Thanks for all the replies. The gabions are not supposed to be a decorative feature in my case.
They are used as a decorative feature but I assume you mean you're not wanting it to be a decorative feature. There's a common
cheap plastic fence you could use. Seen at a lot of construction sites.
Comes in green too.
Actual gabion cages are made from pretty thick steel wire, very strong. But compared to chicken wire the plastic fence would be way stronger. But it both cases you'll won't get a nice cube type result. More of a bean bag chair type look.
My pond is unlined and fed by a powerful spring (It actually overflows most of the year). Last year I built a smaller, lined pond on a higher level with a waterfall to the main (mud) pond. The waterfall ended up being more powerful than I expected and it's "tunnelling" out the area behind and below itself under water and stirring up mud. I figured if I built a sort of three-walled box of gabions below the water line it would prevent this.
Don't know how big your falls is but that should work. Actually just some rocks should work, or just a single gabion. The wall thing sounds like it would be difficult to do and probably not needed. The walls could be added if just a "floor" wasn't good enough.
Why gabions? Because my grandmother was a fanatical gardener! She had this place before me, and she fanatically sifted her garden soil for 40 years. The result? Really nice carrots - and a pile of golf ball sized rocks 10 feet tall and 20 feet wide. I figured I could solve my waterfall problem and get rid of the pile at the same time. (I'd say "kill 2 birds with one stone", but puns are the lowest form of humor)
I suppose I could take the coward's way out and just get a less impressive pump and thus turn down the waterfall.
NEVER!!!
What if I made bags from nylon deer netting and filled them with my rocks and stacked them like sandbags in a WWII movie? I figured the gabions would be more secure and easier to stack, but I don't want to poison my pond!
Since it's made for outdoors I'd assume it would be OK. UV can destroy some plastics pretty fast. Then you have a bunch of little bits of plastic in the pond. Kind of a pain. For sure don't use those poly sand bags, they break down pretty fast and tons of little bits everywhere.
Golf ball size is pretty small, so you'll need something with a small enough mesh. They make lots of plastic mesh that would work.
This stuff is pretty tough. You can blend it with a heat gun (carefully) to form a cage, or cut it and use zip ties.
I've used both of these products in ponds. Plastic doesn't last forever so expect to replace it.
