MrPKitty
Newly Registered
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jun 27, 2012 5:20 pm
Location: zone 6

My life isn't complicated enough, I think I'll add a pond

My husband and I know nothing about ponds, and there's that ancient mulberry tree with what can only be distribed as residential wasteland below it. You can't dig an inch down without hitting rocks, old cans, car parts, chuncks of cement etc.

So what better place and what more competent people to install a small pond? Seriously, I'm fairly relentless so some sort of sopping wet mudhole will end up there. And I will be digging it by hand cause I'm stupid too.

Anyway, we're in zone 6 in south west Missouri where we get all the weather, sometimes in one day. Freezing cold, snow, ice, torrential rains, droughts and my favorite, microbursts! And to make things interesting, I'll need a solar pump and MAYBE some fish. I wouldn't be able to move them for the winter if needed and I can't see just letting them die.

My husband would like it to have a small Japanese style bridge with a simple gravel path and the pond would be located next to the putting green I built last year because that's how awesome I am

Ok, so other than the shovel to dig the hole, what do I need? LOL I'm not asking much.
I was thinking a preformed, but unsure of size, seasonal care, plants for shaded location, possible wildlife issues.

Please, have at it.

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rainbowgardener
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Posts: 25279
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

Wow, someone else who has to cope with what was apparently a dump site! Much of my property is like that too, dig down and find glass, beer can, iron hardware, shoes....

If you are talking smallish pond, I would definitely go with preformed, the hard shell variety. I have one and it is very easy install, just dig the hole for it and pop it in. (Not that digging the hole for it is easy. I ended up giving up before I got quite far enough down and just built UP the dirt around it, with a little retaining wall to keep it there. ) But big enough to have a bridge over and all may mean having to go with the soft liner, in which case you have to dig a giant hole and then fill it partly back in with sand, so the liner doesn't get punctured.

You absolutely will need a pump with filter to keep it clean and aerated. Other wise you will have a big puddle of mosquito breeding stagnant water. If you want to grow plants in it, it's a real balancing act between needing shade to prevent algae growth and needing sun for the plants. One thing that helps is just to keep pulling water out of it (say 10 - 20% of the water once a week) and adding clean. The water you take out can go on your garden.



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