Pond Construction

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Gardens on Stone

Decorative Pond Construction

When we started to landscape the back yard area we realized that we had a problem. The entire area sloped rather steeply towards the back of the house. After building a large deck and pouring a sidewalk, with extensive drainage underneath to channel rain run-off, we set about deciding what to do next. The idea of several ponds used as a transition between two yard levels prevailed. After building a 150' Uni-Lock wall to place the ponds behind the digging began. Because of the heavy clay and stone that we have the "hand digging" took the better part of two years in my spare time. After muscling the heavy butyl liner in place and adding plumbing, they were initially filled. As you can see the two ponds are separated by a stairway which allows access from the lower patio area to the upper yard. In this upper grass area several trees were taken down and a 80 ft. creek bed was built to act as a natural water filter. The plumbing was laid from the deeper pond, up to the head of the creek bed where a small waterfall was built. (PIC1 , PIC2) This way water is re-circulated by pumping up to the waterfall, down the creek bed, into the shallow pond, under the stairway and back to the deeper pond. This acts as a natural filter system and requires little maintenance other than the occasional thinning of plants in the stream bed to enhance water flow. Next was taking the rest of the summer to haul Medina shale stone from a quarry to stack around the ponds, construct the two water falls, and line the creek bed. Once this was done fresh water was put into the ponds, allowed to sit for a week and then the initial plants were added. (PIC3 , PIC4) The pond plants we used were all common, hardy varieties. After sitting for a week the initial fish were added. Next came laying out the garden beds around the ponds. Within a month or so after landscaping additional creatures appeared as if by magic.