Impossible to say what the problem is without being on site and even then it's difficult. If I take the words "brown" and "leaves" I'm going to be thinking tannins. AC can remove tannins but it's far from easy. Easier imo is to net or vacuum out the leaves and keep up with that and do water changes to remove the current tannins. But I've many cases where the owner said "brown" and it wasn't tannins but just a build up of dead organic suspended in the water. I would call it more of a grey, but brown would fit if you haven't seen a lot of ponds. It's a much more common issue, so if I were a betting man my money would be there. Easiest fix is the same for tannins. Remove organic matter (the source) and water changes to remove the suspended matter. There are filters for removing suspended matter, such as fabric filters and sand filters. How effective these are is dependent on the matter itself, so these are hit and miss. Flocculent can be used to removed suspended matter. Sellers make them sound easy, but the actual process is too complex for most people. Certainly not dump it in and walk way. I wouldn't be mad at your installer, the second filter is a crappy bio filter and even good bio filters don't fix tannins or suspended matter. I would call your "education" at the pond store indoctrination. Stuff in a bottle can have short term effects, but long term rarely does much good. Normally the cause has to be fixed. But all ponds are different. The lava rock in the skimmer is submerged media, and pretty poor media at that for such a small space imo. Again, its a bio filter, little effect on your issues and especially such a small amount. Lava rock in a Trickle Tower is 10-30 times better as a bio filter. So if you really wanted to add lava rock I suggest Googling "Trickle Tower". Super cheap and easy to make. Whether or not 60-100 lbs of lava rock will damage your filter is anyone's guess but I wouldn't care for the odds.

Buford, that is quite a transformation! I think you definitely got your money's worth! And Steve, that's funny.....but I can see a number of front yards in our neighbourhood with just that scenario. Maybe not with roses, but other plants. I have thought of the idea of a landscape designer to have a look at our place. It's a difficult location, it's on a slope, and the grade is steep in some places. But what has stopped me so far? 1. My yard is a sanctuary where I keep myself involved and busy. I always have to have a project active at all times. For example, I just completed an arbour early this year. Installed flagstone paving. Put in a shed. Cleared some climbers. Got rid of topiary dwarf cedars. Etc. Next projects - putting in paving behind the garage, installing water reservoirs, reroof the green house. Those are the things I enjoy and those are the projects that keep me going. I simply can't fathom the idea of having someone else take the pleasure of the thinking and conceiving and labour for me. It's like a child paying someone else big bucks to snatch the candies out of his/her very own hands! 2. My yard is a laboratory of continuous experimentation. I am a restless gardener. I find myself constantly doing "something" to the yard - including ripping up something and implementing somethng new in it's place. I can't imagine paying thousands of dollars to have someone else design and landscape the property - because I know that in the years to come, I will find myself systematically dimantling the very work that I paid big bucks for. 3. I am a plantaholic - a plant hoarder. My backyard is more of an arboretum than a garden. I will probably go into deep depression if any landscape designer should come up with a scheme that is going to mean losing some of the plants. On the other hand, I have many friends who simply are not into the kind of gardening stuff that I do. For them, the somewhat haphazard style of our property is simply not their cup of tea. They want something that looks good, without having to take the time out of their busy schedule to either design or implement landscape plans. Almost all who have used landscape designers and landscape contractors have been happy with the result. The only thing they uniformly find hard to swallow is the cost involved in getting a landscape scheme designed and implemented. And lets give kudos to the landscape designers - good designers can make a huge difference to the final outcome. Think of all the factors that they have to consider - color, texture, line, form and scales, and the principles of unity, balance, transition, rhythm, proportion, etc. And then they have to unify function with style. I have been reading Robin Willams' books on garden design, but I still have difficulty looking 10 feet beyond my immediate surrounding - let alone come up with a master scheme for the whole yard!

We originally had a dowel in my pull out cubby that is pictured above but switched to that perfect tear holder from amazon. (We have used a vertical one like that for years and it works great!) With the dowel the towels came out too fast. Some mentioned they might be too messy to use a towel holder like mine, but my hands are often messy and you're just grabbing the towel. No need to touch the cabinetry really. To change a towel, yes- but in any case to change the towels you have to touch things to get the new towels, etc. I LOVE it so far- especially now with the perfect tear system. BTW, our cab guy had to take apart the Amazon holder and attach it. Mostly so that it was at the right height in the space. Here's a thread on paper towel cubbies I started. Here is a link that might be useful: My Towel Thread

Thanks Bonnie--I would gladly purchase a pattern but I can't find one exactly like I want to do. I'm mostly concerned about the scallops being adequate for the length of the panels. I've seen some pre-made scalloped versions that have just a tad of fullness, but I suspect it's because the rod expanse isn't quite long enough to accomodate it. I do agree, it will be better if I can make these have no fullness. I'm even thinking I may need to come up with something at the corner of the rods to pull the panel taut! Here's a link to the closest thing to what I'm hoping to make, and they call it a bell-flounce. I could make the contrasting scallops using the pattern they provide IF it will work to lengthen just like I want. It would be the clickable View B. Here is a link that might be useful: Bell Valance