7/4/01:Crippling foot injuries aside, the stairs turned out fine. Next was to set the retaining wall above the lower pond reveal for the mini-cliff face - which was also going to be my practice run for the big cliff face. Another 20 feet of (thankfully cheap) drainage pipe runs at the foot of the retaining wall to take off ground water from above.

Drainage and access. Over and over again. But it creates planting areas. Once the hollow block is disguised, there are plenty of planting pockets for ivy and the wall has created a planting ledge with a swale to prevent runoff into the pond.

(7/11/01) Well, the little drainage swale proved to be totally inadequate to accommodate a gully washer this past week. Almost an inch an hour. The ponds looked like mud puddles. It took days to settle and clean the Elodea densa of all the sediment and silt on the bottom of both ponds. It’s time to build a vacuum. I’m stealing the design principles from a commercial product but it should work anyway.

This is really no different than any Asian farmer faced with a slope. Terracing is an age old method to attack a slope. This photo also shows how much clean up work remains. Will I recover the brick from the old BBQ? and I’ll try the new reciprocating saw to cut up the old shed.  And so it goes......

The shed is gone to reveal the location of a new fern bed. Next, take down the brick BBQ.