Dreaming of a pond...

I want to build a very small pond in our front yard. My problem (with this and with gardening in general) is that I'm not good at visualizing what something will look like, or what I want it to look like in the end.... I'm not a whole-picture person, I just see little details, so my garden beds don't have a cohesive theme. That is ok (barely) with my garden, because I can always move things or change them. The pond is going to be a lot harder to change/move later, so I want to get it right the first time! I've been reading in here and taking LOTS of notes, and I have checked out some books from the library, which have all helped. I would like to hear from you all, too, if you don't mind.

This is the area...

We did have a birdbath here, as you can see, but the neighbors let their cats roam, and their cats like to chase the birds that come to our feeder and birdbath. They jumped up on the birdbath, and the top (which is made of metal-reinforced concrete) fell off. (Did I mention the cats are very well fed?) This happened several times, but the last time the top fell on a paving stone and they both broke. The birdbath no longer holds water. Bummer.

This area is very shady. I know I will be spending a lot of time out there netting leaves and spent flowers from the crape myrtles and Mexican Plum, and magnolias, and the neighbor's ash tree, and..... I doubt we will get enough sun to do any water lilies, unfortunately, but hopefully we can find some shade plants that will look nice there.

We were thinking of making the pond about 2 feet deep and putting in a few mosquito fish. It will be about 8 feet in diameter. We would like to put a fountain in the middle. We were thinking about making it heart shaped, but all of the photos I have seen of ponds show irregular paving stones or bricks with plants along the edges, and the shape doesn't really show. Then I saw this post... http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/575362/ If we made a wall like this around the pond, how would that work? Would we have to run the liner over it, and then put more concrete or rocks on top of that? Or would we have to make the pond smaller than the heart, and have a rock-covered ledge inside the heart? (Does that make sense?) If we did do that, we would have to embed some PVC pipes or something into the concrete at the lowest point, so the pond wouldn't overflow it (and wash the fish down the garden path) if it rains hard... Maybe we need to do that anyway, though.

If we build a concrete wall like this, would it need to be as deep as the pond, or maybe a couple of inches deeper? Bareroots made hers just a few inches deep, but it was a raised bed, not a pond. Or should I just skip the wall and go for a simpler shape? How much trouble will a wall be?

This message was edited Oct 12, 2009 2:37 PM

I can see this area from my kitchen and dining room windows, so I want some fairly short plants, so I can see the water over them. I'm hoping to attract birds and toads, etc, but to keep the cats from getting a free lunch, so the fountain will probably spray a fairly wide area (instead of going straight up and down.) I don't want it to get the mailman wet every time he goes by, though, so the top of the pond will probably be deeper, so the fish can hide. Did I mention that I obsess over the little details?? Help!

Marylyn,

Here is a picture of my pond in my back yard. I have about 15 fish. Maybe this will give you some inspiration. I would be happy to help you with any questions.

Lori

Small front yard pond in the shade. Pic 1

Another view.

Of for crying out loud. Forgot to attach the pic.

The lower part of the pond gets about 6 hours of sun a day in mid summer. One water lily flowers for me under those conditions: "Perry's Baby Red" It's perfect for small ponds and doesn't require full sun.

This message was edited Oct 12, 2009 5:11 PM

snapple45,

It is beautiful, what kind of stone are those. Lime? Mine gets full sun all day. It is hard to keep the water clear. I am looking for a small tree to plant to help shade it.

That's beautiful, Lori! Did you use an underliner, or "just" newspaper? (Or something else?) I see you have a waterfall... I like that. :-) Is the shop vac looking thing the pump? Or were you cleaning the pond? :-) I love the variety of stones you used, and the Chinese pavers. :-)

That's gorgeous, Snapple!! I love the stacked shale. How big of a footprint does that have? I'd probably have to rearrange some other beds to put something like that in, but I really like it! What is the groundcover you are using in the second photo?

It is a 25 yr 40ml firestone liner. The black thing is the pump/filter/uv. It should be dug down in the ground so it is not as noticeable. This is a very costly hobby but I love it. Flagstone, liner and pea gravel. That’s about it.

I expect my pond to end up looking sort of like yours, at least in scale. We're planning to do a fountain instead of a waterfall, so I suppose we'll get a submersible pump. What kind of filter and umm... (looking at my notes) skimmer do you use?

Filter and pump are from Lowes Liner is from Ebay. Skimmer my pool leaf net.
9.5' X 8.5' about avg deepth 2' 3' in the middle. You will want lots of water plants. Best place is to check craigs list for ppl that have an over abundance of pond plants. plants on line are small and $$

The ground cover is Tiarella, also called Foam Flower. The pond is 480 gallons. There is 20 yr EPDM with underlayment. The rock is a biotite schist called "Green River", not quite a granite in looks. It was quite cheap in comparison to most of the other stuff we looked at, about 17 cents a lb. It does not leach anything into the pond. Rain runoff on limestone would raise the pH too high. The pond is 10 years old. I completely redid the top waterfall 2 years ago because of a slow leak that drove me bonkers. The new waterfall is much, much better. Most of the rocks, including the little stream bed and the waterfall are foamed in. The older the pond gets the better it looks. It has stood up to 10 mighty harsh winters. It houses Shubunkins and Comets. The filter is a Fishmate, pressurized with built in UV buried in a well alongside the pond and hidden by hostas. The water fall weir is a Savio 16" that I cemented in myself. The pump is a Little Giant submersible. Close up of front.

The back/side.

filter sitting in a bottomless bucket buried in the ground.

Stream as it flows down into the lower pond. The red thing is a pond deicer. This was taken in early spring.

Snap,

Wow that looks great. That waterfall is amazing. I know how much of a pain in the @#@$ it can be to get it just right. I love the look. I will be re doing my waterfall. This was a rough draft. Realy Rough but i was so tired of re doing it. I am going to have to hire someone to do it for me. Plus the stone is $$. My next fall/summer project. I have looked around on the web for insturctions on how to build a waterfall. I need visual aid. Not written

Make sure that you really know what you want in your pond. While I love the plants and the water my favorite part is the fish. I have mosquito fish in my bog garden but they aren't flashy or showy and I could see wanting "MORE" than those fish in my pond. My pond holds primarily koi fish but also some very lovely feeder goldfish. Should you have the smallest fascination with koi and goldfish know that your specifications on the pond will change with regards to water depth and filtration. I know myself well enough to know that I should "never say never". This pond stuff gets very addicting and with the addiction can come a lot of money. It's all worth it to me but I am a little crazy about the pond. . . I hope you enjoy your pond as much as I do.

Thank you, mothermole. This pond can't get tooo big - it's in our front yard, which is mostly raised beds. I suppose I could take some of the beds out to make the pond wider, but I can't make it any deeper than 2 feet or it becomes a "pool" in the eyes of the city, and we would have to put up fence with locking gate - which would rather spoil the view. :-) So if I become addicted to water gardening, I'll build a bigger one in the back yard.

It's sounds like it will be lovely. I didn't mean to sound like a "kill-joy" but wanted you to know up front some of the problems plant ponders face when they think they don't want fish but then they get bitten by the pond addiction and want to make changes. I am a relatively new ponder (this was my second summer). I had my pond "fixed" early this summer because my fish needs couldn't keep up with my pond set up. It cost me an additional $5000.00 that could have been only $650.00 had I planned better in the first place.

You didn't sound like a kill-joy at all. Thank you for your input!!! :-)