Building a Pond

It is quite easy to put in a pond but it should be done in winter. Digging the hole is the hardest part. I already had one of those hardened plastic ponds from Green Arrow but I wanted something bigger. So I dug a 10x6 pond (approximately) – you can only dig in rainy season - then picked out all sharp stones and placed 10 bags of sand from Home Depot across the bottom as a cushion (some people buy an underlayer as well, although I didn’t).

You can pick up folded black plastic pond liners at Home Depot, Lowes and online. A liner for a 10 foot long pond will be about 13 feet and it will run you about $60. I then filled the pond from a large rain barrel nearby, which I will continue to use to keep both ponds topped up. Then in went the water lilies (you can pick them up for $10 each at Home Depot if you can find them) and the water hyacinths, then the fish (guppies/mosquito fish). The next step will be to landscape around the pond – I plan to use bricks first then add plants and a few planter boxes. I will post a photo when finished.

A few additional thoughts about ponds… Always place them where they will get sun – water lilies and fish depend on it. I use a pump occasionally to circulate the water but I have never needed filters because water hyacinths will do the job – they reproduce constantly which is why they are a menace to waterways elsewhere in the US. Guppies will reproduce constantly too and although goldfish are a colorful addition to any pond, I have never found them to reproduce or last more than 4 years in the old pond. Perhaps they will like a bigger pond. Ponds do need a clean periodically. For me that means scooping out the debris that builds up on the bottom, which isn’t for everyone.

If you love water lilies but don’t want a pond, you can always put them in a deep bowl on a sunny patio – they make a beautiful addition.