We are making a pond, me and my 6 year old granddaughte. We have struggled with it holding water, I dont like the black plastic ponds, so we are thinking about cementing it. We want water lillies and coy fish in it. Will they live with cement? Any ideas are welcome. Below is a slide show of what we have done so far if you would like to look, but the questions above are really what I need help with. Thanks, ratfink. http://www.associatedcontent.com/slideshow/3621/pond_productions.html
I'd suggest you go to one of your large home supply stores such as Home Depot or Lowe's and purchase a book on pond building. You can certainly do it with cement but it must be fairly thick and it will have to be cured before putting in any plants or fish. The cement will leach high levels of chemical into the water and cause the water hardness to soar. If you want to build it of cement you will need to reinforce it as well. Overall, the cost of a cement pond is substantially higher than a lined pond and the maintenance is more difficult. Get a good instruction book before you try. Otherwise you'll end up with a cement hole in the ground with little of beauty. I've built a total of 4 in the last 12 years and elected to do all with a thick vinyl liner. It is much simpler to build, lasts a very long time if you buy good thick material, and if you line the inside with flat stone you won't even be able to see the liner. There are companies that will cut the liner to the exact size you need. Be sure and put a thick felt beneath the liner to protect it from roots and rocks. I'll gladly give you the name of some good suppliers if you want to go with this method. If you buy the liner at a local supply store it will likely cost substantially more than having it cut to order. Besides, the material the good companies sell is much thicker and comes with a very long guarantee.
The plastic or pond liners work beautifully for free form ponds. The black makes even a shallow pond look deep and mysterious. I have a stump hole at the bottom of a bank which I first lined with some sand then newspaper. On top went the liner and it was pulled over a ridge I had made around the edge and anchored with flat rocks some with lovely moss on them. The rocks were settled over the plastic and hang over the edge of the pond. They sank into the ridge and were solidly anchored. I then backfilled with the sand and soil so the plastic edge on the outside, under the rocks, was hidden. I put a good cleaned riversand over the base of the pond sank some water lillypots and other water weeds into the sand. The freeform allowed me to have a deep safe section as well as some shallow areas for the young fish. I then filled it and let the whole thing stand for about 2 weeks. At it's deepest part it is about 2 and half feet. Surface area about 3 meters by 2 at the widest part. The bank at the back is filled with ferns. High above is a birch and above that again is the house. I currently have one of my rain water pipes topping it up. I would like to rig a pump and a terracotta urn on it's side hanging over the bank and some how have the water reticulate like a waterfalll from the urn. I have in recent years added a bog garden to one side where it has a sort of overflow and this has worked very well. There is also a large fig tree that is a kind of arbour on one side. My next plan is to add my growing Bromiliad collection to this sheltered area. I have had my pond for about 15 years and the fish are very happy in there. I only have comets. By the way your local library would have a book on free form ponds. http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s788615.htm http://www.hartzadvancedcare.com/Fish/ArticlePreview.asp?Animal=6&Article=77&Topic=29 Liz
Here is a link for ponders: www.swedesdock.com/pondlink.sht I folowed their advice and now I have two ponds. One of them has a pump and a waterfall with a small brook. I can post photos on here taken during the construction if you so wish? Regards Mike Anders
