Changing pond edge

[James_Pond]

I built my first pond about 3-4 months ago. It's going well, but I never built it the way I wanted to.

Ideally, I wanted a few big rocks around the edge, but trying to make it look natural not formal. I had a lot of smaller cobbles from another part of the garden so I decided to utilise these instead. I then bottled it when it came to hiding the liner edge and instead of tucking it in I just stretched it over the soil and planted round as close as possible in the hope that plants would hide the liner.

So, about 2 weeks ago, my neighbour is walking his dog past my garden. Something he does every day, and something he did every day that I was building the pond. He asks me if I want any rocks for the garden. He's got tons. I go and have a look at what he's got and they are exactly what I wanted for the edge. Large granite stones (they were reclaimed from the streets of Edinburgh and have been laying behind his shed for 3 years). Very, very generous of him, but why didn't he tell me this before?

So now I get to my question. Is it a fairly straightforward job to carefully dig up my edging plants. pull up the edge of the liner, dig back the soil edge so that I can place the rocks on top of the liner around the edge of the pond and then back-fill with the soil, the way I really wanted to do it in the first place?

And if so, I'm thinking the best time to do this would be winter, when the plants have died back a bit and there is less life in the pond itself.

Note. I have no fish. It's just a wildlife pond.

Any advice is gratefully received.

 

[addy1]

Welcome to our group!

For sure you could dig up the edge, carefully remove the plants then place them back. If the plants over winter, you are best to move them now rather then in the dead of winter.

Dig down a bit, and have the edge of the liner come up over the soil. You can place rocks partially in the water then other rocks on them, extending out into the yard. It will totally hide your liner. Replace some soil around those rocks and your plants.

 

[cas]

dig up my edging plants. pull up the edge of the liner, dig back the soil edge so that I can place the rocks on top of the liner around the edge of the pond and then back-fill with the soil

That is exactly what I did on the one side of my pond. Once I started it went really well. I would do it now. The plants might not look really good this year when they are transplanted, but they will recover.

 

[James_Pond]

That is exactly what I did on the one side of my pond. Once I started it went really well. I would do it now. The plants might not look really good this year when they are transplanted, but they will recover.

How did you do one side? I've been worried about whether to do a bit at a time or the whole lot together.

The liner is effectively folded down at the minute, under the soil. I would have to fold it up to accomodate the rocks so if I only did one side then the liner would twist from up to down and I presume that would make the job more difficult.

 

[cas]

What happened is when I filled the pond one side was higher than the other. So the following year I lowered the pond by 6 inches, pulled the liner up, dug a small shelf behind the liner, put the liner down, added the rocks and then filled the pond back up. Here is the side that I had to do. (I didn't have any trouble with the liner twisting.)

 

[mgmine]

Depending on how level your pond is, you can simply put the rocks on the edge and then build up the ground behind the rocks with a little soil. If all goes well the rocks should be just about water level in the front and with the added dirt, level with the ground in the back.