Welcome to 2008 Bienvenue a 2008
Again this April I went to The Netherlands where I was born, I do it just about every year,
and revisited Ampie's Berg.
This is Ampie's Berg (Mountain) in Holland, its his back yard, he started it in 1964, its still not finished.
In the winter he fill the flower pots with evergreen branches as above, because it hardly freezes there so they have no snow cover to hide everything like it does here.
Here is Ampie Bouw with my wife Reina;
He gave us a 11/2 hour tour of his "backyard".
summer photos; http://tuinen.biofaan.nl/2007ampie/index.html
Its so big, there was even an open air concert there last year;
Gallery -- 01-09-2007 Openluchtconcert CMKtHarde in tuin Ampie ...
one of the smaller falls at Boomkamp model gardens www.boomkamp.com
website; http://www.boomkamp.com/index2.html
a small waterfall into a japanese garden at Boerhof model gardens
Below is a large waterfall but not yet running, you can walk under it. Reina is standing under where the water will fall in the summer
Website; http://www.harrieboerhof.nl/
another visit we made was to the Utrecht Botanical Gardens
A fantastic Rock garden with this man-made waterfall;
for more ideas;
You can find some very good photos from model gardens, along with a million other summer garden photos from Holland and surroundings on; http://giardino.web-log.nl/giardino/tuinuitstapjes/index.html such as Mondo Verde or Appeltern and the others where Reina and I went last year!
more to come.
-----spring-----2008------
After opening up some ponds, doing some finishing touches from last fall, and retrofitting and repairing water gardens done by others, we start a new year of new works.
retrofit of existing pond with a micro-skimmer
Beaconsfield ....waterfall into pool
Building walls
placing
the waterfall rocks
building more walls
After a long wait for the pool guy to replace a faulty liner, I can test and finish the waterfall,
here are the final results
Next Job; Ile bizard
The plan was to create a pebbled basin for her fountain, because it splashed too much.
Then it became a pondless waterfall,
Then a stream and pondless waterfall
And finally a stream , waterfalls and a fish pond!
Before;
Building wall behind upper waterfall;
stripping off grass;
excavating pond;
some shade needed for the hand digging;
creating steps;
We formed the levels in clay because there was so much rock. Also it was threatening to rain everyday and that would wash-away the "steps" before they were all completed.
The patio and grass area had drained into the pond and washed down the sides, clay is much more resistant.
Stoning the pond and building the waterfall.
working in a tight area makes us resourceful
Ready for waterfall rock:
bringing the rock:
slipping it into place:
note the liner has to fit the rock to contain all the water
TESTING;
a little loud so I repositioned the waterfall rock;
building the stream;
finished;
customers photos'
and they even used it for their Christmas card, naturally the picture was taken in the summer!
next
Bolduc
A rebuild of a pond, built by another,
this is a total revamp and I added a waterfall and stream.
and improved view of falls from house and patio
almost before, I forgot to
take a picture of before;
all the stones removed, the
size I don't like;
note the drain in the middle, I don't like to cut into a liner that can cause
problems, especially in our climate.
This pond leaked like crazy before.
bare foot test
ready to lay geo and liner
my helpers;
stoning;
finished
Its been a very quiet summer because of the global economy, so this give me time to work for myself, like new shingles on my roof , rebuilding a garage on the farm, rebuilding the bridges on the farm and improving my trails.
In the photo we are taking off the roof of the garage!
new garage finished
