building a pond in gravel/sandy soil

[chiroken]

This doesn't firm up well. It's a mixture of sand and lots of gravel and doesn't hold shape much even when wet. Replaced the septic tank a year ago and the gravel went down 8 feet.

When sand is damp its easy to carve and shape how you like, when you go round and stamp it down it compresses well

I've been tempted to sprinkle cement onto the final pond shape just to maintain the shape but it never really appeared to be a necessity. Once you dig down a few inches the sand is hard compressed and becomes very firm...

You can get a reasonable steep side, carving sand, stamping it into position. Old carpet might be useful to underlay the liner if there's sharp grit or stone about

Regards, andy
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[chiroken]

Drainage will not be a problem, the ground doesn't actually hold water well enough (ie septic fields perc too fast). Lots of gravel and sand for many many feet down.

The other benefit I thought for sand bags is drainage... I'm suspecting the drainage around the pond through sandbag, will be pretty good.