Thank you all so much! Your comments are so nice. I'm so glad I found this site and others who are interested in the type of outside stuff that I am. Kudzu thanks for posting that direct link. I need to learn how to do that. All three of my toilets were free. If you plant something in them that tends to vine or trail over, some people do not even realize it is a toilet. Thanks again for all the kind words and I look forward to seeing all of your neat junk and lucky finds!

Hi, I would like to see some pics posted it sounds awesome. I was reading your post and will try to help. A triton 2 filter is actually a pool filter. Before the pond explosion the last 10 years, I would think that was the filter of choice. When was the last time that was cleaned? All of the muck that your finding on the bottom is because of plant waste. I'm not familiar with Bog filtration. However, I would believe that importance of plant waste is even more important than with a biological or mechanical filter. As plants die off they need to be removed from the pond. That's the reason why your Ph is a little high. Another thing is the fruit tree, if the leaves and fruit that drop into the pond are not removed, that will turn into muck. If your handy at all, and it looks like you want to experiment. Look up DIY pond filters, just a suggestion, if you end up cleaning out the Triton, just into using other media than sand. Looking forward to pics and stories of your progress...Craig

Hi Kai, Welcome to the forum. I'm so glad to have you join us and hope you'll have a wonderful time gardening at your new place. I don't know what county you're in, but I'd definitely do the soil test first. I'd also try to figure out how fast the land drains (you could use a post hole digger to dig a couple of holes in your garden bed area, fill them with water and see how many hours or days it takes them to drain) and I'd do the jar test (linked below) to figure out the composition of the soil. Once you know if your soil is more clay, or sand, or silt, you'll know what you need to do to improve it. If it were me, the top priority would be to remove the bermuda grass as much as possible AND break up the compacted soil and do what I could to improve its' texture/friability. When we built our garden after moving here in 1999, we rototilled up the grass, and I spent WEEKS on my hands and knees filling a 5-gallon bucket with every bit of bermuda grass plant, stolon, root, runner, etc. that I could find. I also removed all the other roots I could find, especially the nutgrass roots/nutlets and the bulbs of wild onions. Then, after I thought I had "all" of it, we'd rototill again and I'd start all over from scratch. After 3 or 4 rounds of that, I really did have most of the roots out of the ground. Of course, turning over the soil exposes billions of weed seeds to the sun and they all are going to sprout, but that is true of any new land you break for a garden plot. Even after doing that, of course, I still had to fight the grass and weeds continually, but had much less to remove every year than I had the year before. I'd urge you to be as organic as possible because it works and it helps the earth instead of harming it. I am not 100% organic, and I don't hesitate to use Round-up or other glyphosates to try to keep the bermuda grass under control, but I do try to be as organic as possible. Study the climatology of your county and be sure you understand the average freeze dates and averages as well as your monthly rainfall. It can be very hard to get the cool season crops in at the right time if the weather is not cooperating, and with the speed at which our weather goes from "too cold" to "too hot", proper timing is even more important here than it is in areas that have longer, milder springs before summer's heat arrives. It IS almost planting time, and I am so glad. I hope you have time to get your soil ready before potato and onion planting time gets here. You will see that we discuss spring planting, bermuda grass removal and soil improvement/bed building (among many other topics) non-stop here in the spring. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Fine Gardening Article Featuring Jar Soil Test

Thanks for the welcome, pwin and timhensley! 'Seashell' does look similar. The petals on mine are more narrow and the color of newer blossoms is more purple when it first opens. But I'm not very familar with peonies so these types of variations might be normal.