The Pondman crew was at it again. This time in Escondido,The pump on the customers waterfall had given out a couple months ago. This made for pretty gunky clean out. With a little elbow grease ,a new pump and some new led lights. This waterfall will be good to go ,for a few more years now.  Pond and waterfall cleaning is just one of the things we can do to make your water feature the way it should be. Call us lets talk about it.  (858) 449-9135)

Every once in a while, people ask us here at Pondman. What kind of fish can I put in my pond. Here in California, we are pretty lucky. Because of our local temps and climate, The types  of different fish we can use are higher than some other areas. A pond we are currently working on in Escondido has Albino catfish, along with koi, goldfish and mosquito fish. This is a pretty common mixture,however just down the hill a little bit a customer has tropical aquarium fish in his pond. Now this isn’t as common , but depending on the pond and a few other things it is some times do-able. We see all kinds of fish in customers ponds, sometimes perch, sometimes hi-fin sharks, or even plecostomus. The  choices of fish for your pond can seem endless.

Sometimes a Waterfall needs more than a cleaning. This was the case in Carmal Valley , this week. We were there to do a spring cleaning and (just check it out). This pondless waterfall had been in place for over 9 years, and worked fine, but it was lacking that WOW that it had when it was new. After discussing it with the customer we agreed to come back and re-build it and make it look new.The Pondman crew cant wait to get back at it and make it the attention grabbing feature it is.

This business of ours is a hobby to a lot more people than we know.Last week I received a call from Jack in Chula Vista. He wants to build a Turtle pond.I drove to see him , and we walked into the back yard. He started telling me a story about how He and his daughter went to the fair, where they somehow won two turtles. This was obviously an important story and moment for him. He then showed me the space He wanted to build the turtle pond. The space was perfect. We will do his pond next week.

He then walked me around the house where he had the turtles housed in an old bathtub, set in the ground. He told me that this seemed to work but it was time for a pond . I asked how long the turtles had been in this bath tub at the side of his house. He said with out a smile 30 years………

Well That proves This hobby isn’t new , and good things come to the turtle that wait.

A Pond customer called with a complaint of the pump not working all the time.

Its a beautiful area, with some great ponds. I expected to be impressed by what I was going to see in the yard. Well this isn’t how I had it pictured in my head.  After checking the electricity, the plumbing and a quick look at a few other things, I decided to reach under the pump.

What I found was a snail. The snail wasn’t being sucked in to the pump, but it was being sucked up to the entrance, of the pump. This snail was blocking the pump.I removed it and am still impressed by its size.You never know what you will get , when you reach into a pond

This week we worked on a waterfall and stream in Rancho Santa Fe. The feature was about 10 years old and seem to function pretty good, however the auto fill valve was constantly adding water. It hag become grown over with plants in places. It looked pretty good but the plants and roots were wicking a lot of water. This was causing the constant water fill, and the constant water fill was causing bad water conditions at the bottom of the stream in the fish pond.

The Pondman crew removed all the rock , plants, and gravel off the liner of the water fall and stream.they then cleaned and re installed it all.

It looks great and works even better.

 

Today my grandson rode along with me as we visited some of our pond customers homes.

I would be doing a little maintenance or talking with the customer and see him in the corner of my eye. He was walking around the pond or water falls while looking down at his phone. I didnt think to much about it until after lunch, when I saw him walking around a parking lot looking at his phone again. After a little while he came back. He said he was in a hurry to get back to the ponds.  I asked him why He told me that he was playing a new game called pokemon go . As he described it to me , he also said he was finding his plokemon creatures around the pond and waterfalls. He decided these creatures must be more abundant there. So I dont know much about it but it seams that if you want to do good at the game , you should have a pond or waterfall.

Well now, spring pond maintenance isnt a mystery, Here is what the Aquascape blog has to say about what to do. This pond just had its spring clean out,by the Pondman crew, it had all the fish checked, all the filters cleaned and serviced,and the plants thined and trimmed. Now its ready for another beautiful year. Yours can be next just give us a call (858) 449-9135

This year Aquascape is showing examples of waterfeatures that will fit any yard or budget. The examples  shown range from tranquil to energetic. It seems that no matter how small your space is, a beautiful water feature can fit and make it better. As a Certified Aquascape Contractor, Pondman has the training and experience to make your vision of a water garden come to life. Give us a call   (858) 449-9135

Here in San Diego , Pondman gets a lot of calls for pond construction.

A large percentage of these pond builds are , Pond rebuilds. Possibly the old pond doesnt hold water, or it may be that some of the components are worn out, or as in this case, the pond liner had root and other types of damage.

This waterfall and pond had a good foot print, and some great boulders to work with.

The project included removing all the rock and boulders, and disposeing of the bad EPDM liner.The pondman crew had to do a little shelf carving and some fish caves were added. A new under layment was set in place, then a new EPDM liner was put down. The liner was covered with the origional rock and boulder. A lot of the smaller rocks were removed and about half a ton of 18 inch or larger boulders were added. The pondman construction crew removed the plastic waterfall at the head of the waterfall and designed a more natural waterfall.Over all the customer was happy, the crew was happy, and now the homeowner can enjoy the beautiful pond and waterfall,they should have had to begin with.