#sqpondupdate

I don't feel like writing an actual blog post about this, so I'll make a long story short. In early 2026 I accidentally dumped a ton of dirt in my pond, making the water black. In the process of trying to clean this (which took several weeks), a snapping turtle decided to take up residence. I didn't want them there, especially since I had just ordered a pond vacuum and needed to work inside the pond. After a day, I pushed it along with a rake to another body of water I live near. So far, it hasn't come back, thankfully. I also managed to clear the pond after a week of vacuuming.

I've had a cactus garden for 3-4 years now. It's worked out pretty well. In 2024, I added these planter trays on the ground to use as bird baths. The birds loved them but they were a huge chore to continue to refill and wash.

So in late 2025, added a pond. Because of course I did. It's about 6 inches deep at its deepest end. I made it out of landscape timber and tarp.

I expected to have to replace the tarp with actual pond liner after winter. But the tarp surprisingly held up and had no rips or tears. So in 2026, I made it pretty by covering the edges with rocks and adding a solar fountain that is slightly fancier than your typical floating ones.

Some toads decided this was definitely the place to bang, so it's currently full of tadpoles. The 6in deep pond. Used as a bird bath. In the middle of a cactus garden. WHY?

I have a mouse problem. I've tried a billion things and one of them was buying a bunch of stock tanks and putting them around the perimeter of my house and planting them full of mint. Believe it or not, this appeared to help. Until animals started burying under the stock tanks and messing with my concrete pad/foundation. I removed some of the stock tanks. Late 2025, I decided to make another pond with them. I drilled a hole between the wall of two of the large ones and connected them, then put a smaller stock tank on top. Plan? Smaller tank is a waterfall into the two larger tanks. It looked pretty garbage, but it was mostly a proof of concept.

All tanks are 1ft tall and wide. The bottom larger ones are 6ft long while the smaller one is 3ft long. In early 2026, I redid the waterfall part and made it look nice. The ground it's on is not level and I didn't really think ahead, so the stone I put around the tanks has some questionable spots. But it's way better than it was before.

For the waterfalls, I used solar water pumps and "waterfall bath tub faucets." I originally used actual waterfall spillways but they all have open tops and my original purchases were warped. Since the pumps are solar, the water flow is very weak and I couldn't compensate for the warped spillway. The bath tub faucets ended up looking better in the end. I'm glad I found them. This was yet another plumbing adventure with tons of online-only parts and a lot of wasted time and money. Spend basically all of April dealing with it. Anyway, looks pretty good now. It currently has toad tadpoles in it. --- Last year, my backyard got overrun with 5ft tall weeds. On the left of the stock tank ponds, I used to have my pitcher plant garden. I decided to replant them in a stock tank behind the stock tank ponds. (Sidenote: I also laid a ton of mini clover seed to try to outcompete the weeds)

It's not in the photo, but one of them is flowering! Hopefully I'll remember to take a photo of it later. I've found I don't care to update the internet much these days.

The bottom back stock tank is mostly pitcher plants with 3 variegated sweet flag plants. The stock tank on the top (with the waterfalls) has sweet flag, potentilla, some type of rush, and lizard's tail.

Needed a post to find all the other pond posts.

photo of 2022 pond (2022 pond is technically my 2nd pond attempt)

2023. Pond expansion posts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5: The pond is gone (Has photos of the finished pond)

2024. Lily splitting. No actual pond: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

2025. New pond build updates: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5a (has "finished" pond photos) | 5b