Pretty stoked with how this turned out. It is super relaxing and tranquil. Spent quite a few weekends slowly building it all but i think the end result was worth it.
There is a 3m high vertical garden, with Waterfall down the middle, pond with glass inlays and a fire pit area to make a nice contrast in energies.
This is what I started with basically I had a bit of a nothing area next to my pool. Not that you can see it overly well but I had an existing 100mm square post for the shade sail.
I got another 100mm post and sunk it in a heap of concrete. I used 90x45 treated pine for the backing. I had to use 2.4m because I couldn't get anything else. Exterior hardyboard was used to cover it.
2 layers of builders plastic over the cement sheet and then the felt pockets. I used these as they are much cheaper than alternative methods.
I wanted a Waterfall down the middle so I used marine ply, sealed it with a waterproof tile paint and used the stacked slate tiles that are just from bunnings.
And filled it with a heap of cuttings.... alot of cuttings.
Next I dug out and prepared the small concrete slab for the pond. 100mm of crusher dust and a bunch of rebar.
I did a step down in the middle which meant 2x pours, this did make the concreting a bit easier. 100 series besser blocks was used to make the step
Then came the besser blocks for the walls. This was a very tedious process, because I made the pond a weird shape all the corners are at strange angles. This meant all the blocks had to be cut. Hindsight would have tried to get design the pond so it a square
The waterproofing came next. I first used cromlin pond sealant, however this was a mistake. When they say that the concrete needs to be really dry they aren't kidding. I did 2x coats and the whole thing bubbled. This is because the garden needed watering so I couldn't get the concrete to be completely dry. So Anyways pulled it all up and used betta pond sealant which is much more forgiving.
I built the bench seating next, pretty easy just a bunch of treated pine and merbu decking timber.
Ievelled the area and got some paver sand in
The pavers just came from bunnings, they are the 600x400 porcelain pavers with the light grey granite paver as a edging paver. I used the ryobi tile saw but hindsight would have hire a proper unit. The tile saw did struggle a little bit but it got the job done.
I made the furniture next, just a simple storage box that I copied off the diy bunnings page, and matching table. I inlayed a piece of cortan steel into the middle as I had a piece laying around.
I wanted to have the pond with a natural filtration system. So the water is pumped from the main pond to the back section. For the back section, the bottom 400mm is empty space made using aluminium tube and plastic mesh. Followed by large rock to 1mm drainage gravel topped with plants. The roots and bacteria should filter the water. The trouble is the water from the garden has too many tannins so it's a little discoloured, hoping that it will clean itself up eventually. The fish don't seem to mind.
Finally I used the rgb holman garden lights so it all lights up at night. Makes it quite a sight to see.
One thing I have found while the spotlights are great, the pond lights are shocking bad no where near waterproof. Out of the 4x sets all of them have a at least one light out.
