Building a pond
Building a pond should be almost standard-practice in every garden. Plants require water and it rains infrequently - so we must build garden ponds to store water. The three fundamental types of pond which can be built are:
Wet ponds: build wet ponds to retain water at a fixed level throughout the year
Dry ponds: build dry ponds to be full of water in wet weather and, as the name implies, empty after a dry spell
Wet ponds with an infiltration margin: they are built to retain water permanently below a set level and to have a freeboard above this level which can fill in wet weather and infiltrate back into the soil round the margin of the wet pond. This arrangement helps rainwater management and creates good growing conditions for water margin plants.
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© flickr user by Cassey
Preformed garden pond liners
Building a garden pond with two preformed pond liners, fountain pump and garden lighting. "Bad taste", you might say, but the pond looks as though it is loved. -
© flickr user by Pete Jordan
Excavations for a garden pond
Excavation is the first step in building a garden pond, using a spirit level to check for falls, horizontals and verticals. -
© flickr user by Peter Caspiolay
Construction of a small garden pond
Building a garden pond, with pond liner, fountain pump, water inlet and water filtration system. The small black box is used to hold filter media - which would be unecessary if the pond was biologically balanced (with oxygenating plants etc). There is also a tendency for pumps to destroy microflora, creating a greater need for filtration.