Ponds add a touch of beauty and serenity to any yard, and can provide a home for frogs, dragonflies and other insects, fish and water-loving plants. With a bit of effort, you can create an attractive water feature for your home in as little as a weekend, though if you are building a large pond it will most likely take you a bit longer. Whatever the size of your pond, if it isn't poured concrete or use a preshaped plastic liner, one essential feature is the rubber liner. A rubber liner gives you greater flexibility with the pond shape and keeps the water from draining away.
Mark the outline of your pond. Use a garden hose or rope, and once you have it exactly as you want it, make a line around the edge with powdered limestone. Move the rope or hose out of the way once you have put down the limestone.
Dig out the marked area to a depth of about 16 inches. If you plan on keeping fish, especially koi, your pond will need to be deeper. Research the needs of your fish and dig the pond accordingly.
Make a hole in the center of the pond, digging a circular or oval area down another 10 inches. This gives you a place to put a pump for circulating the water through a waterfall or fountain spray if you choose to do so at some point, but you can set up your pond without one.
Spread a 2-inch layer of sand in the bottom of the pond, including the deeper section in the center. Rake it as smooth as possible, and make sure nothing from the soil is poking up through it, to prevent poking holes in your liner.
Measure the length and width of the pond to determine the liner size, using the maximum dimensions. Add two times the depth of the deepest part of the pond to both the length and the width to determine the overall size of your pond liner and underlayment.
Lay a piece of underlayment large enough to completely cover the bottom and sides in the pond. This acts as extra protection against rips and punctures.
Place the rubber pond liner over the entire pond. Make sure that it overlaps the edges equally on all sides. Hold it in place with some temporary stones around the edges.
Fill the pond with water. The weight of the water will press the liner down into the bottom of the pond and make it conform to the contours of the earth. Watch it as it fills, and remove as many wrinkles as possible during this time.
Put large, flat stones around the entire edge of the pond once it is full of water. These are called coping stones and will serve to hold the pond liner in place, as well as to hide it. Trim off any extra pond liner that protrudes beyond the coping stones to complete the pond.
Things You Will Need
- Hose or rope
- Powdered limestone
- Pond underlayment
- Rubber pond liner
- Large flat rocks
- If you will be adding a waterfall to your pond, pile all the dirt you excavate at one end, to create a base for the waterfall.
- Failure to remove all sharp rocks, branches and other objects from the bottom and sides of the pond will most likely result in punctures to your liner and a pond that won’t hold water.
- Some types of rubber liners can be toxic to fish. Make sure the liner you choose is fish-safe, if you plan on adding koi or other fish to your pond.
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