natural looking water edge

[SE18]

having observed the edge of ponds in my area of virginia, i notice that most of the time, vegetation grows right up to and sometimes into the water. However, most garden ponds made by people have rocks, lots of them, all around the edge. I assume this is to hide the liner and to weigh it down so it stays put. Some people I know have, OTOH, been able to disguiss the edge with vegetation as in the crudly drawn illustration (sorry, my art skills are lacking).

This spring I'm going to extend my water feature and may try something like this. Another person I know covered a portion of the liner with chicken wire and grew varieties of mosses, which wicked up the water via roots dangling into the water

Has anyone done this and have pictures to show?

If not, I'll forge ahead and do it myself and show pictures. But right now the weather is still a bit chilly to work. Maybe in a couple months

DaveV

 

[addy1]

I did that sort of by heron default, put some chicken wire along one edge of the pond sort of folded over so the heron could not walk on it well. The pond plants grew up into it, roots in the water, hid the edge of the pond wonderfully.

I have rocks with dirt between them to allow plants to grown near and into the pond. The rocks on the shallow ledge in the pond I put plants to take root, those plants spread and grow into the water.

Sorry no pictures, and all is sort of dead right now.

Sounds neat, forge ahead and do, post pictures as it goes, naked wire, then with plants growing etc. Will be fun to see it change.

 

[j.w]

Don't have the chicken wire but have a short ledge below the top edge of pond in the water where I put the rocks and then tucked the iris plants,grasses, pennywort etc. in between the rocks and works well for me. Lot's of stuff will grow like you said over the edge into the pond and looks nice also.

 

[SE18]

Nice look to the pond edge with lizard sunning on rock!

OK, I promise to do before and after photos but between before and after will be several months until the vegetation flourishes (I hope)

(Just finished reading Jack London's Martin Eden and needed a picture to cheer me up) :sad:

 

[addy1]

This is a picture of the bog wall edge of the pond, obviously summer lol,

 

[j.w]

Looks so nice addy..............makes me want summer soon! Love how you have so much room for all different kinds of plants!

 

[addy1]

Looks so nice addy..............makes me want summer soon! Love how you have so much room for all different kinds of plants!

Thanks one of the reasons I made a large bog and pond. Love the plants

 

[sissy]

I know what he is saying about the farm ponds here having a natural grass edge or plant edge ,but if you look at those ponds after they trim up to the waters edge is the grass and weeds end up in the pond and make a mess of the pond .You look at some of the ponds here and they look terrible before and after they are trimmed ,not sure which looks worse before or after

 

[SE18]

nice pictures!! Forgot to mention in my crude sketch that the dirt is slightly lower than the water so it doesn't erode or get washed into the water; and yes, the vegetation grows over the very slight liner protrusion (prior to where it dips down. Where it dips down could have added anchorage with concrete below the soil if there's any concern

 

[CountryEscape]

I agree with you, Addy, on the size of your bog. I've already added to my bog, since I had the extra liner, and now I wish I had made it MUCH larger. I was wondering. Can I buy another piece of liner and either add to the bog, or make a new bog and have it overflow into the pond? I'm also thinking about adding a goldfish pond, and keeping the goldies and koi separate this summer. But, with the new goldfish pond, I figure there will be a stream of such to go between the two ponds, and maybe just a dry bed stream, to make them look like they run together, then I won't have to worry about liner meeting liner. However, if I add another bog to what I have, if the new bog is higher than the old bog or pond, I still have to seal the two liners, right? Can't just overflow one liner into the other, as the water might seep under and between the liners. So, use the black goop to seal it, or is there something that needs to be done that is special to seal the water from seeping out?
Sorry, SE18, didn't mean to take over, but since you're talking about possibly adding something, thought it would be ok to ask here. :razz:

 

[adavisus]

Pond plants which do well to mask pond edges include: pennywort, parrots feather, mare's tail, marsh marigold, four leaf clover... mat forming plants which can merrily wiggle along the waters edge as long as you don't mind their wascally habit of romping with enthusiasm

Regards, andy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21940871@N06/
http://swglist.wordpress.com/

 

[addy1]

I agree with you, Addy, on the size of your bog. I've already added to my bog, since I had the extra liner, and now I wish I had made it MUCH larger. I was wondering. Can I buy another piece of liner and either add to the bog, or make a new bog and have it overflow into the pond? I'm also thinking about adding a goldfish pond, and keeping the goldies and koi separate this summer. But, with the new goldfish pond, I figure there will be a stream of such to go between the two ponds, and maybe just a dry bed stream, to make them look like they run together, then I won't have to worry about liner meeting liner. However, if I add another bog to what I have, if the new bog is higher than the old bog or pond, I still have to seal the two liners, right? Can't just overflow one liner into the other, as the water might seep under and between the liners. So, use the black goop to seal it, or is there something that needs to be done that is special to seal the water from seeping out?
Sorry, SE18, didn't mean to take over, but since you're talking about possibly adding something, thought it would be ok to ask here. :razz:

lol country...........
1) if the second bog is higher, the liner would be draped over the lower bog liner, like a water fall, you could seal the two together so it would not wick water between the two liners..the black goop works great.
2) two separate ponds would work, or two with a shallow stream to keep the fish separate

Draw it up the we can "help" you lol

 

[SE18]

no problem here with "taking over"; yes, good point that border plants at water's edge dramatically add to the species and variety that you can have

Country Escapes: Most of my waterway is concrete but for this portion, I'm going to add a liner. It is not the EPFM or whatever it is called, rather, it is the type that PVC cement works with to attach extra pieces. I wanted to start digging tomorrow but snow is in the forecast tonight

It will be a continuous liner thru the waterfall to minimize any chance of water loss, as Addy just mentioned as I was typing

 

[addy1]

With my switchback stream, each leg is a piece of liner, at the end of each leg is a mini pond, I made sure the top piece went over the lower piece, with the lower piece of liner under the upper piece, above water line and also above gravity flow, i.e. the water would naturally flow past that point on its way down the hill.

 

[SE18]

It's hard to tell from this picture but I'm standing about 6 feet above the aqueduct (drained over winter to prevent cracking). The waterfalls will cascade into the aqueduct. The canal (which you can't see in the photo, contains water yearround). The hounds use the aqueduct as a racetrack, LOL, when it's full, they race around on the edge; they are trick beagles