Day 15, Saturday, June 13, 2026: New plants and more rocks!
The day greeted us in a true Kelowna summer fashion with a warm morning that got progressively warmer by the minute! D, P and Y decided to work on the lower pond waterfall and wrap up the rock frame that would channel the stream over the spill rocks.
We also needed to tape down some of the liner creases in order to build out some stable rock holds on one side of the top of the waterfall by the lower pond.
Between the heat of the day and lifting heavy rocks, we were tapping out early. We took a brunch break, courtesy of mama E, and continued to position rocks for another half an hour.
Around 11:30 in the morning we left to go check out slate rock for our path at BC Rocks nearby since the place would close at 1. We checked out a few different types of rock varieties and somewhat settled on coming back on Monday to get almost a tonne of tumbled slate rocks that would cost us some $2,250 plus we would have to get our own truck to take the rock slabs home.
Then we went to this aquatic plant supplier called Swimming Jewels and fell in love with almost everything they had, aside from koi that we were anyway not planning to buy.
The proprietor at the aquatic plants store recommended that we go check out another place past Vernon (30 minutes further from where we were) called Just Rocks where they had bought all their rock supply, and one that would cost less than 2x than what we would pay BC Rocks, and with a lot more variety. We decided to pay for our plants, grab some lunch nearby and go check out Just Rocks before it closed at 4pm. Just Rocks turned out to be a rock haven with all kinds of rocks, big and small. We all liked the San Juan tumbled blue slate variety and settled on it. We would have to bring our own truck that could handle the weight of a palette, about 1200-1600kg, and we figured we would rent one from Budget on Monday. Meanwhile, we purchased 10 large pavers to build some steps alongside our terraced garden which would match the rock we would use to build out our path. We estimate that the entire bill from this place would indeed end up at less than half the cost for BC Rocks, for the same weight.
After our return, P and D continued to fill the head of the lower waterfall. Tomorrow, we will be able to run water through the waterfalls. Fingers crossed!
