Outdoor - Building a Garden Pond

• Lay out a length of garden hose to mark the outline of your pond. Check the size, shape and position fits in with the surrounding garden. Use pegs to mark out the pond outline. Make these no more than a couple of feet apart. When happy with their position drive them flush into the ground.
• Put a length of timber across the planned pond. Use a spirit level to check the ground is level at this point. Any lower sides can be built up in the next stage.
• Dig down no more than a foot into the ground in the shape of the pond. Use the dug soil to build up lower edges of the pond.
• Dig out the rest of the pond to you desires depth (at least 16 inches for the smallest ponds, increasing as the pond size increases.) Ponds that are intended to support plants, fish or wildlife generally need to be deeper to prevent complete freezing and evaporation.
• Slope the sides of the pond gently (about a 20 degree slope). You may wish to leave a small shelf about a foot wide a foot from the top of the pond for pond plants.
• Flatten the bottom of the pond using the back of a spade and remove any stones that may damage the pond liner. Use a spirit level to check the pond bottom is level over the entire area. Line the pond with about an inch of sharp sand (this may need to be wet to stay in place). Pat the sand down well with a spade.
• Drape the liner over the pond hole and secure it in place with stones around the pond edge. Start to fill the pond slowly with cold water from a hose. As the water fills the pond the liner will be pushed to the sides. Lift the stones to give enough slack for the liner to fit snugly to the pond hole.
• When full, trim off excess liner, leaving half a foot to be secured under the edging slabs. Add any plants as desired.

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