How to Garden Pond

Before you spend hundreds of dollars at the local garden shop for a pre-molded garden pond, consider building your own.

Things You'll Need

• Shovel
• Liner and Water Pump

Instructions

1. Size matters. Determine the size of the pond you would like to build. This will directly effect the purchase of your pond liner. Example if your going to build a pond 10x4 make sure you get about 70 square feet of liner for the project

2. Buy cheap. I was shopping for a garden pond and was quickly discouraged by the price tags of pre-molded setups. Ranging from $200-$500. I ended up going to a local hardware discount store and picked up a pond kit that included 100 square foot liner & pump for $25

3. Shape it. By building your own pond you have total creativity of the shape your pond will be. Grab your shovel and start etching an outline of your pond. Once you complete this step, dig in! I went about 3-4 feet deep all the way around my sketch outline.

4. Lay down the liner. Cover the entire pond hole and make sure to stomp it down. You should have excess liner all around the edge of the pond. Give yourself a good 2 feet of excess extending past the bank edges of the pond. Grab your scissors and start cutting away!

5. Bury the edges. Bury all the excess pond liner around the edges with your left over dirt pile. I had a bunch of big rocks I put around the edge that kept the liner in place and also looked great.

6. Put in the pump. I put my pump right in the center of the pond. The kit had the option to just let it bubble up in the middle or run a rubber hose from the pump's water exhaust. I ran this hose to a pile of rocks at the head of the pond. I strategically inserted the hose and ran it like a spring water fall bubbling up from the rocks.

7. Fill it up and Plug it in. Good old water from the hose. Fill that pond up and make sure you have no leaks! It is good to be cautious with the liner when you take it out of the box. An unexpected hole is going to put you back to square 1. I ran an extension cord from the garage and plugged it into the pump. I buried all the cords once I had it all hooked up and made sure it was working properly. This project took a total of 2 hours with most of the time going to deciding on the shape of the pond.

   Enjoy!

Tips & Warnings

• Add some Fish

• Add some water plants

• The liner is tough but still be careful around sharp objects before you lay it down