How to secure a retaining wall around a hillside pond?

[kate blanchett]

My pond is on a steep slope the up hill side of the pond is a rock wall, just stacked. My pond is on its 4 year, the slope and wall has held well.
I put a slight raise to the dirt above the rock wall and when digging made the slope so the rain water coming down the slope would flow around the pond, not into it. The pallet on the left is the rocks used on the slope.
The slope is angled back around 25 degrees, maybe, (an estimate) The down slope side of the pond and bog is a dirt berm, I used the dig dirt to build the berm to make the pond level, Dry Stacked
We do freeze and thaw here, so far good, this is the walls 4 year







this is our slope the pond ended up down by the two apple trees you can see, I looked for the "flattest" part to do the build

This looks very promising. Very similar looking terrain to my property. Do you have any other pics that show more of the pond..... I'm wondering what happens to the left and right of the pic you included above with the stone wall? Do the rocks curve around (following the decline of the slope) along the perimeter of the pond or is the rock wall contained on one straight slope and the pond is not a part of the slope? (Not sure if that question makes sense.)

 

[addy1]

When I finished filling the pond you can't see the liner. I have the rock wall on pure dirt, the liner is on a dirt shelf slightly below water level with an edge that goes up . That liner is covered with rocks so it is not visible when the pond is full. If it needs to be worked on just pull the rocks off the underwater shelf

 

[addy1]

This looks very promising. Very similar looking terrain to my property. Do you have any other pics that show more of the pond..... I'm wondering what happens to the left and right of the pic you included above with the stone wall? Do the rocks curve around (following the decline of the slope) along the perimeter of the pond or is the rock wall contained on one straight slope and the pond is not a part of the slope? (Not sure if that question makes sense.)

I have tons of pictures, check out this................https://www.gardenpondforum.com/threads/pond-in-progress-started-4-21-10.4302/

The middle of the up slope above the pond is the highest point, it is a sight down slope to each edge of the pond for the water to follow the path. I also dug a small trench, like 8 inches deep or so and put in some gravel to help any water go where I wanted it to go, ie. around the pond.

When I was digging in the stream I resloped the bank near the house to make water flow down and around the pond. I would go out in bad rainfalls with my umbrella and watch the water flow, any issues I saw I would take a picture then correct the flow, redirect it.

The pond is part of the slope, the rock wall does get smaller as you head to each end of the pond. I had to dig it down the 4 feet to make the down slope side of the pond a manageable dirt berm. This was first ever build on a slope.................learned a lot doing it, lol

The stream was harder to do than the pond, the banks had such deep drops to make it down the slope I had trouble hiding them. Did it with rocks like the pond slope

 

[kate blanchett]

Okay, so today I am spending the day lugging rocks from my neighbour's house. Meanwhile, the mud from the dig is drying up nicely in the sun after all the rain; and then it will be time to clean up the shape of the pond.

The "excavator" was a front-end loader with a four foot bucket ~ so you can imagine how refined the cut is. Of course, the universe always works in our favour..... so this leaves me with lots of dirt to play around with in order to make a berm.

Ignoring the rock wall for a moment, I'm assuming that I want the height of the berm to be flush with the water level. Is that correct? Also, how important is it (to the fish, plants, and wildlife) that the bottom of the pond be flat (in other words, just how much moving of dirt do I need to do to "finish" the dig)? I assume I should remove large stones so the liner can lie flat and not be punctured. And I've been reading that people under-line their liner to protect it. What sort of (free) material can I use for the underlay?

Katie

 

[Troutredds]

It's going to look great some day - the mess will be gone before you know it.

 

[RobAmy]

Couple of ways to attach the liner. Establish your water level and then leave a pocket to tuck the liner up into the wall, this will be the best way IMHO. Another way is build your wall and put a small wall in front for the liner only then cap the liner with stones.

Looking at your soil it looks soft an and loam like. So careful if you just stack stones like addy1 did. Its your house so you can try anything you like but just be careful and think it though. When someone is paying me I give them the best job so it last a long time. Doing it yourself you will not get sued like I could. I have seen many walls fail over the years so only giving advise on a decent way to do it.

Best of luck on the project

 

[Troutredds]

We have a concrete pond, but used a liner in our stream. The underlayment we used was sand - it provides a smooth, soft substrate below your liner and doesn't break down or settle like soil can. Other members, with many more years of pond building experience, can address your other concerns. There's many generous folks on this site.

 

[addy1]

Looking at your soil it looks soft an and loam like. So careful if you just stack stones like addy1 did.

Our dirt is clay and shale, so they are right, make sure your soil can handle what I did, we have tons of shale in the dirt.
Also when you make your berm compact it as much as possible, I drove over it with the tractor a lot..........it will settle, make it higher than you might want it to be, easier to remove some height rather than add height.

 

[addy1]

Also, how important is it (to the fish, plants, and wildlife) that the bottom of the pond be flat (in other words, just how much moving of dirt do I need to do to "finish" the dig)? I assume I should remove large stones so the liner can lie flat and not be punctured. And I've been reading that people under-line their liner to protect it. What sort of (free) material can I use for the underlay?

Katie

I used carpet pad old carpet etc to protect the liner. And your bottom does not need to be perfectly flat. Mine is sloped towards the center and sloped towards the deep end.

 

[taherrmann4]

That would be a great place to have a waterfall coming down off the hill into the pond. You could slope that back of the hill some so it wasn't so steep. It looks like the wall is going to be around 8 feet tall or is that including the depth of the pond.
The bottom of my pond is not level and is not necessary. Have you bought your liner yet, if not wait until you are finished digging so you know exactly how big you need to buy.