
Compacting a pond floor
There are several ways to get
a dirt hole to retain water, but we usually like to start with the
least expensive methods and then work our way up if necessary.
Anna's first attempt includes
a layer of jewel weed and generous foot stomping to compact the future
pond floor.
Want more in-depth information? Browse through our books.
Or explore more posts by date or by subject.
About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed, or simply check the box beside "email replies to me" while writing your comment.
RSS
Jewel weed?
Maybe you're planning to answer this in one of your next posts, but I'm curious--what does the jewel weed do to help seal it?
Comment by
Jake
— Mon Jul 29 11:37:23 2013
- Remove comment
Sealing a pond with jewelweed
Jake --- The longer version is coming up in tomorrow's post, but the short version is that any high-nitrogen organic matter will work to help gley a pond through anaerobic bacterial action. The jewelweed was handy and soft on my bare feet.

Comment by
anna
— Mon Jul 29 13:10:23 2013
- Remove comment
I'd have never thought of that
I would never have thought of adding a nitrogen rich source to help bacteria gley the wetland! Brilliant!
Comment by
Eric in Japan
— Tue Jul 30 06:50:29 2013
- Remove comment
Add a comment