Building Your Own Watergarden
Compliments of The Water Garden
watergarden.com
Copyright © 1997 - 2002 The Water Garden

GETTING STARTED

When planning to build a water garden, the first step is to decide which aspects of a pond you want to emphasize. For instance, if your primary interest is a koi pond, you should have a depth of close to three feet or more to accommodate these large ornamental fish. Koi ponds also require more sophisticated filtration. For goldfish, a depth of approximately 24" is sufficient in areas with a moderate climate. Colder climates require a depth a least a 12" to 16" greater than your freeze zone. Most water gardeners prefer to accent with beautiful aquatic plants such as water lilies. These ponds require a sufficient amount of sunlight, usually a minimum of 4 - 6 hours, in order for the plants to thrive (shade or partial shade is fine for fish and fountains).

Once you have decide the type of pond you want to build, your water garden site should be chosen. Keep in mind that most people will enjoy being able to view their garden from the comfort of their home, especially in inclement weather. Your pond will be the focal point in your garden and should not be too small. The shape should blend in with the environment. A natural shape should be chosen for an informal garden. The pond should be situated away from rain run-off, which can carry fertilizers, chemicals, and organic debris into the pond. If building on a level site, raise the pond edges a few inches to keep out run-off. Run-off contributes to algae and can be toxic to your fish. A slope is not a problem as the lower side can be build up using the soil excavated or if very steep block construction can be used to insure the integrity of the built up portion.

The next step is deciding the type of material to use to line the pond. When considering a liner, there are several options, but the flexible rubber liner is the most practical and longest lasting. Our pond liners are Firestone PondGard™, a 45 mil fish grade rubber which is flexible a low temperatures and has a 20 year warranty. We have such confidence in this material that this is the only liner we sell or use. Note: Roofing rubber should not be used as it can be toxic to your fish. If you want a pond build of concrete, a liner should still be used under the concrete to keep it from leaking. We do not recommend hard plastic liners because they are too small for most ponds, do not allow for freedom of design, do not last long enough, and are much harder to install.

Digging The Pond

1. Outline the shape of the pond using a hose or rope.

2. Using a string and string level or a carpenter’s level and a straight 2 x 4, determine the water level for the pond. If raising one side of the pond with excavated soil, be sure to tamp this thoroughly. Excavate the basic shape down to 10" to 12", this will be the level for the shelf for the shallow water plants. Excavate the perimeter coping shelf to a depth of 2" to 4" depending on the thickness of your coping which will edge the pond. This coping shelf should be as wide as the stone that you intend to place on it. The coping will sit partly in the water which will give a nicer appearance to the pond edge. Dig the remainder of the pond to the desired depth with different levels if desired.
It is generally a good idea to make the area for main viewing and feeding of the fish one of the deepest parts of the pond.

3. Line the excavation with underlayment fabric.

4. Fill the pond with water to within a few inches from the top and then make corrections if necessary to make the pond level. As the pond is filling remove wrinkles and make folds as necessary. *

5. Now is the time to install your pump and filter system depending on the system used.

6. Arrange the coping stone around the edge of the pond and fold the liner up behind the stone to slightly above the water level. Back fill to hold the liner against the stone with soil. A small amount of mortar can be used to hold the liner against the back of the coping and slightly above the liner edge before back filling with soil. This will help keep small bits of soil from working its way into the pond.

Another Method of Pond Edging

Placing stones all the way around a pond will only give a natural appearance when more stone is used in the landscape. You may want to use another method on part of the edging. The liner can be brought up and over a secure but narrow edging such as brick or concrete and providing a shelf four or five inches deep and 12" to 18" wide. This area will then be filled with pea gravel going from over the liner and filling in the shallow shelf. The gravel should slope gently into the water. Use plant material in this area which will grow partly in the water and also cover the edge of the soil providing a very natural looking edging.

Building Waterfalls

If you are using an external filter system that the water is pumped into and it flows out by gravity, this will serve as the beginning of your waterfall. Place the filter on a secure footing and bring the waterfall liner up to the filter and attach with tape. If using a separate piece of liner from the pond it should overlap the pond liner by several inches. Choose a wide and flat stone to go under the lip of the filter water outlet. Stack stone to support this fall rock. This waterfall stone should be level from side to side and slope slightly forward. Any stone that you want the water to run over in the waterfall should be placed onto expandable foam insulation that comes in a can and is available in most hardware and building supply stores. This foam will stick the stone to the liner and allow the water to run over instead of under the stone. Any foam that is exposed can be covered with sand or small gravel to camouflage. If you do not have a filter of this type run plumbing to the waterfall area and connect to a larger diameter pipe which will serve to reduce the water pressure and allow the water to flow out of the pipe instead of spraying out with force and continue with the instructions above.

* If you are using bottom drains in your pond, they should be installed before the underlayment or the pond liner is installed. Bottom drains and or side inlets which feed by gravity to a mechanical filter will mean less maintenance and dramatically improve the performance of your pond. They should have concrete placed around them to make sure that the soil does not settle in that area.

[Illustration a.]

[Back to "Building A Watergarden"]

page 1 of  4