Someone was asking about small backyard ponds, and I had some words of advice. Thought it might help anyone, but it was buried in comments so I wanted to post it where more folks would see it. Learn from my mistakes, have a lovely small pond, or three.
1) Spray paint the outline first, then dig. Before you spray paint, make sure you're not putting it under a tree. Mostly because tree roots are a bitch to dig through, but also because leaves are a huge pain in the ass. Plan... paint... then dig.
2) don't make a bowl shape - have "shelves" of earth that are flat, so you can put plant pots (water plants) in there, and smooth flat rocks for waterbugs and small fish to hide in/under... keep them flat so things won't slide
3) get carpet for the bottom of the hole - nasty old matted carpet is fine, don't buy new - and cut it into sheets that fit the flat bottom of your pond and aforementioned shelves. Also prop them along the walls of your pond. (remember - don't make it like a bowl) You need to protect the plastic from tree roots, rocks, and anything else that might press against (or tear into) the plastic after you fill it with several hundred pounds of water. Overlap is fine, hard edges are not. Then drape the plastic
4) Don't cut the plastic yet!! Center it, lay it out in the hole and tuck it into corners as you fill the pond. Again, cutting the plastic is the LAST step. Fill your pond first, watch the plastic disappear, and hope you mathed it right. Swear helplessly when you realize you didn't Or be smarter than me and math it out. If you were smart, you now have a plastic sheet full of water.
5) DON'T CUT THE PLASTIC YET! Now you'll anchor the edges of the pond plastic with nice flat rocks. Make it look natural, work for an overhang or two. Rocks go on the edges of the plastic after you fill the pond, before you cut plastic.
6) is the pond now full? Are the rocks in place? Are you happy with the look? Hurray! NOW you cut the plastic, on the far side of the rocks (plastic goes under the rocks, cut the far edge away from the water) This has the benefit of keeping grass from coming up right at the edge of the pond and making it a weedy/rocky/watery mess as well as an eyesore.
Decorating - making it more than a plastic hole with water in it
Throw some plants in on that shelf. Rocks too, and if you can make a cave that'd be great. Just be careful with sharp things near that plastic. Having to redo at this point would be soul-crushing.
Throw in some bait minnows after a week, see how they do. See if you can get some snails in there as well. Minnows keep it from becoming the neighborhood mosquito nursery, snails help keep it cleaner.
Barley straw is great for algae overgrowth, but the best way to prevent that in the first place is lots of shade from water lilies. (those plants I mentioned? Yeah, get shading water lilies - they're fantastic)
I had multiple ponds, including one small kidney shaped pre-formed (and it sucked) The other two were joined by a waterfall, were less than 16 square feet combined, and turned out to be a frog haven as well as a raccoon buffet.
Thankfully, water snails breed like mad things, but my poor frogs took it tough
Only stock I released in there were some bluegill and some fathead minnows. The frogs, snails, and water bugs just appeared. So did a Garter Snake, but I gently relocated her fat fish-eating ass to a small pond on public land. She, too, was tearing through my frogs.
Also, I might have forgotten to mention - learn from my mistake - cut the plastic LAST.
Anyone else with a backyard pond? What anguish would you like to save a new pond builder?
Submitted August 21, 2015 at 10:27AM by use_more_lube http://ift.tt/1NIWIIK
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