Shoutout to my neighbor Frank for talking me out of a koi pond

I was dead set on digging a 6 foot deep koi pond last spring. Frank came over while I was marking the lines and asked if I ever cleaned a pond filter before. He then showed me his old pond pump covered in green sludge and told me he spent $800 just on chemicals last year. That conversation made me rethink the whole idea and I built a simple raised garden bed instead. Has anyone else had a neighbor save them from a backyard mistake like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

piper77925d ago

You ever know someone who had that experience? My buddy Tom spent a whole summer building this elaborate pond and then his dog decided it was a swimming pool, tore up the liner, and he had to drain the whole thing. He ended up filling it in with gravel and putting a bird bath on top.

robin62825d ago

Yeah I gotta push back on that a little. "Elaborate pond" sounds like Tom went overboard without thinking about real life. Dogs are dogs, they do dog stuff. If you build a pond and don't plan for your pet treating it like a giant water bowl or pool, that's on you, not the dog. Plus gravel and a bird bath is actually a nice setup anyway, less maintenance and no liner to rip. So maybe Tom's summer wasn't wasted, he just learned a lesson the hard way. Why do people act like a project has to be exactly what they planned or it's a total loss?

linda11425d ago

You really had to mention the ripped liner, huh? That's the part that gets me. All that time and money picking out the right liner, getting it seated just perfect, and then a dog goes and shreds it in an afternoon. I've seen liners get punctured by a stray rock or a tree root, but a dog? That's a whole other level of frustration. I can picture Tom standing there staring at a muddy mess, wondering where it all went wrong.