Some Vital Elements When Installing a Small Pond
This is not a step-by-step lesson in pond installation. There is plenty of documentation online to help you with that aspect of your pond. However, I am going to try to help you incorporate certain design elements that will make your pond installation more successful.
Determine the size of the pond first. It must fit into the space that is allocated for your overall design. Do you want it to be a hidden feature or do you want it to be the center of your overall garden design? The area around a meditative water feature is best set apart by large screen type plantings or structures like fences or walls, thus making it more intimate and secluded. The pond can be traditional with right angles coinciding with other traditional asian garden features or it can be a free-form, unstructured element blending with the garden plantings. Your water feature can be secluded even further by sectionalizing your garden connecting it with pathways that create surprises around each bend. Setting up a small patio beside your garden for afternoon tea or adding a bench on which to sit in a shaded afternoon sun meditating to the sounds of the pond.
You’ve decided on the location and the size of your pond. Maybe you have existing boulders or a rock face that you’d like to incorporate into the design. If you’d like fish in your pond you’re going to have to dig a portion of it to a depth of at least 4 feet. The deepest part of the pond can be at the base of the rock face or boulders. If you are just placing the pond into a level area with no natural rock features I suggest the same approach. Dig one end of the pond the deepest. Cut shelves into the earth in 6 inch or 12 inch steps. Do a 6 inch shelf all around and then a partial shelf at one end. The shelves should be at least 8-12 inches in width to accommodate pots. You may be creative with the shelves you cut. They don’t all have to go the entire way around the pond and they don’t all have to be at the same levels. You will want places to put potted water plants and some of them require different depths for survival. You’ll want to make your deepest area fairly large; at least 3-4 feet across at the bottom. This will allow space for the fish, a pump and filter. The fish need the depth in the winter. Placing a pump and filter in this area will allow for winter aeration and keep the fish oxygenated.
If you are using a natural rock face or boulders in your water feature then dig to within a foot of the base of rocks leaving a 12″ wide shelf in front of the rock formation 6″ in depth from the desired overall depth of the pond. This self near the rocks is basically for adding rocks to blend and hide the pond liner. Pond liners come in a huge variety of sizes. They can also be seamed together using marine silicone caulking, so pond is not necessarily restricted by the size of available stock liners. However, a one liner design makes installation a lot easier.
Measuring the liner is simple math, but you have to remember your pond is 3 dimensional. You must measure from one side to the other including the sides. So you measure down and across and then up again on the other side. You do this from at least 4 different directions so you get a good idea as to the actual size of the pond. Then just add the numbers together and you have your pond dimensions. Then add 4 feet in each direction to each final measurement. Trust me on this. Your goal is to have enough material to cover the entire pond with some left over. This allows for tucks and folds in the liner during installation. When you lay the liner over the hole you slowly push it into all the nooks and crannies of your pond walls and shelves. A protective liner is also a good idea before installing your rubber liner. They are light and provide a protective barrier between the rubber and the earth. This prevents small stones from puncturing your main liner and it also provides a cushion for the rubber when you start adding large stones on top of the liner to finish off your pond. You can take strips of pond liner to place under rocks to provide even more protection against puncture.
Blending your pond sides into the landscape is vital and over time your plants will grow and hide some of the imperfections. The reason for the 6″ deep shelf 12″ in width is to add stones to the edge of your pond. Round stones, flat stones, natural moss covered stones or stepping stones… whatever you desire. When you fill the pond the water will seep between the rocks and give a much more natural blend with the landscape around it. The liner is cut right at the level of the pond. The rocks butt against the edge of the liner so it does not show. A mistake made a lot is running the liner over the top of the edge of the pond and placing rocks at surface level. Not only does this look unnatural but it also allows a lot of the pond liner to show. With the rocks placed on the shelf the water, even though it may overflow, will blend easily with your pond edge. The liner acts as an edge to the garden holding back the soil from the pond, but providing a planting area that is right next to the pond edge.
Now you are able to plant right to the water’s edge with overhanging plantings or you may add a patio that comes right to the edge of the pond or even a sandy beach or pea stone border that will blend smoothly into the pond borders.
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