My Small Pond Build

[falconut]

I've already posted a few times here. Thanks to all for the advice. Here are my construction photos and a little information:

What the area looked like before starting (Sunday). I spent most of Monday scraping the grass out of the area.

After Day 1 (Tuesday), I only had a few hours after dinner and before the sun goes down.

After Day 2 (Wednesday), again I only have a few hours after dinner and before the sun sets.

After Day 3 (Thursday), I had a little more time today, since I left work early to get it done before the rain's supposed to come in.

 

[falconut]

Again Day 3 (Thursday) from a different angle.

Still Day 3, after the liner is installed. Well at least it was in the hole.


Then filled with water on Day 3. The fitler and pump both installed and running. Not quite the setup that others here seem to have. I was given the liner, pump and filter, so couldn't beat the price. It's got a Laguna Powerjet 3000 and a Laguna PowerMax (2 chamber) filter. I'll probably pickup a third chamber for some lava rock or biomedia of some sort. I'll be getting some more rocks for the edge, looks like I'll be seing the liner around the water's edge. Was thinking about making a stone ledge, but couldn't figure it out, so I just did the typical leveled rim with rocks on top.

 

[Mmathis]

Nice. At least your soil looks pretty easy to dig in -- you got a lot accomplished!

 

[j.w]

Not to late to dig around the edge and make a little step like thing so your liner doesn't show. You just put rocks down on the step and then run the liner up and over the edge w/ some mounded soil so mud won't run back in your pond when it rains. Or you can flip the liner up over the rocks on top and top it w/ more rocks. Somebody has a diagram on how to do that here. Maybe they will post it.
Mine looks like this so no liner shows:

 

[Carolyn22]

Love the look you have there JW.

 

[falconut]

Thanks. Yeah the soil is easy, when you're not hitting roots or pebbles.

JW, now you've got me thinking of folding the liner over and piling on top. I've got to get more rocks first.

 

[j.w]

You can start digging it out around the edge,making your mounding w/ the dirt you dig out for the rock shelf and fit the liner in just the way you like and hunt for rocks whenever. I pick them up on my long walks and hide them in the bushes and then do a drive by for them later. As long as you have something to keep the top of the liner from blowing back into the pond while you are waiting for the rocks it'll be fine. Glad too that you have plenty of liner on the sides to work with. Keep as much liner as you can w/o cutting cuz one never knows when one might get some kind of brainstorm and wish they had kept the liner attached. You can fold it and hide it under soil or rocks so you can't see it.

 

[capewind]

Or you can flip the liner up over the rocks on top and top it w/ more rocks. Somebody has a diagram on how to do that here. Maybe they will post it.
Mine looks like this so no liner shows:

Im not much of an artist, but did you mean this? R is the boxes means rock;-)

 

[HTH]

Looks like you are going to have a very nice pond.

 

[falconut]

I tried floping the liner over the 1st row of rocks and covering the liner with a 2nd row, but it looked too tall. So, I just left it as I had it. I wish I could find rocks around here. We don't really have rocks like this around here. I was able to pickup a 1/4 ton for $25 and found I needed a 2nd 1/4 ton to finish it off, along with my original 300lbs. Well that and 7 - 50lb bags of 2"-4" river rock for filler. I was going to pick-up a water lilly, but they hadn't started to grow yet, so I'll wait. I'm going to fill the water just below the bottom of the rocks, so much less of the liner will show. But it's getting chilly and I feel like being done for the day. Here's how it looks now:

 

[j.w]

I was gonna redo my rocks like in the diagram but I too thought the rocks would be way to tall so I just have a hill of dirt around my pond w/ the liner drapes over the hill and then the little shelf I dug out below the edge of the inside of the pond. Put rocks on the shelf and then over the liner and down around the hill mound too to hide all the liner. Yours looks nice falconut.

 

[gardengimp]

That is looking really nice.

 

[HTH]

With all that concrete and pavers around one has to be sure the lip of the pond is high enough to keep rain water from running into the pond. I think you did that but best to check.

 

[addy1]

Looks great falconut, love the placement and your rocks.

I would torture myself, move the rocks, dig a small dirt shelf, have the dirt tilted back towards the outside edge, the rocks around 2 inches under water.

The tilt makes the rocks stable the shelf being below water will keep you from seeing liner.

You can do it without emptying the pond, just pull the rocks from one small area at a time, dig a small shelf, use the dirt on the outside edge to create a small berm to keep water from flowing into the pond.

like capewind and jw suggest. But is saying all of this, if you are happy we are happy!








View attachment 53684

 

[Carolyn22]

Looks great Falconut! It is hard work, but so worth it!