because they have started breeding, and she saw her first batch of Koi hatchlings last Spring, with more hatching throughout the summer. The pond plants have done well, and combined with the fish, she has achieved a good biological balance to keep her pond healthy, and created a nice aquatic ecosystem.
Click photos to enlarge

Part of the design process of determining the location of the pond was preserving the great view from inside the house. There is a wetland area behind her home, and we wanted to incorporate the pond with the view. Now with plants maturing, they help make a smooth transition from the house to the pond to the wetlands. We used mostly perennials and grasses, many of which were native to the area. The photo at the left shows the main waterfall feeding one of the two streams we constructed. That’s Joe Pye plant and Back-eyed Susan around the waterfall.
Even though the picture doesn’t show it, the stream in the photo is one of two streams. It exits in to a small upper pond, which in turn cascades into the main pond. Peg told me she even saw some baby Koi in the upper pond!

The view from her picture window has now become a real focal point in her home. Peg does a lot of work out of her home for people that have mind-body coordination issues (she uses a process called Brain Gym therapy), and the view of the pond and waterfall provides a very relaxing atmosphere for her clients.
The two streams have been a real nice touch. They have created more interest, and the sound of the two streams adds a lot of dimension to the sound of the water. The photo to the left shows the other, larger stream headed down to the main pond.

Peg has really done a great job on her pond. I’m looking forward to watching it grow and mature.”Hey Peg… I could use some Koi for my pond, and I see that you have a few to spare…..”

Right: Peg and I checking out some new baby Koi.

A while back, I got a call from my sister-in-law Peg Johnson, who lives in Portage, Wisconsin. The conversation went something like this:

“Hey, Douger!”

“Hey Pegger!”

“Say, I was wondering… I know you build ponds and water features, and, well, I think I’m ready for one myself. How ’bout coming over to Portage and putting one in my back yard? You’re free this weekend aren’t you? I’ll make it worth your while…”

“I dunno, Peg. I just don’t know if I can make it over there so soon. Anyway, it’s in the upper 90’s.That’s a little warm for a weekend job, don’tcha think?”

“Ya know Doug, football season is coming up pretty soon, ya know. How ’bout if I trade you a big screen for your labor?”

“I’ll cancel my appointments.”

I only had a weekend to do it, so my wife Mary Jo came along to help. Peg recruited 4 or 5 high school football players and her 2 daughters, Sydney and Elise. She also called a local backhoe operator to do the initial excavation for the pond, and rented a loader so I could move the dirt and boulders.

Peg has a beautiful back yard which overlooks a large wetland that attracts a lot of wildlife, and is also a nesting habitat for cranes. I wanted to put the pond and waterfall where she could still enjoy it from her patio and living room, while at the same time taking advantage of the beautiful view. The photo at right shows the view from Peg’s patio during construction. You can see the wetlands in the background. (Click photo to enlarge)

Peg gave me a lot of creative freedom, so I decided to put in 2 streams along with a small upper pond that cascades in to the larger lower pond. Because her lawn slopes away from the house, we decided to haul in several truckloads of dirt and build a retaining wall behind the pond, so the waterfall could face her patio and living room. It also made room for a higher waterfall, longer stream, and the upper pond. We used fieldstone that we found at a local quarry to build the wall. (See photo at left. Click to enlarge)

Several gallons of sweat, 5 sore backs, a scraped elbow, 2 black and blue fingernails, and approximately 368 glasses of water consumed, (not to mention some prayers for a miracle mixed in with it all), we were able to get the pond, waterfall, streams and rock retaining wall finished by late Sunday afternoon.

That’s my wife Mary Jo and I after a long day’s work in the photo on the right (After we cleaned up!). The pond is finished, but the landscaping is yet to come. Notice the two streams and the upper, smaller pond cascading in to the lower, larger pond. I will update you with the “finished product” this spring!

Even after all the hard work, we had to admit that we all had a good time. Sometimes the biggest challenge can be the biggest rewards. And family memories are the best kind to have, aren’t they? Thanks for the big screen, Peg.

That’s Peg in the back, “orchestrating the work”. Right photo: Mary Jo and Sydney hamming it up

A quality job can take time. In my field, that means that a project can take a season and even more to complete. That was the case for a landscaping and construction project we did for Mark and Susan Quinnell. Mark is the owner of the Northfield State Farm Insurance Agency. Landscape architect Spencer Jones came up with a beautiful landscape plan for the Quinnells. It was an ambitious plan that consisted of retaining walls, a step system, an elaborate limestone patio, and a tree and shrub lay-out. It also involved partially dismantling two boulder walls and re-constructing them in four different locations. . We started phase I of the project in the summer of 2005 and finished that fall. Phase II was completed the first week of June 2006. We had a deadline to meet for Phase II, because their daughter Emily was having her high school graduation party that weekend.

During phase I, we constructed the limestone patio and did some backyard landscaping. The most ambitious part of the project was the installation of the custom-cut limestone patio.The patio was very labor intensive, because we cut each stone individually to give it a custom look. We also integrated 3 sitting stones into the patio. Susan will be planting annuals and perennials in a raised flower bed in the middle of the patio. (See photo. Click to enlarge).

Phase II saw us landscape the front, build the retaining walls, and finish the landscaping around the Quinnell’s pool. The timing couldn’t have been better (or luckier!). As we were laying the last roll of sod and sweeping up the driveway on the Friday of graduation weekend, Susan’s parents were getting out of their car and walking past the crew as they were finishing up the drive!

By the way, Emily is spending her first year out of high school in Brazil as a Rotary Exchange Student. She loves her time there, and it has been a great experience for her. She will be coming back in July and will be looking forward to attending St. Olaf College next fall.

click photos to enlarge

Left: Jon Larson and Jordan Docken finishing up the tiered wall system. We put tarps and styrofoam insulation the steps to protect them from any possible damage
Right: That’s Mark helping with a boulder for one of the future walls

Check our website later for an update on this job and some pictures of the finished project!

Last summer, I received a call from Dick Bodman and his wife Hongyuan-Lang to look at a unique project. Dick and Hongyuan live in a beautiful home out by the Cannon Valley wilderness Area in a home built in 2002 by Northfield Construction Company.

Dick and Hongyuan had a large mound of soil left over (left photo, click to enlarge) from the construction of their home, and instead of wasting the soil, they wanted to put it to good use.

Hongyuan had seen some hillside gardens and terracing when she and Dick went to China, so she knew she wanted a series of elevated gardens, with retaining walls and a step system involved. There was already some fieldstone on the site, so we decided to use those in combination with some timbers, similar to another wall we built in the back of the house. (Right photo: John Larson and Matt Grove working on the boulder wall.)

I think the combination of wood and stone that Hongyuan chose created a great look for her wall system (left). The use of the boulders and the wood makes it much more interesting and brings this 6′ terracing system in to scale very nicely. The boulders do a nice job of visually “holding” the system to the ground.

I give Hongyuan a lot of the credit for how this project turned out. She had a vision for what she wanted and was able to communicate it to me during the construction process.

We also added several watering spigots (right) to make it easier to get water to the different terraces without Hongyuan having to drag a lot of heavy hose where she wanted it.

I’ll post an update on the completed project later this spring.