I need pond liner advice from all of you experts out there. On my back lot, there is a naturally occurring pond that is about 30 ft in diameter and varies from 2 to 3.5 ft deep. Right now it is really a large mud hole because it, and the surrounding areas, were solidly infested with the very large and invasive grass, Phragmites, that I have killed over the last 2 years with Roundup. The pond basin occurs below the water-table and also has a small creek that feeds it when there is enough rain. My neighbor suggests that we put a liner in the pond weighed down with rocks to make it look neater and less muddy-looking. There are some of the natural flora slowly starting to re-colonize the area. My question is, is it possible to put a liner in a pond of this sort? Won't the water seeping in from the surrounding water table cause the liner to be pushed in even if rocks and gravel are there to hold it down?
Thanks for any insights you may offer.
Nathan
Liner for naturally occurring pond
I wish I could offer advice but I have an area some what like yours so I'll be watching just in case there is something I can do for my area.
Wish you the best with yours.
Pictures..... if you do it would be great to watch the change.
Janet
I know that there is an amendment that can be mixed in the soil for earth bottomed ponds that is designed to make them hold water. If you have a farm supply store nearby they probably would know what it is. I will try to remember to find out from the local farm supply store here. Does the pond normally retain water and you are just concerned with the muddy appearance? If that is the case you could try some of the weed barrier fabric that is made for regular gardens. It would be a lot less expensive that a conventional liner and would still "breathe" allowing water to come up but hopefully keeping the mud and cloudiness to a minimum. If you wanted to you could hold it down with rock of some kind. The rock would have plenty of open space and again deal with the groundwater coming from below. I have never tried it but it could work. :^)
The clay mentioned above I believe is called Benzonite or something similar. The pond would have to be drained to do that I think. It is used for ponds that leak, farmers use it.
It would cost a small fortune I think to get a quality liner for a pond that large. It still wouldn't stay clean unless you filter it. ?
You mentioned that you have killed the plants around the pond? That has caused the muddy water problem I think. When the plants die, the roots shrivel and there is nothing to hold the dirt in place. Soil erosion then takes over, making ruts, preventing new plants from growing and mucking up the water. Best thing might be to find something fast growing that you like and plant lots of it to fill in the bank areas quickly. Also, round up I would think is poison to fish, so keep that in mind. Once its sprayed on the ground I don't know if that would have a long term effect on the fish or not. you might also try large flat rocks around the perimeter to help hold the dirt in place.
You may be thinking of bentonite clay or maybe not. I'll look into it further. The pond does naturally retain water since it is located in a swampy area that is basically below the water table. I'll have to further explore your suggestion for using weed barrier although I think I have vanquished all of the nastiest invasives so far.
Thanks for you ideas.
Hi FrillyLily
I haven't used Roundup in the pond itself. The only Roundup I've used this year around the pond was for spot spraying of a few stragglers. There are some cattails and duck potato slowly starting to recolonizes the banks and I planted a few Pickerel rushes to see how they would do. The flat rocks around the perimeter sounds interesting although I wonder if they would sink in the mud or not. I will try just a few stepping stones as an experiment.
Thanks again.
Oh, I meant that by spraying roundup on the surrounding areas, durring a rain this could be washed into the pond. I'm not sure if it's still poison once it is dry? or on the soil?
I meant to suggest the weed barrier as a permeable liner subsitute. The function of a regular pond liner is to ensure that no water passes through it. That would be a concern in your situation I think. With a plastic weed barrier fabric there would be plent of small holes that would allow water to go in and out but they would be small enough not to allow mud and debris to come up from underneath. you could put smooth pebbles or something over top to help keep it in place. Once kind that I have seen is black and is a thin plastic. There is another that I have seen that is black and looks a lot like the fabric interfacing that is used on garments. It is pretty inexpensive and should be durable for the use that you plan to make of it if you are careful when you first lay it down especially if you use more than one layer.
The soil additive I was thinking of is called bentonite and should be readily available. I do not know how expensive it is.
Thanks for you help everyone. I have a much better idea of what my options are now.