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The Best Place to Build a Pond
- Put the pond where you can see and enjoy the water garden daily.
- Best choices are by patio, deck, or sitting area; anyplace you spend leisure time.
- Vista from inside the home must be considered, make pond visible from windows.
- Utilize natural terrain if possible for waterfalls and streams.
- Blend naturally into surroundings or complement landscape theme.
- Give as much sunlight as possible up to full sun. If best location does not have full sun, a water garden can be built in shade using different plants that tolerate less light.
- Do not place a water garden in low-lying areas or where run-off from the roof goes in.
- Try to place pond where leaves from trees do not fall directly in the water
Building Your Pond
- Most gardeners choose the flexible rubber liner because it is versatile, you can build a pond any size, shape or depth.
- See the Liners section on page 34 for a complete description of the installation process.
- Pre-formed ponds are especially useful when the pond is built into a raised bed where the rigid support of the pond's edge is crucial. Fiberglass is the strongest pre-form pond, able to stand alone without additional support. Plastic ponds are economical, but need extra support under the shelves.
- Provide adequate depth to protect fish and plants in winter. Eighteen inches is good in hardiness zone 6 (USDA).
Pumps, Filters, Skimmers
- To enjoy the sound and motion of flowing water, a pump must be included in the set-up.
- Moving water means better water quality and clearer water.
- Choose the pump according to need. A statue or fountain needs less water flow than a waterfall.
- Decide the flow desired for the waterfall, the height of the falls, and the length of the stream before selecting the pump.
- See the Pumps section on page 38-39 for suggestions for pump selection.
- Installation of a filter system is optional. Filters are most useful when the pond is heavily stocked with fish, the fish are well fed, or the pond has too few plants.
- See the Filter section on page 42-44 for the difference between biological and mechanical filters.
- A pond skimmer is highly recommended to help maintain a healthy pond. This system reduces organic waste by capturing leaves and other surface floating debris before it has a chance to settle to the bottom of the pond. The skimmer also makes access to the pump easy, convenient and not visible within the pond.
Stocking with plants
- Plants are the key elements to successful water gardens. They establish the conditions necessary for the control of algae and the health of the fish.
- Plants control water temperature by shading the water from above and within the pond.
- Establish 50-70% surface cover of the water garden with floating leaf plants like water lilies. The established leaf spread is shown with the plant descriptions.
- Submerged oxygenator plants are stocked at the rate of one plant per two and a half square feet (total square feet of pond x 2.5 = bunches of submerged oxygenator plants)
- Plant several bunches in a pot to reduce numbers of pots.
- Bog plants are selected for their contribution to the beauty of the pond. The actual number of bog plants is not as important as those plants that cool and shade the water. Give them plenty of space to show off.
- Floating plants are vigorous spreaders. They are put in for cooling the water by shading it and for reducing organic waste in the water.
- Stock floaters at the approximate rate of one plant per ten square feet of pond surface.
Fish and Scavengers
- IMPORTANT FOR FISH: Do not put fish in the water garden until the water has aged. Plants provide the necessary bacteria and conditions to eliminate the pond of fish waste. The pond should have plants in place for four weeks prior to introducing fish. Failure to do plants first may result in fish illness and loss.
- Do not stock heavily at first. Springdale recommends putting fish in at a rate of one inch of fish for every five to eight gallon of water. A 500 gallon pond could support 63-100 inches of fish (that's about 13-25 4-5" fish depending on how heavy you choose to stock).
- Scavengers are the maintenance department of the water garden. They break down organic waste into smaller particles that the natural bacteria degrade further.
- Stock scavengers at the rate of one snail for every one to two square feet.
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