How to Build a Garden Pond

Tap to Read ➤ Abhijit Naik

Building a garden pond is the easiest way to enhance the beauty of your landscape and earn compliments from the admiring eyes of friends and visitors who land up at your beautiful house.

A garden pond, also referred to as a backyard pond, is a water body constructed in the garden or backyard, for beautifying the surroundings or to provide a habitat for the wildlife. Water gardening is gaining popularity around the world. Though the task may seem difficult, it becomes quite easy once you understand the basics.

Instructions to Build a Garden Pond

The foremost thing is to choose a spot after analyzing the surroundings. You need to consider various factors, including soil conditions and rock bed. The pond receives proper amount of sunlight throughout the day.

Once you find an ideal spot, you can demarcate the area and start digging. Make sure you dig up two different levels, the shallow part is used for marginal plants, while the deeper part for submerged plants and fish. A depth of 3 to 5 feet is ideal for a small garden pond. Use a hard tub liner to cover the base of the pond, to avoid water leakage.

Pond Liner

The use of a flexible pond liner gives you an added advantage of overlapping some area outside the pond. If the ground is rough, you can use a layer of sand at the bottom of the pond before covering it with the liner.

Using sand also ensures that your liner is free from any sort of damage. Flatten the liner as much as possible, ensuring that all the curves and corners are neatly covered. Use flat landscaping rocks to secure the outer edges of the pond.

You need to put some weight on the pond liners to keep them submerged at the bed of the pond till all the air from underneath is released. Though water plants are considered ideal for this purpose, you can use heavy stones as well.

Installing a Pond Pump

A pump is an important equipment which you would require to facilitate water supply to your pond. You will have to attach the pump in such a way that it is not visible.

An ideal way to do this, is to hide it in the space among the water plants. You can also use some weed fabric at the bed of the pond, or a washed stone to keep the water outlet in its place. The pump hose should be laid along the bed of the garden pond. Use larger stones around the hose to hide it.

Water Plants

When choosing water plants for your pond, you need to take into consideration the climate of the place. For instance, using ferns in an area with a dry climate doesn't make any sense. Place these submerged plants on the pond liner at the bed of the pond.

You can keep the plants on stones or vertical risers in order to place them at the correct depth. Most commonly used species of water plants include water lilies and marsh marigolds.

After you have finished building your garden pond, turn the pump on and fill it with water. By this, you can check if you need some last minute alterations.

A garden pond is the simplest way to maintain a beautiful garden that complements your house.