A New forest

[Svenster102]

Thanks Craig but Ive made this with a working pump and small tank. The stream is supposed to work. It might be ready now ill try it and make I video if it does. But thats why I use the wood becuase under the dirt i need space for a return hose and the tank and pump.

[Svenster102]

Damm, I tried to hook it up and get t going but Ive stuffed up the stream underall the rock. Ive learnt what I did wrong but this one will never work properly.

Now I have to make a new one

Ill show you guys what it looks like with water flowing just to show what its supposed to do with the sump/pump.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUNpxxaEYhs

[Mitchell]

Well whether it works or not, it looks great and has inspired me to create a shale river system. I may grab so stuff today while I'm at work.

May I ask what failed, so I won't make the same mistake. Looks like it flows fine in the clip, was the issue the water ebbed over your edge boundaries in stead of flowing down? I'm struggling to think what you did wrong.

[hugh grant]

looks great in the video!

Hugh

[Svenster102]

Thx Hugh!

Ok what I did wrong:

I built this container ground up. So I made preparations for the stream first then built up areas to put the plants. So there is a hose and a funnel to collect the water at the bottom.
The mistake i mad was to place the plants first then form the stream with plastic then place the rocks. Since I used plastic leading to the funnel it didnt drain to the funnel fully and much of the water leaks down into thdirst for the plants.

So to make it work you have to make the stream first and make sure it works without leaks into the main container THEN place the plants and accents.

Im going to put this up on ebay and hopefully get some money to buy some materials/plants for another one that ill fix the problems of this one.

[chipper5]

WOW! This is simply stunning! I love the moss and rocks- how have you put them together? It really does look like a minature waterfall ! Once the trees are wired and water flowing it will look just amazing! Take some more pics to show how it comes along- i'd love to see it!

Chipper5

[Svenster102]

Thanks Chipper,

but Ive decided to get rid of this one and do another. Ive made a fundamental mistake with it.
So Im going to do a similar thing but start agian.

Thx for your comment.

[MattA]

Hey Sven,

What a great landscape, the stream will look fantastic with water running. Did you line it or is the plan to allow the water to also keep the trees happy?

Not all wood will rot quickly and this could be the key if you prefer to stay with timber. I recently dug up some old camphor laurel roots in my garden, the tree had been cut down over 20yrs ago but the wood was still rock solid. I would avoid using treated pine, copper arsenate treated timber has been banned in several countries as it was found the arsenic was leaching into the groundwater & then taken back up in the plants and subsequently the food crops grown (your not using it for food but better safe than sorry).

I am planning on making a pot from century old recycled ironbark, even with the constant moisture the timber will last more than a few years (20ish), its not easy to cut or nail but I love the look of timber & think it will suit the old wisteria it is planned for.

Matt

[Mitchell]

Just thinking out loud, reckon we could use Styrofoam to mock up the waterfalls/run, paint it with a membrane like Pondtite then glue slate over it?

I'm still trying to figure it out, I'm worried I'll stuff the run up and it ebbs over into the soil.

[Jamie]

that would work mitch!

make sure that you dig the channel out for the water about half as deep again of the depth you want the water to be (so 1 and a half total size) as this will help stop the water leaking out. you need to make sure your resevoir is deep enough to hold all the water that will be run in the creek. if not you will have some probs in it running as it wont carry enough water, so make the resevoir twice as deep. another little thing if you actually make a resevoir at the top that fills up and overflows in the creek (like an actual waterfall) it will run a lot better.

these little things are the obstacles I face a few years ago when I landscaped my mother in laws yard (before I did my back obviously). I built a running creek that spanned over 4-6 metres. the major prob I had to start with was the return resevoir which was fine when it was flowing, but when the creek was switched off it would over flow massivly at the return resevoir. so I made the return resevoir bigger, and also added a top resevoir (both top and bottom were basically ponds) this fixed the problem of the lower pond from over flowing as water was held at the top and bottom. when the creek was running the two ponds level would lower some what but had enough in it to run and not over flow!

hope that made sense and helps somewhat

[Mitchell]

Yes it was, thank you Jamie!

Wonder if I can find a 12v powerpack and make up a quick foam hot wire cutter. I have a timber tension frame for one I built a while ago, somewhere in the abyss of my shed.

Svenster Any thoughts on your new design? I'm quite excited to see, are you sure you can't fix this one? Seems such a pity.

[Svenster102]

Thats all good advise Jamie.

Yea have thought about my new one. Ill make it first (it will probally be simpler in plants so I can just work on the stream, I plan to make a few of these) WIth my new idea and then Ill show you and see if you can work out what I did

The one in this thread I used a liner for the stream and glued the rocks on with silcon.

Have you started yours Mitchell? Or are you still getting ideas?

The styofoam idea would work very well I think.

[Svenster102]

Hey Sven,

What a great landscape, the stream will look fantastic with water running. Did you line it or is the plan to allow the water to also keep the trees happy?

Not all wood will rot quickly and this could be the key if you prefer to stay with timber. I recently dug up some old camphor laurel roots in my garden, the tree had been cut down over 20yrs ago but the wood was still rock solid. I would avoid using treated pine, copper arsenate treated timber has been banned in several countries as it was found the arsenic was leaching into the groundwater & then taken back up in the plants and subsequently the food crops grown (your not using it for food but better safe than sorry).

I am planning on making a pot from century old recycled ironbark, even with the constant moisture the timber will last more than a few years (20ish), its not easy to cut or nail but I love the look of timber & think it will suit the old wisteria it is planned for.

Matt

Yea thats good I wanted to learn how to carve as well. Make a nice pot out of gum or something. Do you have to laqer it does that help, or spray a clear coat over it or something?

[Mitchell]

Still toying with the idea of under structures. Might go google some streams/water falls for inspiration. I am thinking I want a high fall , cascades and pools. How I am to achieve this I don't know.

Just re-watching your vid again, dialing the pump down doesn't reduce the ebb over into the soil? It seems to be running very nicely, but even if it trickled down it would still look cool.

[Svenster102]

Yea I think Ill make mine with a high fall, I might be ablke to do it all this week end if theres noother work on, Ill show you what I did. If you cant decide on a method