Water gardens have about as many different personalities as people. Some ponds are quiet and reflective and merely reflect the bare branches of trees. Others are manic with burbling and gushing splashes of water. Yet others are busy with fish and sprawling lily pads.
The kind of garden that you create is not only dependent on what your taste or personality is but also on your budget, availability of materials, drainage methods and filtration requirements of your environment. However, fortunately there are no hard or fast rules for pond construction.
Generally, a hobbyist should consider buying a premade plastic tub that is set into the ground. This simplest of ponds can occasionally be dumped out and refilled with water from a garden hose. If the pond is over eight feet in length it is recommended that it be lined with black polyethylene sheets to slow the leakage of pond water into the ground. Larger ponds are more complex both in terms of construction and maintenance and involve the use of such devices as drains filters and pumps.
Before you construct a water garden, you might want to take into account that they can be very high maintenance. They can become fetid and smelly if you don’t make the time to attend to it. They can also attract a lot of mosquitoes as well as other wild life such as raccoons and rats. Ponds may present a safety hazard to children in the neighborhood so you may have to build a fence around your property to give the neighbors some peace of mind.
As arule of thumb, the bigger and deeper your pond and the less greenery that is planted in or around it, the more able it is going to be to clean itself and the less trouble it is going to be for you to maintain. A pond that is in alignment with the natural rhythms of evaporation and the life cycles of local insects, amphibians and plant life tends to be self-renewing.
When it comes to determining how deep your pool should be, there are a few things that you need to consider. Ponds built in colder areas may need more depth to keep the pond from freezing solid. Koi ponds should be three feet or deeper to allow these larger fish enough space to wiggle around and reproduce offspring.
A pond that is in alignment with the natural rhythms of evaporation and the life cycles of local insects, amphibians and plant life tends to be self-renewing. As it is self-cleansing, it is lower maintenance
Fountains can installed using air pressure pumps and hoses that can be bought at any water garden supply store. The water pressure of your homemade fountain can be adjusted arranged so that the water either burbles gently or gushes in a dramatic way. Then all you have to do is add fish, aquatic flowers and plants at the water’s edge and you have a beautiful water garden.