Raised pond built with cut stones

I would like to put in a small pond, but I need ideas on what to do, because I cant make up my mind.
I have some cut stones, I think they are called Castle retaining wall stones? They are not stones at all really, cement.? I think. They are about a foot long and 4 inches thick and 8 inches or so wide. The are wider in the front than the back and are round in the front. Straight on the back side with a lip so they can be stacked.
I would like to make a pond about 5 foot round. 3 feet deep. If I dig say 18 inches deep and then stack about 3 blocks on top, then lay liner, then lay a thinner capstone to hold down liner and finish it off.

QUESTION IS__ will the pressure of the water "push" out the rock instead of the rock being able to hold the water?
I hope my question makes sense.
The stones weigh about 20 pounds I think.
Thanks for any advice...

That should work very well. The weight of the water will be evenly distributed and you will not need to worry about it pushing the stones out. You will need a layer of padding of some kind between the stone and the liner though or you risk puncturing the liner. There are various products sold for that purpose but an alternative would be old carpeting. Just make sure that there are no staples or carpet nails in it first. There are home improvement stores around here that will allow you to haul old carpeting away free.

I have a friend who used those to build her pond. She's had it up for several years now and it looks and works good. She lives on a hill and the soil is rock hard so she only dug down a little and then used the extra stones left over from a retaining wall she had built earlier. Because of the hillside she has maybe 4 rows on the downside of the hill and only 1 or 2 on the upside. She hasn't had any trouble with hers. She brought the rubber up the sides and folded it over the top of the stones and then put on one more top layer to keep it in place, just what your thinking of doing. Wish I had a few pictures to show you.

Frilly, I also wanted a raised pond because I didnt want to dig such a big hole in the terrible soil i have in that part of the yard. Also simply because that's the way I imagined it. I did mine with a preformed liner, dug the deepest part of the liner and covered the rest with bricks.

This is how tat corner looked last year. ( This is the time I started collecting stuff for it)

This is my lil' pond today. It's only 100 gallons, but it gives me million gallons of peace to sit by it in the afternoon. It did not happen in a week or a month but I am so happy with it. Hope it gives you some idea as to what you want to do, I changed my mind many times along the way, for example I wanted flagstones on the edges, but could not find any cheap, so I put bricks around it until i found some cheap flagstone. But now I want to keep the bricks since the plants are growing around them.

Thank you for all the advice, I will go on as planned since it seems like it will work!
I will post pics if I ever get that far

I would be careful using just the stones to hold back the water. People dont realize the enormous weight and pressure that water can exert. It might work if the liner is a preformed tub, but with a flexible liner, three feet deep, you might find the blocks beginning to bulge after a season -- as we did and learned the hard way. Of course a lot depends on the weight of the blocks. Also, if you leave the pond filled in the winter, be aware that ice will expand and push the walls aside -- another lesson learned the hard way. No, there's nothing like a deep hole for support.

frilly I'm with ya when it hard to decide and the prospect of digging really doesn't thrill me... but I purchased a liner (really cheap 10.00) a few years ago and just this year unfolded it, to find the thing is so big.... which means I can have a larger pond then I though...... but the question is to where to dig. I had one spot but now that the liner is larger than I remembered I'm thinking of two other spots...

Good luck with yours and please post picture during the process...

dulci.... You have really transformed that corner of your yard. Great job.

Janet

Oh, it's not really JUST the digging, I don't mind digging some. But I like the looks of having the pond raised, because I am putting it IN a raised flower bed. So I am planning on digging half way and then using stone to build up the other half of the height. The stones each weigh about 20 pounds, I guess it will either work or I will have 'hard way' experience too :)

I think having a raised pond would be great. They look good, a little more formal and are very functional. You can add more gallons without having to go so deep plus it protects the pond from run off. I'm thinking about doing this for my next pond.

Please post pics of your progress:)

There seems to be quite a bit of interest in raised ponds so I started a thread about them. I started it out with my Box pond but would love to see some more pictures and ideas posted. Please join me at this link.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/870256/

Here is today's photo after alot more digging.
I plan on digging deeper over about 1/3 of the remaining floor area, so there will actually be 3 levels of depth.
I know the compost, loose stuff on the top foot or so will have to be dug out around the pond and have clay put in, in order to support the blocks. I will level the ground area out around the edge and lay block all the way around.
Then another layer of block will be added around the top.
Then I plan on lining with sand, carpet and a liner.
With the pond being 6 foot wide (the actual water surface, not counting the stones)
still wondering if the water will have enough pressure to hold the block (and clay under that) in place. OR if the ground will be stronger than the water pressure and cave in? I know its the same question I just asked :) but I thought an updated picture might spur some fresh thoughts on it.

wow that looks like some heavy duty digging you have there.... did you do all of that by hand??? If so I sure hope you are remembering to lift with your legs...

That looks like a great start and that will be a wonderful pond, but then I'm new and just getting ready to dig mine.

Please post pictures as you go through each step. I love to see how it goes for others. I promise to post mine if you will yours...LOL

Janet

I will continue to post throughout the process, but be warned! it will probably take the rest of the year LOL
Yes I'm digging by hand with a shovel and hauling with a wheelbarrow. I guess I am lifting with my legs? this morning before I got out of bed it felt like I had been lifting with everything!! Even my fingers are sore. The shovel I guess.
Very easy digging so far, no rocks, no roots, and soft because it's been raining here just about every day :) Really just the dirt is heavy and harder to get out of the hole because it is getting deeper.
I did dig around a phone cable (?) last night.
Not sure about that one, I guess I can do the whole thing around it and just lay the liner over it when I'm done. It really is just barely in the pond, runs along the side of it, and I'm not even sure it's an "active" line, Guess I should call them out to see it before I go much farther. I am expecting to run into a water line as well. I'm several feet safe from the electric line, so safe there at least. If the know it alls marked it right in the past, I know where that's at. For years they would come out and mark my water line, and found out last summer it's in a different spot. Sounds like something they would do....

FrillyLily, I'll be going to my friends house on the 4TH and I get a few pictures of hers. It's pretty much what you are talking about doing.

Oh, that would be great! I have seen several friends ponds around town, but they are not really built enough the same to help me.

Frilly-- How is your pond coming along??

Well, its not coming along at all really
It rained about 3 inches here last week and still waiting for the mud soup to dry out.
Plus now I am having to do some tile grout and paint a room, then gone three days for vacation to St. Louis. Hope it dont rain. :)

Maybe then I can get back to work, SOOOOO hope.

But until then I can't play outside LOL!

I have 3 raised ponds using the cement blocks, only my Koi pond is completely in ground. The dirt here is like trying to dig cement :(

Here's one

Another with out of control Hyacinths

Wow! Your ponds are very nice! I hope mine will look that good!
Like the flowers but I'm not sure if that kind is allowed in MO, I know they are invasive in some zones. I like the rock you have piled around it too.
Very nice!

I created a ledge just below the blocks about 6 inches wide. I lined the rocks on the ledge and on top of the blocks to hide the liner. The water level comes up over the rocks and below the top of the blocks.

Beautiful ponds Fish_knees, I like the spouts, are they terra-cotta? The rocks add a very nice decorative touch, althought I like rocks and have piles of them sitting in my corners, too.
FrillyLilly, Those are Water Hyacinths, they are tropical and would die back in your Zone, (are you Zone 6?). They shouldn't be a problem for you and they are very pretty and fast growing. Here is a picture of them blooming.

The spouts are terra cotta roofing tiles.

Fishknees

I'm most interested in your raised ponds. Would you care to explain how you did them.... Are you using ready made plastic (or what ever those things are made out of) or are you using a liner and if so how does that not take down the blocks???? Novice question asker here.

Of if anyone else has done a raised pond without the pre-made liner I would love to talk with ya.

thanks

Janet

Hi Janet, I took pics as I went. Off to help my son paint (a mothers work is never done) I'll post the blow by blow pics when I get home. ☺

Thanks Fish.. that would be wonderful. Have fun painting, I love to paint.

Janet

Okay, 1st one. I would have to soak the hole over night to try to dig down about 6 inches, then do the same thing all over the next day. The black plastic you see is landscape plastic. I used it between the landscape blocks and the soil, so the soil wouldn't eventually sift through them and cause the liner to become unstable.

Next...
This showsthe hole completed and you can see the inner shelf with bricks. The liner will come up and over this shelf. Desert rocks will e placed on it to conceal the liner (HUGE pet peeve of mine)

underlayment...

Different pond, but didn't get a pic of this process in the previous pond. This is the heavy clear plastic floor runners you can get @ Home Depot. Just make sure you get the smooth ones and not the ones with sharp bumps that are meant to be placed on carpeting. I have found that carpeting and newspapers disintegrate VERY quickly. This stuff should last forever ☺

Stupid liner (I hate this part)

Voila!!!!

fishknees thank you so much for posting those pictures.

I'm still not sure what it is you did with all the extra liner???? Did you then put another layer of the pavers on top of it? No I don't see an extra layer???

Ok scratching head to try and figure out where the extra liner went?????

Janet

Well, after a lot of trimming....the liner goes up and covers the small inner shelf and is trimmed off just below the top of the landscape block. The desert rocks cover it.

Just went out and moved some rocks so you can see that the liner stops just short of the top of the block. With the rocks in place they are partially submerged, no liner shows ☺

The yellow blobs are Great Stuff foam. I have some little field Mice that thought it would be fun to tunnel around the blocks. I could just see the little monsters chewing through my liner :O

fishknees

you are such a sweetie for taking the time to do that.

Ok so now what happens if you have a hard rain doesn't the pond then leak underneath the liner or so the foam stuff keep it from finding its way underneath???

Thanks so much for helping me.

Janet

No this one spills into my Koi pond. So it doesn't overflow.
The koi pond does overflow, but it's in the ground and the liner goes up and over a berm. I have been know to run out during a Monsoon and wrangle lost Mosquito fish out of the yard ☺ Here is a pic showing two of the raised ponds flowing into the Koi pond. The 3rd raised pond spills into a stream that also feeds into the Koi pond.

Top of the stream from the 3rd raised pond. The filter also dumps in the 3rd pond. It is all plants, kinda a large veggie filter.

WOW is all I can say to your pond operation. That is some incredible lay out you have going on.

Did you do all of that yourself???? Please make me feel better and lie and say someone else did it for ya??? And if you did do it where did you learn to do it like that????

???? more ???? I have, ha thats what ya get for helping me....LOL

thanks

Janet

When we bought the house in 2000 the back yard was nothing but pink granite gravel (barf) I dug the Koi pond 1st, then every year a new pond was built. I did get a little red wagon to load up the landscape blocks and pull them to the back yard. I did everything myself, plumbing, built the filter out of a 75 gallon rubber made cattle tank. Drove out to the desert and loaded up the trunk of a rental car (tee hee) about 2 dozen times with desert rock. I'm hitting the big 5-0 next February. Don't think I could pull all this off again :(

I like answering questions, I've seen some really poor ponds built. Lot's of mistakes and wasted $$$. (I know, I've made some of them)

Fishknees:

soon to be 50 a meer child to me as I'll be 52 next month....LOL

You are my inspiration.

When we moved here almost 5 years this Dec for me, (DH was here earlier) I ended up after over a year of us trying to find a place, giving up my nigerian dwarf dairy goats and the rest of my small farm. (cry cry baby I still am as I miss my goats) Bright side is I was able to bring my 5 collies which is 6 now with me.

This house is a fixer upper and it eats all our money, but since we were able to get a new roof, I was bound and determinded to get a garden going again, 5 years is too long to go without flowers.

So since Uncle Sam was glad to give me 600 of MY dollars back to me I promptly went out and purchased 10 yards of new soil for new raised flower beds. Well the 10 only covered the flower bed in front and it isn't as high as I wanted but it isn't as bad. I wheel barrowed most of it besides the good person who stopped to help and then promptly ordered 10 yards of leaf humus, and last but certainly not the least I ordered another 10 yards of dirt. Only thing is this time the same company send clay and I had the pleasure of paying even more for this junk. He was suppose to give me a credit which has never showed up and now he will be seeing my face come my vacation day this Thursday....LOL and I will now be demanding a full refund.

All this hard work has paid off as I've lost over 15 pounds.....

I wish you were up here as I have a low slow draining spot in the back yard that I could really use help with how to fix it. Can't drain it to the front drainage ditch as it is clogged and the city won't do anything about redigging it out as it isn't a priority for them, so all of us on the street deal with the rivers when it rains hard.

So if you thinking of taking a break in Cleveland area please let me know as you would most certainly be welcome here....LOL

Janet