Water Features
One of the most relaxing things one can do is to sit in a comfortable chair in the garden and listen to the sounds of water running over rocks in a water feature. However, achieving your very own water feature in your garden involves either significant financial investment or heavy duty work plus moderate financial investment. This article is an overview on how to plan a water feature and several of the more important decisions that must be made along the way to the point where you can sit in your garden and enjoy the sounds and sights of your man made ponds and streams.
The critical components of your work are planning, construction (primarily digging), liner choice, water circulators, waterfalls, pipes, water plants, fish, and landscaping around the water feature.
Make a map of the entire yard in which the water feature will be constructed. Indicate existing major features that will remain (trees, shrubs, garden beds, decks, fences, and other major components of your yard). Then draw possible water features in this space. The commonest complaint people have when they finish their project is that they wish they had made it larger.  Drawing the feature is easy so make it big. You can scale it down if you find it too expensive or difficult. Go to the library or online and look at pictures of artificial ponds and streams. Go see water features in yards in your neighborhood and near by botanical gardens. When you see something you like, make a note or take a picture of it so that you can incorporate it in your plan.
When you are satisfied with your plan, decide if you will construct it yourself or hire the work done for you. If you hire a contractor, insist on references, a solid bid, and that the contractor has workmen’s compensation for his staff. Nothing will detract more from your enjoyment than getting sued by one of the employees for an injury on the job or receiving bills for unpaid services that the contractor incurred. The most physically challenging part of the project is digging the pond or ponds. In this part of Pennsylvania, you will encounter rock of sizes from gravel to boulders of several tons. Digging a hole is a commitment of days to months. When I dug our water feature (two ponds about four feet deep and eight to ten feet in diameter and a stream about twenty feet long), I spent several hundred hours of digging and boulder moving before I was satisfied.
An important characteristic of your pond(s) is that the perimeter of each pond should be very close to level. The water level cannot exceed the top of the lowest point on the perimeter, and it will be difficult to hide your pond liner if there are several inches of pond liner exposed by the higher points. In most cases, it will be a good idea to come down about one foot almost perpendicular from the perimeter and place a shelf at this depth. This will allow you to place plants that help to make the edge of the pond appear natural. When the holes are complete, take time to smooth the walls and bottoms. Cut back roots, dig out rock, and add sand or other smooth materials to the holes. We used a lot of stone dust for our bottom and shelf tops.
When the pond holes are completed, you will place a liner in them. Liners can be EPDM rubber, PVC, or some other materials. The choice of material for your liner depends on a number of factors such as sunlight exposure and cost. I recommend that you go online and research which of the available liners is best for you. In many cases, the Goodyear EPDM rubber will prove to be the best solution. Although the liner material is rather expensive, it is better to order a piece too large than too small. Measure the dimensions by adding the diameter and adding to it, twice the depth of the pond. Then add about 20 percent for a “fudge” factor. For example, a round pond that is 8 feet in diameter and 4 feet deep requires a liner 19 feet in width. If your pond has an irregular outline, allow for this. The liners come in a number of sizes. We used three pieces for our feature. One for each pond and one for the stream. It is not necessary to tape the joints if you overlap the seams by a foot or more and if the overlap is in the direction of the water flow. Remember that when overlapping, you want the edge toward the flow to be under the edge from which the flow is coming.
The liners are all fairly expensive so most water feature constructors line them with material to protect the liners. In addition to the cost of replacing a torn or punctured liner, the work in emptying a water feature and repairing it is not inconsiderable. Liners can be a commercial product, old carpets, cardboard, junk mail, heavy plastic tarpaulins, and a number of similar materials. The goal is to place a buffer between the rocks and roots around your water feature. We used old carpets, worn out tarpaulins, and a lot of junk mail in our ponds and stream.
When the liners arrive, you will need at least three persons unless your water feature is small. Fold the liner in half or even quarters, place it into the pond and unfold it carefully. Get into the future pond and smooth out the liners as much as possible. Try to have as few folds as possible since each fold will require future work to hide it. Once you are satisfied with the configuration, it is time to put in the skimmer and water pump. The size of pipe for your water depends entirely on the size of your feature and the pump volume. For example, our water feature has two ponds over 8 feet in diameter and a stream between them with a waterfall into the upper pond. We used two inch PVC pipe for this. Pumps can be submersible or inline. The submersible pumps are less expensive and are easier to hide since they are usually in the skimmers. Inline pumps cost more but use less electricity. Spend some time deciding what is best for your project. I believe you will be happiest in the long run if you get the pump, skimmer, and waterfall all from the same supplier who will advise you on the size of pump. The PVC pipe can be rigid or flexible. Rigid is much less expensive but more difficult to install. In either case, the most difficult part will be digging a trench in which to bury the line. Be certain to have a site in the line where you can open it up in the winter so as to completely drain the line. If you bury the line under a patio, you will not be happy to dig up the entire line when you let it freeze and burst in our cold weather.
Finally, the pond is dug, the liner installed, the pump and water lines placed, and you have added water. Let the entire system run for a while to see if you have leaks. Once you are certain that any leaks have been located and fixed, bury the water lines and begin to landscape the pond edges. Add water plants and stones to the water. Stones will help cover folds in the liner and will hold the liner down during heavy rainstorms when water gets between the ground and the liner. When you add fish later on, the stones will give them places to hide from predators. If you did a good job of smoothing out the walls and floors of the ponds and use smooth stones in your ponds, there will be minimal risk of puncturing your liner.
Your pond is now ready to fill with water.
After a number of days, the water will begin to clear as the filters remove some of the silt in your water. Now it is time to add fish. Koi are the classical choice. They can be purchased for $5 to $1,000 depending on your budget and desire. The $5 koi will grow into wonderful specimens after a few years if you are patient. If you are wealthy and impatient, spend as much as you like. Outdoor hardy goldfish are a little less expensive. If your pond is 4 or more feet deep and you do not overpopulate it with fish, they will survive the winter with no special care. If it is less deep or heavily populated, you will need to aerate the water and keep an area unfrozen. Electric bills for this will run $30 or more a month. We have chosen to keep our ponds lightly populated. If your pond can be reached by large birds, you will need to protect your fish from herons and other fish loving birds. I cannot imagine the sensation of having a several hundred dollar koi eaten by the local heron!
Water plants can be free floating, marginal (i.e., roots in soil not fully under water) shallow, medium, or deep water. Some will be perennial and can be left in place over the winter. Others need to be taken out of the pond and stored in a cool dark place for the winter. Basements are fine for this. Others are annuals and should be skimmed out and added to your compost pile at the end of the year. Many of these plants may be invasive and should not be allowed access to natural waters. Do not throw them into the local rivers, streams, ponds, or lakes. When you plant in your water feature, use pots that blend with the background. Put some small rocks on the top of the dirt to hold in the plant and dirt and to keep the pot from floating away from where you placed it.
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