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Digging It
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I observed during winter that a part of the
garden was always wet. It filled up with a
few inches of water after heavy rain and I
noticed the water remained there for days
afterwards. So I thought over several years
that maybe I'd better dig a drain to keep
it dry...
then it hit me |
| pondland!
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You
could locate your pond in a suitable hollow, or proudly out
the front of your house where visitors might fall in on their
stumbling way up to your house on those new-moon evenings..
So my first rule of pond-building is to carefully consider where
it should be, as it becomes a permanent feature and it will
become a part of its surroundings.
So you want it to look natural, and not present a hazard. It
needs to be well-lit at night, with lighting nearby maybe as
a feature; and if it's anywhere near the entrance, provide an
easily-followed path past it to the house.
My second rule of ponds is to keep it shallow - about 30 centimetres
is plenty deep enough, or if you require greater depth for certain
aquatic plants, make the base slope gradually deeper into the
centre. To minimise risk to children, the shallower the better,
or create a 'beach' in the water around the perimeter with different
sized rocks etc.
For more complete safety, site it where you can include an unobtrusive
fence.
...I'm sure there are more rules of pond-building but I can't
think of any, except you want it to look natural.
This means your pond will look like it fits naturally into the
landscape, after the shrubbery has covered the raw concrete
edges.
One trick is to paint yoghurt onto the exposed concrete, to
quickly age it and encourage the growth of moss. I tried it
and it worked.. trouble is a few months later I added more concrete
to build up the sides. |
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If
you have a lot of space a pond design can be an elastic, changeable
thing, and I made my pond several inches deeper than I had
planned, so I subsequently built up the sides as necessary
with more concrete. My pond also grew to twice its original
planned size, just following the lie of the land.
(once you start digging you can't stop.. pity it's not the
same with mowing the lawn)
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fish
and reflections
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When
you're digging, you do need to keep an eye on the waterline
to keep the base level and not too deep. A few long straight
planks of wood laid over stacked bricks in various directions
with a builders level keeping them horizontal is a good guide.
Just dig around and under these to the right depth. |
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There are a couple of ways to construct it. These really depend
on your soil type. Where I live in the Manawatu in New Zealand,
the soil is quite dense -probably due to past volcanic activity,
so I could have got away with a simple plastic lining because
the leakage is minimal from the main pond. And the plastic
soon gets covered with algae etc, so you're not staring at
black plastic for long.
However, the natural-looking pond is a concrete pond and with
some friends and a concrete mixer it becomes a great activity
for a weekend, followed by a party..
But
be careful to not fall into it as a new obstacle in your garden
might take some time to get used to.
When you decide to concrete it, if it is quite large it is
a good idea to drop some reinforcing mesh into it before you
add the concrete. This helps prevent it cracking as it cures
and fills, which might be the case if your ground is unstable.
But then the dampness speeds up plant growth around it, so
small leaks are ok..
About 2 or three inches of concrete is enough, over the top
of a well-taped plastic liner. I filled the pond with water
as the concrete was setting. On unstable ground, you need
to let it cure first, keeping it damp for some days.
Lay a large diameter plastic drainpipe into the pond from
a small reservoir for the pump water intake. Set a pipe into
the side before you concrete the pond.
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My
next task is to cover the bottom of the pond with river gravel,
to keep
the bottom clean, and to provide a good background for viewing
the fish. |
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| View
west from where I live in Colyton, Manawatu. |
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