Water’s Winning Ways: Considerations When Adding a Pond to Your Garden
By Janice F. Booth
Gardening is a fluid activity: plants grow and die, sunlight flares and fades, flowerbeds expand and contract. Like most gardeners, I enjoy witnessing nature’s changes and occasionally add new plants or garden features to keep things interesting. Some years ago I wanted to give my garden a more contemplative character with the sounds of cool trickling water. Why not? A pond would be a soothing addition to the backyard that I enjoy so much.
I decided to attempt the project myself—though many local companies install beautiful ponds professionally, as well—and my son agreed to help me. We bought the simplest pond kit we could find. It contained a small liner with filtering pump, an attachment for waterfall or fountain, and a video to get us off to a good start. Well, the kit and advice were okay, but if I’d known then what I know now I might have done things a little differently.
Pond guides do address the pivotal issues and their advice is usually sound, even essential. I have found
Ortho: Garden Pools and Fountains by Veronica Lorson Fowler and Jamie Beyer particularly helpful. But there are also hidden quagmires that can await the unwary water gardener, and I’ve learned a few things from experience. If you are considering a dream pond of your own (whether self-installed or contracted) you’ll find that the information here (be it about installation or maintenance) has something that can help each proud pond owner fully enjoy the experience—without the stress of learning it all from experience.
Dig in! Plotting your pond’s location and design
First, decide where you want to place your pond. Consider issues such as visibility and your yard’s existing landscaping. Choose a spot that you can see from the deck, from your favorite indoor seating area, or from that favorite kitchen or bedroom window.
Consider the trees and large shrubs near the spot. You will want partial shade for your pond, but falling leaves and branches will be maintenance issues. If you are doing your own labor will you be able to dig into the soil there or run the electrical wiring to your chosen spot? Avoid hard-packed or root-riddled areas. If nothing has grown there in years there’s probably a reason.
A critical issue those guides seldom dwell on is the manual labor. If you’re looking at this as a do-it-yourself project you probably don’t plan to rent a backhoe or jackhammer. So choose a spot where the earth is soft and welcoming.
Our pond-kit home video went from laying out the shape to pictures of a smooth, earthy pond floor ready to receive its liner, with no rocks jutting up to puncture the rubber and no lumpy areas where digging has been just too tough. On my project I faced an ugly patch of raw dirt where I had envisioned shimmering water.
With your site chosen you’re ready to decide on the design. Your idea of a pond may be a simple oval or rectangle or something organic and undefined. You’ll need to run weather-resistant wiring and install an outlet (if none are available) to accommodate a filter and bubbler pumps and any extra features, such as waterfalls, fountains, or submerged lighting. Perhaps you’d like your pond to be part of your patio, surrounded by decking or a border of bricks or stone.
Whether your pond will sit above ground or in the ground may depend on your soil and a root analysis of your yard. If you have frisky pets an aboveground pond provides a natural barrier, offering your fish and water plants some protection from playful paws and curious muzzles.
Plan the project based on what you are confident you alone can accomplish. I decided that, rather than a pond 2 feet deep all around, my fish and I would settle for a graded depth from 6 inches to the deepest area of 34 inches. I rationalized that the shallow edges offered frogs and turtles inviting spots for sunbathing.
What I didn’t consider is that these shallow areas also serve as perfect wading spots for hungry birds, cats, and raccoons. Over time my fish have learned to seek “deep water” to escape their natural predators. And I’ve sunken a woven-plastic container in the deepest part of the pond to serve as a fish safe house.
Once the planning is complete, dig away. Line your pond with a pond liner specifically made for the purpose, either preformed or as a rubber sheet. Make sure that the liner fits the hole very well. If the hole is too large, backfill around the edges. If the rubber sheet is too large, use heavy clippers to cut away the excess material so there is a neat edge that can be camouflaged with plantings.
Mother Nature’s Way: Maintaining health and harmony
Here’s where all pond owners must pay attention. In your pond’s miniature ecosystem you’ll want to establish a healthy balance among plants, frogs, toads, and fish. Occasionally test your pond’s water for ammonia and nitrates, using kits found at pet shops. You’ll probably need a pond filter run by a small pump, through which the water will circulate for cleansing and aerating.
Aeration and cleansing are extremely important. Along with pond filters, water plants that float on the surface or grow in submerged pots also add oxygen and filter the water through their roots while providing a tasty snack for your koi and tadpoles. Water hyacinths and water lettuce are manageable “floaters” that soften and naturalize a pond’s surface. Submersible plants such as water lilies and papyrus afford dramatic accents and shadowy hiding places for your pond’s critters. Through some trial and error I found the right balance between oxygenating plants and fat-and-happy koi.
A word of caution about those fragile-looking floaters: They’ll take over, given half a summer. Be sure to prune them back midsummer and clip any straying runners. (Eventually your plump fish and hungry frogs may do the pruning for you.)
Beautiful stones and reliable plants can fill in the gaps around your pond and disguise electrical wires as well as the rough edges of your pond’s construction. Plants also shade the pond, shadowing the water to protect your fish from high-flying hawks and osprey and sheltering tiny birds and butterflies that find your pond a life-sustaining oasis.
Plants can interfere with your viewing pleasure if they grow too large or too tall. Consider a few large pots of low-maintenance geraniums and Shasta daisies for color and interest. You can move them if they get too large. You can also replant the pots in keeping with the season.
The keys to the success of your pond’s tiny ecosystem are balance and mutual dependence. If your plants don’t thrive and your fish spend lots of time near the surface they’re probably starved for oxygen. You may need to add a bubbler or two. Bubblers oxygenate water and keep it moving. Without the oxygen your plants and fish will die. Without water movement mosquitoes and slime will flourish.
A small, inexpensive pump can keep three or four bubbler tubes working. Lowered to the bottom of the pond, these tubes keep the water cool and rich with oxygen in the summer. In addition, the bubbler discourages mosquitoes from depositing their larvae and using your pond as their personal nursery.
Pond-keeping: Maintaining your aquatic Eden
Your pond can be designed to basically take care of itself except for occasional fill-ups on fresh water and replacement of pump filters. The less formal your design, the closer to a natural pond it is, the easier it is to let nature take its course. The plants will float on the surface; the fish will float beneath; leaves will settle on the bottom, creating a haven for fish and frogs; and birds, squirrels, and neighborhood pets will stop by for a cool drink.
Yet, as with all gardens, with ponds, too, major maintenance tasks do arise in spring and fall. One is mucking out the dead leaves and vegetation that collect in the bottom of the pond. You needn’t be too meticulous; the fish and frogs enjoy a little glop with their pebbled pond floor. However, too much vegetation left to decay would wreak havoc on your pond’s pH balance, leading to endless rounds of “dosing” your pond. Dedicate a long-handled fishnet and rubber gloves to your aqua-toolkit.
Usually a bubbler requires virtually no maintenance unless the motor simply dies. The filter requires a bit more attention. It contains a pad of porous material that can clog and must be replaced as the summer rolls along.
During the winter I disconnect the filter and sometimes remove it from the pond, returning it in the spring. The bubbler, however, is the essential deicer, keeping air flowing to the hibernating pond life, so I don’t need to bring my fish indoors. They snooze among the decomposing leaves in the bottom of my pond.
Be sure to restart the bubbler pump if there is a winter power failure. If the water freezes solid, even if only a half-inch deep, the fish will die. They need oxygen, even in hibernation. Even with the bubbler a thin ice crust will probably appear on your pond. The crust, however, must not grow solid; a small airhole should remain, usually above each bubbler. Birds gratefully drink from my pond’s airhole all winter, so keep your eye out for winter juncos, nuthatches, and cardinals.
With birds in mind I also recommend that you install netting over your pond. You can pick up berry-bush netting at a local farm store or buy special pond netting from your nursery. In the fall the net limits the volume of leaves that drop into your pond. And year-round that net protects your goldfish and koi from becoming lunch for birds of prey.
My final advice: don’t give up. Unquestionably, the joys of water in your garden are gifts to eyes and ears. The soft burble of falling water, the glistening sun on the pond’s surface, the parade of birds and critters coming to drink are among the pleasures awaiting every water gardener.
Jan Booth writes, teaches, gardens, and attempts to keep her pond and her koi safe from hungry osprey and bored cats.
Frequent What's Up?
contributor Karen McLaughlin also contributed editorial content to this article. Another Success Story
Seven years ago Stevensville resident Chip Whitaker decided to install a pond in the backyard of his Centreville home. He spent three months working on it every chance he got. “I’m a do-it-yourselfer,” says Whitaker. “It was a lot of work and I did it all by hand.”
What he did included digging a 36-inch-deep hole big enough to hold a 5,000-gallon rubber-lined pond. He also laid the brickwork, installed electrical pumps, and built a fence around the area to keep the children safe. “About a year ago, I improved upon the pond,” he says. “I made it deeper and added a skimmer.”
After all the time that has passed, Whitaker says, he has finally got maintaining it down to a science. He possesses a wealth of knowledge about his fish, the plants, aerating, algae, and all of the other inner workings of the ecosystem he has created. When I ask him how he learned so much about the subject, he laughs and says, “Trial and error.”
His fish—colorful koi, fancy fantails, and shubunkins—which started as 2-inch babies, now average 14 to 15 inches in length. As they reproduce he culls out new arrivals and gives a majority of them to a local garden center.
Whitaker explains their eating habits and hibernation period: “They go for about 5 months without eating,” he says. But in the spring they are once again anxious for the fish-food treats he provides. “They can hear my footsteps and swim up to meet me. It’s like candy to them.”
The biggest challenges that Whitaker faced as a pond owner were mastering the chemical balance of the pond’s water, learning the seasonal habits of the fish, finding out which plants and fish work well together (and how much of each is the right amount), and foiling dinner plans of a hungry heron (he now keeps netting over the pond). It certainly seems like experience has made him a pro, however, and he claims that the pond is worth every moment he’s spent on it. “To hear the water running is very relaxing,” says Whitaker. “And I look forward to feeding the fish in the mornings. You literally get to know them.”
—Stephanie Avent
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