The Pond Blogs - Week 5 - How to Build a Garden Pond Part 2

Pondkeeper

The pond blogs – 23/06/2011

Garden Pond - Part 2

The traditional garden pond is probably the most common form of water feature in a British garden.  It allows you to bring almost all aspects of a water feature into your garden.  This is a much more complex operation than creating a fountain, so we will break week we will break it down into more detailed weekly sections.  This is the second instalment of how to build a pond.  Last week we looked at choosing; size, location and type of pond.  This week will look at the next stage.  Digging the pond and laying the liner and underlay.

Digging

First of all lay out the shape of the pond using a rope or hose pipe, and using fine sand trickle this along the shape of the rope or hose.  You can then remove the hose and start cutting the turf.  Be careful to not cut too deep when removing the turf, as this results in a large step down from the grass level to the level in the pond which is not ideal for wildlife.

            

Then dig the Pond to the desired depth and shape the shelving and contours.  Be careful to make the sides sloping rather than vertical.  Contour the shape of the pond to allow for natural flow around all parts of the pond and avoid creating dead spots.  Remember when keeping Koi or other types of fish a 1.5m depth is ideal, and ensure that this depth is at least 40% of the pond area.  For a perfect finish ensure that the top of the pond is level.

Laying the Liner and Underlay

Once the digging and shaping has been done, ensure that all sharp stones have been removed from the surface of the soil.  Then using the strips of underlay cover the whole of the dug out area, including the sides.  Then unfold the liner and place it squarely in the middle of the dug area.  Making sure that it is sat down into and follows the contours, should you need to step on the liner make sure that you remove your shoes first to avoid piercing with stones stuck in shoe tread.  Next anchor the liner down with bricks around the edge of the liner (note – not around the excavation, the actual edge of the liner)

 

The liner is now ready to be filled.  This can either be done naturally from rainwater over a few weeks, or using tap water.  If you do use tap water ensure that you treat the water once in the pond with Fresh Start to remove all the metals and chemicals in the water which are harmful to wildlife and fish.  If using tap water, get in the pond while it is filling to make sure that the liner is pushed down into all the contours of the pond.  Do not cut the liner to size at this stage, leave it to settle for a few days.

Next week, we will look at how to finish your pond and the basics of pond maintence.  All the products you need can be found at www.pondkeeper.co.uk and so long as orders are placed before 1pm on a Thursday you can have all the equipment ready for the weekend.  Please also follow Pondkeeperuk on Twitter and Pondkeeper.co.uk - Armstrong Direct Ltd on Facebook to be kept up to date with all the latest news and offers from the world of Pondkeeper.co.uk