Should I try and pull up the low end?

[Figgy]

Lots of good advice, thanks for the replies.

 

[Figgy]

Okay, so I finally managed to get that low end level. It turns out that I had not packed enough soil down that corner edge.

Now having got it level, I've dug out my border around it leaving some of the liner exposed. The plan is add some soil back and allow it to slope away. There will then be mortar around the edge on which two layers of edging stones will sit hiding the the ugly rim.

I have some heather and grasses to go into the border which will be spaced out evenly and I'm debating whether to leave soil in my border or to fill with either pebbles or horticultural grit.

What do you think?

 

[j.w]

Good you got that leveling done. You will be much happier w/ it now and it's gonna look nice. You could leave some dirt and do the part close to the edge w/ the pebbles/grit so that you could plant some of your neat grasses around the edge closer. That way you could add more plants later if you wanted and might be easier to weed. Up to you tho, you can do it whatever way you think will look best.

 

[addy1]

Near the pond, until you have plants growing if you get a hard rain it will do a dirt splash into the pond. Been there done that lol.

I put rocks around the pond to cover the dirt, slowly will put in some plants. I am putting in low growers so the lilies etc are not hidden by the edging.

 

[Waterbug]

Floating pond wise that's better. In a heavy rain the area you cleared could still fill and float the pond. But you've certainly reduced the risk. And I don't think you get big thunderstorms, so maybe for your climate you're fine. At this point I wouldn't worry about it. It was only if you were going to pop the pond to level that I would bother adjusting the height,

 

[Figgy]

Almost there now, today we planted the heathers and grass and then filled in the border with some small rounded pebbles. Just that horrible rim to hide now with some nice stone.

 

[addy1]

To keep it from looking like a ring of stone on the edge of the pond, have large and small ones, have some go out into the small rounded pebbles.

 

[buckry]

I don't know how most preformed liners are, but mine is at least 1/4" thick and it only holds 200 gallons. There is no rock in Indiana that is going to punch through that. I certainly haven't seen any indications that a rock is on the verge of busting through. I think I'm fine.

 

[fishin4cars]

Looks great Figgy, I think you'll be much happier you ended up leveling it up. once your plants and all start filling in it will become very natural looking.

 

[Figgy]

Well since my last update, it's done nothing but rain here and my pond is almost full. It hasn't floated as yet but I'm sure as the pond filled the edging shifted upwards in a couple of spots.

I've started gathering some natural stone edging and generally it sits well on the black rim. However, there are few places where I think I will need slightly heavier stone to push the rim back down. You can see what I mean in the attached photos.

Eventually the stone will be cemented into place to stop the cat knocking it into the pond.

I've added some more photos of this project to my gallery at http://www.gardenpon...ildlife-pond-2/

 

[j.w]

The neat flat rocks that you have there do add a really nice look to the edge of your pond and once you get them to stay there that will be great!

 

[Figgy]

So, I managed to get my heavier rock and yesterday me and my daughter completed the edging around our pond.

How I wanted the edging to look and how it turned out in reality were a little different but that was due to both the stone/rock we managed to get hold of and also my daughter's input on how she wanted the stone/rock layed out.

Since I took the attached photos I've made some minor adjustments here and there and I guess this will continue for a few weeks now before I'm finally happy with the layout. I guess all thats left to do now is add a few more longish pond plants to the rear and I'm done.

 

[j.w]

Looks very nice! You and your helper did a good job

 

[ididntdoit99]

Looks nice, one thing i did notice during this whole thread, i see no talk about pumps or filters, what is this pond going to be used for?

 

[Figgy]

Thanks j.w & ididntdoit99.

Looks nice, one thing i did notice during this whole thread, i see no talk about pumps or filters, what is this pond going to be used for?

It's a wildlife pond, a step up from this one