Building A Small Garden Pond
Even in a small space there is something incredibly relaxing about the sound of running water. Having never had a garden pond I was not sure where to begin but like everything it starts by being brave I guess.
Trying to decide the best location was difficult and I changed my mind several times. In front of the deck we had fatsia and a few very mature bushes that were quiet big and deep and taking up a lot of space. The garden isn't very big so I decided they had to go.
This opened up a space that was perfect for a pond. I could also get power to it quiet easily from the garage so project pond began.
After clearing the mature bushes I had to dig out the roots so that I could make a whole in the ground. I decided to get a preformed pond liner and a small pond pump to circulate the water. These were relatively inexpensive.
I marked out with sand fist as to where the pond would be. The temptation was to put it immediately below the deck but I wanted to create a waterfall.
After sourcing some free ham stone ( a beautiful local flat stone which is a buff colour) I had most of what I needed to get started. I lined to wood of the deck with polyurethane to protect it and as I dig the hole for the pond I piled up the earth against the deck to form a mound.
As I continued with this I had to stop and put the pipes and power cables in place place for the pond pump so that the could be buried and out of sight. Then I continued with stacking up the earth.
Once the hole was big enough for the liner I put it in position filling any gaps with builders sand to support it. Next was to lay the ham stone to make a water fall. Firstly I put some pond liner fabric down so that it would catch and water and take it into the pond. I then selected the larger pieces of stone for the main part of the waterfall and started pulling the stone on the mound and then putting the water outlet pipe in place and continues with the stone.
Filling the pond to test the pump and water flow down the stone was important and I had to make a few adjustments until I felt it was flowing over the stone as in my vision.
Next was planting. I bought a few small pond plants and cut hessian fabric and put pond compost gravel and the plant in the hessian and tied with string and the submerged them according to height.
Planting the mound and area surrounding the pond was not expensive. I wanted it to be mostly greens so ferns and grasses were my first choice. I wanted the ferns to grow from the top of the mound and lean over the stone almost touching the water.
I also added a bamboo to create movement but left it in a pot and buried the pot as bamboo is notorious for spreading.
Once the plants were in place I finished off with some bark chippings. Now I just have to give it time to grow and mature!
