Have been ponding since, yes, almost a decade now. This is my second pond. The first one had to be surrendered when the plot was divided between we two brothers. I made a slightly larger one in my half of the plot, which was in 2009. The liner has been leaking since a year, but the holes - roots piercing - are towards the top and about 80% of the depth [22 inches] remains full.

Very nice. Looks like you've got lots of different things growing in there despite the hole. Is that a PVC liner?

Hi Dinu. We haven't 'spoken' in a while. I have seen pictures of your garden and house and they have come along so well. Hope this season finds you and your family well. Has your daughter graduated college yet?

Ya, dear Mary, it's been a long time. I think the last was before you went to England [?] on a tour. That was some time ago! I'm glad you remembered that right. My daughter had graduated and done her Masters in Technology [Construction Mgmt.]. She is doing photography as a profession presently. She has bought a new camera and also some lenses from her earnings. Younger one is still in the 3rd yr Engg. All well here including mother [78] and wife.
I have a smaller garden now as you may also remember. It was ok this season, but the zinnias proved a trouble - they were affected by mildew following good monsoon.

Yes, I fight mildew on my zinnias also. I love the flowers though. Congratulations on your daughter's graduation. My husband in and civil engineer and does construction management (for 25 years). He is looking for a new career. Kind of bored with it now.

Good to hear from your.

@psa Sorry I had missed your query. Yes it is some kind of plastic made out of flat threads weaved like a fabric. There seems to be something sandwiched between the two layers of this woven fabric. We get this in different 'gsm' values. I went for the thick one. I have kept a few plants in it. Water hyacinth and water lettuce which I control periodically, otherwise they will take over. There is another plant in the water that is said to be a good oxygenator having thin needle like leaves. Observe closely in the two pictures I showed. I do not know its name.

@Oberon46 Civil Engineer your hubby? Great to have one who will do many things at home! But my daughter is into wedding photography and getting assignments regularly. 25 years is a good length of time to also save enough money for the future. So no wonder he is 'bored'!! Speaks of the $$ value also!! Here, one has to go on and on and on. Rupee fights against the $$ like me fighting Mumammad Ali!!

I wouldn't have thought that the currency exchange would be so 'immediately' felt there. I am only aware of it when I travel outside the country, which is very rarely indeed. I am more conscious of the pound/dollar or euro/dollar exchange as I have been more likely than not to travel to the British Isles or Europe.

I am happy for your daughter that she is so talented in her photography that she is in high demand. That is great. Definitely an art form, with some science mixed in. One without the other would not be so successful.

Always good to hear from you.
Mary

Ha ha ha Mary! $$$ - see how it attracted your attention!! We here take longer to save the same amount you do [means your hubby does!] there. That is what I meant to say. So it is a continuous fight to save and save and watch for any holes in the pocket carefully, at the same time not being stingy. But I think things are slowly changing for good.

I'm also postponing to change the pond liner because it will involve a lot of work. So I have let it be with the root-pierced holes - means a hole in the pocket as well - again speaking of the $$! Need time, energy and the mood to change the liner. Without any one of them this cannot be done! I can set apart some $ for it as it is not too much. The fish are happily living. I started this pond in 2009. So the liner has lived its life too. At this time, the pond water is quite clear. Algae is not a bother temporarily. I'll allow the hyacinth and lettuce to spread as much which will help protect water from getting heated in the ensuing summer. Then I'll remove them in June and the plants will be good mulch and also compost. So having a pond is useful in more than a couple of ways!

(Dinu)

That's all right--I've been ill all week, so not online.

I've used the woven plastic for fish and floating plant tanks, but the threads do seem to be too inviting for roots. Changing it out does sound like a huge amount of work. I really like the balanced systems with enough plant growth to keep down the algae, but enough nutrients and exposure to allow blooming lilies and the like.

Illness to wellness. Good you are back on track, in full health, Paul. Stay healthy!

Changing the liner also will mean starting the pond anew as the ecosystem will get altered. My pond took about 8 months to 'settle' when I started. The slight unevenness of the surface caused by the woven fabric is just enough for the fine root to take grip when it touches it and instead of turning it enters. Of course, I do keep some areas open for the fish. There will be open areas between the lily leaves also.

Roots grow through your liner?? Doesn't that make it leak. Or is that the liner that is on top of the rubber one?

No rubber. I have put in some plastic covers we get extra which we otherwise dispose as trash [so many of them come in to the house in spite of rejecting many!] and then put the liner. The plastic covers are just as a hope to divert the root tips. But they do not guarantee. The roots are only in the side, one side especially. I know it must be from a tree in the neighbour's yard about 50 feet away. They must have come through the brick basement of the compound or less likely to be from the hibiscus tree which is there for 20+ years, very close to the pond. The bigger holes are at the top 6 inches and I see more of the tiny piercings a foot below on the side also - but I have left it like that. If I remove the root, there will be the hole. If the root stays there, it will hold water reasonably longer. I really do not know when I will get the urge to replace the liner.

Makes sense to me. No one wants to disrupt a reasonably functioning and balanced pond. Plus water scarcity is an issue where you are? How is the dam holding out with water. Does the other province still control its distribution? Or am I dreadfully behind the times.

Yes, that is another reason for my procrastination, disturbing the eco system. Water scarcity will be felt in the summer months. But the entire city is being connected with pipes with another river - a tributary of River Cauvery from the other side of the city. The politicians are behind this... they want to take the best sweet water to their capital which is 90 miles away [Bengaluru]. River Kabini water is also good, but it is slightly salty [may be to the tongues tasted Cauvery]. We are already getting the water in this. They will disconnect the old Cauvery water line to Mysuru any day. As of now water has been flowing with good force. But you never know when the water flow in the rivers recede in summers. I'm really amazed at your memory - you remember the dam etc!! We have the Kabini dam on this side. Inter-state fight for water continues.... it is a big issue for politicians to raise and the press will be waiting for stories!! They blame our state for storing water in the dam and not releasing and when it is released, there are reports that most of it is let out to the sea!! Dam level is ok as of now and we are in January. So this summer should be just ok.

As for my pond, I have started to top up once a week or so because evaporation also will reduce the levels aside from slow seepage. Drier months are ahead.

Ah yes. I couldn't remember if you lived on the side that had the dam and yes, I remember reading the articles about 'fighting' over who had control of the water and who had control of ... um.. was it electricity? So now you will have water from the river. I hope it is a very robust river and that it doesn't sort of dry up before the monsoon can refill the level. Could then then revert to the dam?

Electricity is dependent on water - hydro-electric power generation. Thermal power also is supplemented. Due to the shortage of water the turbines wont work and hence there is power shortage esp. in summer. The state also borrows it from other grids. When coal production drops there will be shortage too as some thermal plants go idle. But the main fight between neighbours is for water. The River gets born in our state and flows east through the other state and joins the sea. They have not built a dam to store water. And they blame our state for keeping all the water in the dam!! It looks like a child's fight! The govt. also said that some cusecs of water must be released everyday [anyway it is going on] and when it is done, they are unsatisfied. It appears that they are doing this for war, an issue to shout in the Parliament.
This other river from where we are now connected - almost half of Mysuru is now connected - also has a dam, small one. The politicians want to get River cauvery water - good one and also by laying pipes they can 'pocket' huge amounts! .....while in 'power'. Once the connection, there will be no alternate measures - Cauvery gets disconnected. The dam is 19 kms away from here and Bengaluru [capital of our state] is 140 miles away from here. Rainwater harvesting is encouraged and also made mandatory for new constructions. People flout and ignore the rules and they do not do it as they have misconceptions with rainwater. Most rivers here in the south get to a very low level in the summer, so water is a big issue. It becomes difficult for the authorities to manage.

I guess it would be impractical to install a large tank on your roof with piping down to catch rain water. Especially since you go months with no rain at all. But during the monsoon it would fill up and you would have your own water in case of shortages from the public supply. Course with heat comes evaporation so it would need a lid to contain the water but then how would you get rain. Umm, build a funnel on top so the water could run down the funnel into the tank but provide only a small opening for evaporation. Ha. Hot showers on demand.

Overhead water tanks - both plastic and concrete - have become an integral part of homes esp. in the last 20-25 years. With it, sump. Till the 1970s, we used to get the supply regularly - population was less and hence consumption was in that proportion - shortage and stoppage of water was news, if at all it happened. Very very rare. Came the 80s, more people, more buildings, more housing, more, more and more.... Mysore was never the same. It is such a lovely place in every aspect that people suddenly came to stay. Gone was the old Mysore charm. Gone was peace. The other side is problems!! Also grew was corruption and land sharks who minted money by selling public land [officials] because housing was 'easy money' for them [of course, a portion of the whole with illegal means]. More houses and more people meant more consumption of water, electricity, everything. In our younger days, when we needed water, we went to the taps and there were no sumps or tanks to store. Just a copper/brass vessel to store for drinking.

As you may know I already have this rainwater collection - but I cannot store it for the drier months. Some people whom I visited 4 years ago, have built a large capacity sump exclusively for rainwater while they had a separate one for municipal supply. Rainwater was for cooking and drinking and they had more benefits from doing it and never dependent on main supply. One season rain was enough for the entire year, what with health benefits! My sump is not too high a capacity and I do divert rain into it. I stop the main supply during the 4-6 weeks during rainy season and it overflows. Of course, it does not get empty at all at any time - keeps topping up. Rain spouts are not wasted. I even keep 3 barrels in the garden which I use after the rains for many days. I like to supplement this because r/w is good for the plants. Will have to dig my folders for photos of how I've connected these.

Shot from May last year.

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Your pond is so natural and lovely. Just like a pond should look.

Sump? We have a sump pump in our crawlspace. The water table is very high so we sometimes would get several inches of water down there. The sump kicks on under those conditions and pumps the water to the public drain before it can build up downstairs. So I am trying to imagine how you would use a sump. Either for too much rain? Or to capture rain??