It was all the turtle’s fault.  It’s true that I’ve been pining after a water garden or pond for at least a dozen years now–and have the books to prove it–but I had other things that needed doing and a pond wasn’t on the list.

Then I saw the turtle in the middle of the road, and as is my habit, I pulled off and went back to help it across.  You may remember the post I wrote about the first time I did this after our move to North Carolina, which was also my introduction to snapping turtles!

But this was a yellow-bellied slider, about two or three years old and most likely a female looking for a nesting site.  She was also just a super sweet little thing, and I swear she thanked me!  We set her safely in the grass, and all the way home we talked about turtles.  How clever and cool they are–no pun intended–and what fun it would be if we had turtles in our yard.  I’ve heard that if you build it, they will come, so I hopped on craigslist ‘just to see how much they’d cost’ and found a used pond liner in good condition for super cheap.

That sealed it.  We brought it home that afternoon, and the next day I rallied the troops and we installed our pond.

First there was lots of digging, which stayed pretty close to the shape of the liner but as it happens, was way too big a hole.

Then there was lots of putting the soil back in, cause I’d made the impression too big and also so we could level the pond.  Also adding sand to cushion the liner and fill in where needed.

And adding water.  Actually, we added a little water, adjusted the hole.  Added water again, adjusted.  And again.  But eventually we just added water!

Next (and this on a new day) we hit our local garden centers for discounted plants so we could make our pond a water garden, and I had fun pulling the plants around arranging them every which way.

We also added three cute little goldfish which have been dubbed Licorice, Citrus and Creamsicle.  And, no, we don’t plan to eat them!

Lastly, we added rocks.  And a silkie chicken aka walking yard ornament.

We still need to mulch the pathways a bit, but I’m calling it done!  And it really wasn’t hard…especially if you ignore the bit where the chicken jumped off the bench and landed in the pond, and the part where we had to empty the whole thing out (fish, too!) and clean it up before putting it back cause the dog mistook it for a bath.  Yep, pretty easy!  If you’ve know any homeless turtles, spread the word!

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