Looks like you should be well on your way after next summer Jason.
Great that you already have decay going on, the black color is a really good sign that anaerobic bacteria are growing there already.
It takes about 10 cm of depth to get the anaerobic bacteria working, without the addition of manures. You can speed up the start of decay by compressing the dead plant materials,
If you have any manure you can spread in the bottom, it will speed up the bacteria growth and that's when the slime will start turning to gley.
A long time ago, when I lived in up state NY, I was fortunate enough to have a friend with a peat bog on his
land, we took some samples and found, through testing, that his bog had been forming for at least 200 years (
carbon dating).
He was amazed, apparently he thought that his bog had not been there very long, I explained to him that the 200 year carbon dating, while not absolute, gave a good indication that his was a "new" bog.
I then found, through an other friend, records from 1747 that mentioned that bog being there and that peat was occasionally harvested by the friends great grand father for fuel.
I have one runoff area on our north slope that I am starting the build of a rock dam near the bottom of the hill.
Once I have that up high enough to trap the runoff debris from the forest, I will start adding things to grow and die so there will be enough material for the anaerobic bacteria to thrive and start creating gley.
I'm hoping to get this stage of the building of the pond about half way completed this year and finish it off next year, then it will be plant, grow and slash for a couple of years.
At that point I'm hoping it will tend to itself so I can spend all my time on the other thousand things I have on my To-Do List.
I love seeing the photos of your pond project progress.
Thanks again Kola
Ceta Luta (Redhawk)