cas's pond

In 2004 a big hole was created in the back yard when a maple tree was removed so I kept digging and created my pond. The pond is about 10 feet in diameter and 2 ½ feet deep.



















Updated picture of the pond July 2022, after flowers were cut back or removed from along the sides so that the rocks could be removed and the leak fixed.

Construction

• The pond is 10 feet in diameter, with a 3 foot falls that drops into a small pool before it drops into the pond.
• The pond is approximately 2 1/2 feet deep and 1,000 gallons.
• Underlayment and 45mil EPDM pond liner were used to line the pond.
• There is a Laguna Max-flow 4200 GPH pump housed in a skimmer.
• The pump is connected to 2" PVC flex pipe which is buried a few inches below the ground, around the perimeter of the pond, going up 3 feet to a Bio falls box.
• The pond took about a month to build due to rain delays.
• Originally there was a stream, but it was too wide and a lot of water movement and sound was lost. More dirt was added to the hill so the rocks could be moved to create a waterfall instead.
• No foam was used to set the rocks in the waterfall.
• Currently, there is no rock or gravel on the bottom of the pond.
• The rocks around the perimeter of the pond were placed on a shelf about 8-12 inches below the water line.
• Shelves were also made so that one is able to climb out of the pond. (24", 20" and 15" deep) Pots of water lilies are placed on these shelves.

Fish:

• As of 2022 the pond is home to 3 Koi and 9 goldfish.
• One goldfish is 17 years old, the rest were born in the pond and range from 3 - 15 years old.
• The koi are 13 and 16 years old. They are on the smaller side, with the largest being only 14"-16" long.
• To prevent an overstocked pond, I try to keep only male fish. However, there has always been one female that I haven't been able to catch that spawns and has babies. So some years I rehome as many babies that I can.

Pond Plants:

• Blue flag iris
• Yellow flag iris (removed in 2017 and replaced with lower growing iris)
• Variegated Japanese iris
• water lilies
• curly mint
• aquatic forget-me-not
• blue rush (removed in 2020 because of excessive roots and the center of the plant died out)
• dwarf horsetail rush (removed in 2020 because excessive roots and plant foliage not impressive)