Garden projects. Various pond constructions #1

I’ve been a landscape gardener for over 20 years now, so i have done my fair share of pond builds of all sorts of styles, sizes, and budgets. With this post I will be showing you some of these that I have built over the years, and hopefully will give you some ideas of your own. All of the photos in this post are of ponds we have built, or have worked on. This was a small sized pond we built a number of years ago. Due to the lack of access into the garden, Unfortunately we couldn't use any machines. So it was all dug out by hand, and wheelbarrowed away, and all rocks were man handled into place. It was a linered pond, so it was dug out and then the ground was covered with underlay before the butyl liner was installed. It was also constructed with natural rock and 100mm log rounds at its perimeter, also with a cobble beach. The water cascade was built with the same natural rock, laid onto a concrete pad, and rendered between with a water proof render mix.

One useful Tip when installing underlay in windy conditions, is to wet it down. The extra weight stops it from moving around. This is what Alex is doing here, with a much larger pond we built.

This next project was of very similar design. However, the client wanted more of a stream, and much less of a pond. They also went for a natural rock cascade, and the log rounds within the stream and pond sections. The additions of log rounds can give it a Japanese feel if they are laid at various heights. We also added a couple of potted acer’s, to add to the effect.

Other additions we have used in the past to give them a Japanese feel, are oriental ornaments, and narrow bridges are great eye catchers.

A few other tips if you are thinking of building a pond. Is to calculate the volume of the pond in litres. Take the average width in meters, multiply it by the average length, and that by the average depth. That will give you the cubic meters. Multiply that by 1000 for the litres measurement. This measurement is important for a few reasons. One main reason is to calculate the size of pump and filter needed. A general rule of thumb is to turn the pond over once every 2 hours. So if your pond is 10000 litres, you’ll need a 5000 litre per hour pump and filter combination. Here a just a few other ponds I will post about in future posts. Including a Chelsea flower show garden, designed by Chris Beardshaw

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