What you need to know about garden ponds
Before creating a pond, you'll need to find a reasonably level place for it. It should be an area that gets sunlight for at least four to five hours per day. The slope should not be more than 75mm.
Ensure that the place you choose is not near deciduous trees. In case you have a sloping backyard, make a two-level pond. You should ensure that you make the area around the pond fairly level by contouring the soil.
When deciding on design, you can choose any layout according to your desires. However, if you want a natural looking pond, you might need to avoid making it too symmetrical. Opting to use a free-form pond can help and you should avoid round, square and oval shapes. Lay out your first round design using string or a hose.
The next step is to find out what you would like to have in your pond. Is it fish or pond plants? If you want your pond to have fish, purchase a filter or a pump and hire an electrician to install electricity in your pond.
If you wish to have pond plants only, you don’t have to buy a filter and a pump. You can also create a gentle waterfall to aerate the pond instead of using a pump.
The DIY method of building a pond
Below are the tools that you need to create a pond
Before you commence digging your pond, ensure that you have all supplies so that your work can flow smoothly. A pond liner is one of the vital supplies that you can’t do without.
You should, therefore, choose a good pond liner and avoid using an improvised plastic pond liner. It should be thicker than the standard plastic sheeting and resistant to UV rays.
Create a level pond so that your lining may not be exposed on top of the pond causing water to flow out. Creating a level pond makes it easy to install your lining.
When starting construction of your pond, you will need to buy a pond liner. Sometimes you might need to order out-of-state depending on the area you live in. However, the shipping costs are affordable, and you don’t need to worry about that. Below are the costs of a high-quality synthetic rubber:
You need to buy enough rolls of pond liners so that it can cover the bottom part of your pond area. They come in different widths starting from the width of 3-9 metres. You can also add sand on top of the edges to make the liner stay in place. Dig around the edges of your pond so that it can accommodate the sand. The sand should be 2-3cm deep.
A pond pump with a capacity that matches the size of your pond will be needed too. You can get it from a large hardware supplier. Pond pumps are rated by litres per hour, and their size start from 500 - 13,000 litres per hour.
Below are approximations of costs that you may pay:
The price of a filter could be around $25-$100 for a small pond filter which has no fish. A sturdy filter of a large fish pond can cost approximately $300.
Solar pumps are also available and can be used as an alternative to electricity. Their prices start from as low as $120-$300 or more. It might cost you $700 on a high capacity powered pump with a panel of 40 watts. This can be effective if you have a large pond.
Additional costs that you might need to include in your budget are costs of smaller river stones, large stones, sand, and cement. Whatever will cost you depends on the size of your pond. You might need an excavator and a landscaper to complete the whole project.
If you don’t have time to DIY then consider getting quotes from experienced and quality landscapers at Bricks+Agent, your one-stop-shop for hiring local professionals.
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