POND BUILDING

www.walliscreekwatergarden.com.au

Select a suitable site for your pond. One that gets at least four hours of sunshine if you intend to grow water lilies. Depth should be between 300mm to 500mm preferable about 400mm for waterlilies.

Dig your pond to the required shape and depth keeping in mind that some liners come in fixed sizes.

The liner can be rubber or vinyl but two or three layers of 200 micron thick builders plastic is cheaper and does the job just as well but is less pliable. Care has to be taken not to damage the plastic during construction.

Lay the plastic in the hole over 50mm of very clean topsoil or sandy loam. This is better than sand because it holds its shape.

Fold the corners of the liner neatly and leave excess liner spilling over the sides approximately 100mm. Do not trim liner before pond is nearly completely finished in case you need extra.

You should cover your liner around the edges and shallows to approximately 20 cm deep with some sort of protective layer, wood, stone, cement or simply a skirting of excess liner material folded over the top.

If you want to you can render your entire pond with cement (a good move to protect the liner through the entire volume). Render the bottom with a mixture of 3 sand to 1 cement. Render the sides in bands of about 200 mm high at a time or your render will slump and bring down a layer of liner with it. This rendering is not itself water proof, it is only an additional, and optional measure to protect the plastic liner.