Portable plastered polystyrene pond projects

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ohbly

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Feb 9, 2006
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I'v started to make another pond thats a cross between the little patio-pond/vertical garden and my most recent one. I'm going to make it like the latest one but with a 1200mmx1200mm living wall attached to the back. Its also going to have a built in filter system that is stalling the build as I try to work out how to make it.
Heres a scale model to show what it will look like-
IMG_2334.JPG

heres the foam pond minus wall and filter-
IMG_2330.JPG
This ones going to be very awkward to render because of the wall. It will have to be sturdier than the last one too because of the stresses the wall will put on the pond.

IMG_2334.JPG IMG_2330.JPG
 

ConnerFish

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Sep 27, 2005
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I love your patio pond/vertical garden! Was it very hard to make? Do you have directions or something someone could look at that might be interested? ;) Also how did you pick out the plants to go in it? I would have no idea what would be able to grow. I love having plants and fish but live in a condo with a super tiny patio/back yard and a vertical garden attached to a pond could bring some of both to my tiny space!
 

ohbly

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Feb 9, 2006
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I love your patio pond/vertical garden! Was it very hard to make? Do you have directions or something someone could look at that might be interested? ;) Also how did you pick out the plants to go in it? I would have no idea what would be able to grow. I love having plants and fish but live in a condo with a super tiny patio/back yard and a vertical garden attached to a pond could bring some of both to my tiny space!
Hi yeah that patio pond/vertical garden was pretty difficult to make. I made it at the same time and same way as I made the first pond in the thread. The next bigger one I'm making should be a lot easier to make. I'll try and take pictures of the different stages of the build. Its pretty difficult to try and explain it in words.
As for plants I didn't really know what to plant so I just tried a varitly of different plants. The small one gets a lot of sun so I planted succulents as well as geraniums, mondo grass, babies tears, orchids and other plants. I have another vertical garden pond that is shaded most of the day that has bromeliads, ferns and fuchias.. The felt isn't as absorbent on that wall, but it does ok in the shade.
IMG_2288.JPG
I would just experiment and not get too upset if some plants don't perform.

IMG_2288.JPG
 

ohbly

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I finally finished the latest pond, no thanks to the worse summer I can remember. Sorry but I did a poor job at documenting the process.

I used some old wire spools as feet. I cut a bottom drain into the foam that leads to a filter and then into an overflow and drainpipe. I can isolate the filter from the bottom drain to back-flush it for easy cleaning.


I plastered the base first before I put the back wall on. I reinforced the mortar with fibreglass mesh and reinforcing fibres.


Here it is all finished. I didn't take any picks of the process sorry. The wall made it much more difficult to render, because the weight of the wet mortar put a lot of strain onto the weak foam core. I used steel and multiple layers of fibreglass mesh to reinforce where the wall joins the pond. I wrapped it in cling-film to keep the mortar and hypertufa moist while it cured. Its pretty stiff and strong now that its cured and can be moved around by two people easily.



I drilled a couple of holes into the styrofoam wall for the two pumps. There is one powerful pump thats on a timer to water the wall, and one low powered pump for constant circulation.


Heres the pond all finished and planted.



The wall has 4 layers of green acrylic felt that the plants are stapled to. Now I've just got to wait for the pond to cycle before I add fish. I'm thinking it should cycle pretty fast thanks to the bacteria on the plants roots that will spread all through the felt, turning the wall into a giant vege + bio filter.
 

SubRosa

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Jul 3, 2009
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You did a great job! Now try repeating the title of this thread three times as rapidly as possible.
 
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