Planning a Water Garden or Fish Pond

The most vital thing about building a water garden is planning. I cannot emphasize this more. You really do need to sit down with some pen and paper and decide what your finished pond will look like. Think about what you are trying to achieve. The next thing to think about is :-

Location

Again this is extremely important; hopefully you will have a choice where to build your water garde. An ideal pond will require about five hours sunlight a day. The sun is important as it keeps oxygenating

plants working, these are essential as they product oxygen which stops the water from turning stagnant. If your home does not have shelter from the sun, consider buying some plants/ bushes to provide some shelter from the sun. It may be tempting to build near a tree but this will increase your maintenance time drastically as you will be constantly removing leaves from your pond. The idea is to limit the area of water that has direct contact with the sun. One excellent way to achieve this is to have water lilies in your pond, Try to cover over half of the surface area. Locate your pond where it can be seen so that it can become a focal point of your garden. If you plan to use a pump (recommended) you will need to locate it near power. Even the best pond will require a water change so either locate it near water or invest in a good hose. The next thing to think about is:-

Size

This is also very important as it’s normally easier to create and maintain a biological balance in a larger pond. The depth of the water can be increased to help achieve a greater water volume; If you plan to build a koi pond then the depth should be at least 1.5 meters. In a garden pond and water garden if you plan to keep fish you need to determine how deep the water will freeze to in the winter, and then add at least 60cm below that. This depth is only required for certain parts of the pond but not all. During the planning stage, workout the volume of the water and try to build the pond to your measurements. You will need to know this when adding water treatments. The next thing to think about is:-

Design

If you are trying to attract wild life to your pond it will be necessary to build it at ground level with the surrounding environment so that frogs can access your pond. You must also consider other animals like hedge hogs; make sure that if they fall in they have the ability to get them selves out. A good pond will have three areas, a shallow marshy area. This is ideal if goes around the whole circumference but this is often not practical for example if you want to create a waterfall. As a guide it is recommended that at least 20% of your pond surface should contain this type of area. The next area should be a shallow area. An ideal way of achieving this is to have a tier around the pond. This will enable you to grow pond plants that require different depths. The final part will be to deeper area, as mentioned this is critical for fish survival in winter. Months. The shape of your pond is also a consideration. It is thought that fish prefer a rounded shape rather than a square shape but there is very little evidence to support this theory. The circle or oval shape will be the cheapest shape to make as material wastage is kept to a minimum.

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