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By admin, on June 17th, 2009 Aquatic Plants

Step by step guide to build a garden pond in your backyard

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The Benefits of a Water Garden or Pond

Why do people like to have a water garden or a pond in their backyard? The answer is quite simple. Water gardens and ponds provide a nice tranquil way of relaxing and relieving the stress of everyday life. Whether you have a small water garden with a few plants and a small waterfall or a large Koi pond where you can watch the Koi and goldfish dart back and forth, it allows you to rest and enjoy the relaxing sound of the water running down the waterfall or other feature.

Building Your Pond

Building your pond can be a daunting task. The first thing you need to do is to layout your back yard and dig the hole, which will be the pond. Note that the hole needs to be dug according to the size of the pond. You can also use the sand from the hole to mound up a higher-level base for a waterfall.

The hole and the sand mound should be the shape of your pond and water feature.

Basic Materials

Once you have your hole dug, you should get a rubber liner. Do not get a rubber liner from Lowe’s or Home Depot that is for the average homeowner. Yes, it is cheaper, but you get what you pay for. It is too thin and can puncture easily. Tips about rubber are as follows:

A. Roofing rubber:

Many contractors use roofing rubber for flat roofs to line ponds. The only problem is that some believe that the roofing rubber may release polymers that are toxic to fish.

B. Professional-grade pond rubber:

Professional-grade rubber is what I use. This is a thick high quality rubber that is at least 3/4 mm thick. This is a good thick rubber. It is thick enough that you could even use it to make an inflatable raft.

Choosing Stones:

Quite naturally, having the rubber exposed is quite unsightly. The medium for beautifying your pond is stone. There is a whole variety of stones available out there for you to choose. If you use limestone in your pond that is intended to be a fishpond, follow the directions below about neutralizing the causticity of mortar. Avoid stone that have a lot of iron oxide in it. This can actually leach into the water and make your water turn red or rusty. The best stones are discussed below.

Flagstone
Flagstone is great for the edge of your pond and to set tiers for the water to flow over in a waterfall or cascade. Different kinds of flagstone are listed below.

Bluestone:

Bluestone is actually native to Pennsylvania and New York Mountains. Bluestone is a variety of shale that has a blue, green or a blue-green-grayish hue to it. Some bluestone varieties even have different mineral veins in it that can add some beauty.

Red Stone:

Red stone is a variety of sandstone that is usually mined in either Colorado or Arizona. Red stone has a beautiful reddish orange color. Some varieties of red stone also have a lighter terra cotta color to it. This can add some wonderful color to your pond surroundings.

Limestone:

Limestone flagstone is usually white or gray. Some limestone will have minerals in it that can give a rust color or brownish color.

There are other varieties of flagstone available also. Check your local stone yards.

Field Stone, Boulders and River Rock:

Along with the flagstone, that you choose for your pond, you will need some other kind of stone to finish it off and make your pond the envy of the neighborhood. There are many stone yards around all over the United States which get stone quarried from all over the lower 48, some of which have a variety of color, form and shape. The types of stones available in most American stone yards are listed below.

Fieldstone is your basic stone:

Fieldstone is basically stone that is dug up by farmers in the fields when they plow the fields. Fieldstone usually appears in the Midwest where there is the glacier moraine, where the ice from the glaciers has moved boulders a great distance from their origin. The main characteristic of fieldstone is that the boulders are round and smooth due to the glacier ice grinding them down as it pushed southward. Fieldstone adds a wonderful subtle look to your pond.

Coral crunch:

Despite the name it is not coral. It is volcanic rock with minerals and crystals in it. This stone is called coral crunch by the stone yards that carry it due to its bright red-orange color and white translucent quartz like crystals. This type of stone is also very corse and has some sharp edges. This should be kept in mind by those of you who have children, however, this stone can add some stunning color to your pond structure.

Lava Rock is also volcanic rock:

This rock is actually lava that spewed from an erupting volcano into the ocean, being cooled very quickly, causing it to be very porous. This is excellent rock for those of you who want to grow moss around your pond. The pores of the lava rock hold the moss spores very well and along with the moisture around the pond’s water, the moss will take off, giving you a lush green mossy look around the pond. Lava rock usually comes in two different colors, black and red. The red lava rock has oxidized iron minerals in it, which is what gives it its red color.

Rugged Granite:

It is another common variety of stone found in many US stone yards. Most of the granite is quarried either in Wisconsin or in the Rocky Mountain states, where the granite is readily available. Granite is igneous rock, meaning that is has slowly cooled after being melted by volcanic activity. Granite can come in a variety of different colors from reds, blacks, grays to the classic “salt & pepper” granite, which is the white granite with the large black speckles in it. This nice for those of you who like the rugged mountainous look.

Quartz:

It is not just the transparent obelisk-shaped crystals found in the Southwest. Other forms of quartz come as large translucent white boulders which sometimes have colors that vary from greens to rose to even a Smokey brownish color depending on the veins of minerals in these stones. This stone is commonly quarried in the dessert southwest.

River Rock:

It is mainly used for bedding. River rock is basically pebbles from a river bottom. No. 5 river rock is the largest in pebble size and No. 8 is smaller. Pea gravel is the smallest of the river rock. This is great with a mixture with sand for your marginal plants or for bedding in your streams or the bottom of the pond itself.

These are just some of the different varieties of stone around. You can also use a variety of the above mentioned stones to give your pond an eclectic and colorful look. If you look at Figures Two and Three, you can see how using a variety stone can give an eclectic look that will make your pond the talk of the neighborhood. These photos are taken of one of my ponds while under construction. Though I built my ponds in my front yard to advertise my landscaping business, the neighbors enjoy looking at it and hearing the sound of the water. People also use it as a reference point for directions because the use of different stone makes it unique and stand out.