Pond build photos (4 days, 3 mates, 2 ponds, 1 mini-digger)

[ol]

I built a pond over the last couple of weekends, and thought I'd share some photos in case anyone else is doing a similar thing and needs some inspiration!

We are currently renovating the house, and living in a caravan in the garden, but we have hit a point with the house that we cant do any more work for a few months, so I thought I'd concentrate on getting a bit of the garden looking presentable.

I matured the filter with fish waste from my tropical tanks, hence why we put fish in the pond after it had been running for just 1 week. I will wait another few weeks before I add any more.

The liner was PVC rather thank the rubber stuff, however I used a layer of compact foam round the bottom of the pond, then a layer of plastic Damp Proof Membrain (left over from laying a new concrete floor in the house), and then the PVC liner on top of that.

So here's the story, including lots and lots of photos...

We went from this:



To this:




This was the area in which I wanted to make the pond. The garden is pretty big, so can take a large pond without it looking daft. I had previously dug a 'pond' (a big hole in the ground) but had dug it to close to the hedge, so it had never been filled, and had become a dumping ground for garden rubbish: (the 'hole is over on the left of the photo)




So I cleared out the rubbish from the 'hole' and the mini digger arrived!



Got to work on filling in the 'hole,' as I wanted the rockery where the hole was, and the new pond to be where the pile of soil was.
At this point it decided to rain like buggery all day, so we improvised a 'soft top' for the digger:



Hole nearly filled:



There was lots of piles of soil around the garden, so we moved it all to form the new 'rockery'



Started to dig the hole for the new pond



At this point, the rockery was getting quite high



Top pond dug into the rockery, and we started to form the waterfall



Getting the liner in



Test filling



Got some water in...



Testing the waterfall liner



Waterfall getting built



Buried the filter at the back of the rockery:



Getting some plants in, and weed membrane down around the pond edges



Fountain on!



Got some fish in



Hedge clipped, gravel down and more plants in:



Finished waterfall



View from the top pond



And one last pic




Hope you like it! We have been spending loads of time just sitting next to it, and it's nice and relaxing. It should look much better in a month or so when the plants have 'taken,' and I need to cement the stone around the edges, which I will do in a few weeks when the ground has settled a bit more.

Any comments / advice welcome

[JJCW]

Top effort

What was the lager count to go with the 4 day 3 mate 2 pond 1 digger affair?

[otolith]

Very nice, and you didn't make the typical mistake of building a stream/waterfall and lining it, you lined a bloody big area and then build the stream within it.

Planning any more rocks or planting around the edges?

[ol]

Cheers chaps - Surprisingly there was no beer consumed, as none of us really drink! I had a nice whisky when it was all done, but it must have been the most tea-total 'man weekend' ever!

We've got more large stones to put on the rockery, and more plants to eventually go in, but I want to let it grow for a few months to see how everything looks before I rush it and make it look too cluttered.

I need to put more gravel around the edges of the main pond, but I'll wait until I get chance to cement the stones in place first.

Edited by ol on Monday 27th July 14:35

[mrmaggit]

Nice job. I'd have been tempted to make the main pond a bit deeper for ice clearance with the fish in it, but it looks good non-the-less.

[ol]

Cheers, it's about 1meter 20cm deep at the deepest point, so should be OK when it freezes. Also the waterfall and fountain should stop it freezing as much (although I think the fountain is a bit over the top [and loud] so we dont really have it on)

[mrmaggit]

ol said:

Cheers, it's about 1meter 20cm deep at the deepest point, so should be OK when it freezes. Also the waterfall and fountain should stop it freezing as much (although I think the fountain is a bit over the top [and loud] so we dont really have it on)

Ah, that'll be Ok, it just didn't look that deep.

[tenohfive]

That looks really good, well done. About the fountain, have you considered using a smaller pump/reducing the output if the noise bothers you? If it were me if only for the aesthetics I'd want it running.

[ol]

Thanks very much

I hadn't thought about it really. The pump I got is a beast, it moves all 4,000 litres through the filter about twice an hour! If I got a smaller one it wouldn't keep the water as clear.

Besides, at the moment we're living in a caravan in the garden while we renovate the house. Our bedroom window is about 4 foot from the pond, and with the fountain on it's waaayyy too loud when I'm trying to sleep. When we finally move into the house I may well run the fountain all the time. I've got a few different fountain heads that I haven't tried, so I may have a play about with those next weekend...



Also I will be hiding the liner around the edges when I cement the stones around the sides. I need to let the ground settle a bit, then scrape back a bit of earth from under the liner edges and overhang the stone over the water.

Edited by ol on Monday 27th July 18:38

[otolith]

This kind of fountain can be quieter (and loses less water when it's windy)

Edited by otolith on Monday 27th July 18:50

[spikeyhead]

Looks good, jsut don't let any cement hit the water when you're sorting out the edging stones or it will kill the fish.

[GKP]

Looks nice. How do the fish get back to the top pond once they've had fun on the waterfall slide?

[blindswelledrat]

I commend your utter laddishness to hire a mini digger and take two weekends with all your mates to build one of the smallest ponds in the whole world where the koi sit there terrified to eat incase they grow a millimetre and jam themselves in.

[ol]

thank you, thank you very much.

It's a good job I'm not keeping Koi then isn't it! I have loads of neighbours with huge lake-type ponds, so if any fish outgrow my puddle I'll move them into theirs.

I did plan on it being a bit bigger, but hey ho, it'll do for now!

Edited by ol on Tuesday 28th July 10:01

[Nightmare]

looks ace

the waterfall is particularly good...where did you pinch the stones from?!

[ol]

Thank you very much. Just had the stone laying around the garden. The larger bits were from a wall I pulled down in the main house, but there's still a fair bit around the garden. (I will add more to the rockery over the next few weeks)

I need some more large flat ones to double up the stone around the pond edges, but I don't know where I'll get that from.

[otolith]

Bit late now, but my preferred solution to hiding the edge of the liner is similar to the one you've used for the waterfall - make the pond slightly bigger than it is to appear, move the "edge" in and backfill with gravel blending into the surrounding area.