Small Garden Ponds

Total cost for the filter was under $150.00. Adding several rocks found in farmers' fields, and a few choice aquatic plants rounded out the space.
The ease of small garden ponds comes with lower maintenance, coupled with lower electric consumption.
The wow factor comes with the landscaping around the small water garden and the plants within.

People marvel at not only the sound that the cascading water makes, but the beautiful plants that grow in water and on the edge of the pond.

Several considerations should be taken into account before the first shovel of ground is begun.

Positioning of the small water garden feature should be obviously where you will be able to enjoy it taking into consideration the amount of shade, crucial if you plan to keep fish.
In addition to this, the elevation of the ground and condition of the soil should factor into location of the pond because you want to be able to dig it, but also see it from your house or deck. Obviously, if your terrain is hilly or rocky, there could be some modifications necessary before the digging begins. If there are no trees to shade the area, then you will need to place plants in and around the pond.
Plants are covered in detail on our aquatic plants pages, but for our purposes here, we will talk about floating plants such as water hyacinths and waterlilies which also provide shade with it's leaves. These species not only shade the water surface, but help control algae growth, act as natural filters, and discourage a common small garden ponds pest from propagating: mosquitoes.
The plants are readily available at any garden store for a reasonable price. Now that we have our location and shade determined, we will look at supplies needed to build that little pond.

Building garden ponds

Building garden ponds

If you so desire, you can purchase small garden ponds kits online or in your local store.
These come complete, making it easy to install in a weekend, after you dig the hole. If you wish to purchase separate components, you will need a liner, or a preformed pond, a filter, a pump, tubing and fittings. Your local garden store should have all of these parts in stock and will be all to happy to advise you on pump and filter sizes. Or, you can check on the sizes needed by just simply referring to our calculator pages.
Regardless of which type of pond you choose, you will need to cover the liner rim or the pre-formed rim with some kind of natural material. You want it to look as natural as is possible. We simply used large rocks as mentioned above, and a lot of mulch around not only the rocks but the small garden ponds plants that set at the edge of the pond.
If you have just a small space, whether it is a yard, or even a patio, consider adding your very own small water garden feature and watch it grow.

Pondless Waterfall

With this system in place your utility bill will not suffer as much as with a living pond that requires continuous filtration to provide oxygen for the organisms contained within. The best part of all is that you can build one of these pondless waterfalls in limited space without the usual safety concerns associated with a pond.
Where does the water come from or go to? A system of plastic tubing is situated in such a manner to re-circulate the water from the reservoir up through to the waterfall and back down into the reservoir, via a pump large enough to handle the job. To sum it up, if you are looking to add a water feature but have limited space and resources, a pondless waterfall should be considered.
Whatever you decide to do, the environment that you create will give you and yours many times to remember.

Babbling brook with a waterfall

A stream in the backyard is very easy to build and maintain because you can do this water feature without the usual filters and continuous cleaning that a pond requires.

 

The principle involved is to pump the water through rock and gravel in a recirculating mode, replacing occasionally when it evaporates.
As with other water feature installations, you will want to decide where your babbling brook will be placed. To do this, select a favorite place in your yard, sit down and imagine your stream. You can even build the brook above ground especially if your ground is very hard.
For sound, a waterfall height of 2-4 inches is all that is necessary but if you are looking to quell street noise, you will need a larger waterfall, say up to 10 inches or more. You can also add more than one waterfall, doubling not only noise drowning but your listening enjoyment.
As with any back yard, side yard or front yard water feature, be sure to check with your local building code enforcement first and be aware that small children are drawn to water and can drown in a teaspoonful. Also, as with digging a pond, if you dig a little brook, check with your local utilities prior to digging.
Most utility companies are all to happy to accommodate homeowners and will locate underground utilities, flagging them for easy identification.
Whatever you decide to build, you can rest assured that your creation will improve your life in so many ways.