New Pond Design: Requesting Feedback

[bcosta]

Hi all,

I am in the process of designing a small ecosystem pond for a landscaping project I am planning for my back yard.

I was wondering if I could please get any critical feedback from others who have experience building ponds as to what problems I might encounter with this design and any suggestions you might have?

I plan to get someone else to construct the retaining walls and will likely do the pond construction myself.

Goals of the pond:

• Attract some wildlife: frogs, beneficial insects, birds, lizards
• Create a micro-climate around the pond for certain plants
• Provide a beautiful feature to view from the paved area nearby
• Provide some background noise to mask out surrounding sounds
• Maybe have a few very small fish (design to support fish at least)

I have attached a few images showing the shelf design and layout, and how the pond fits into the landscape.

Key design points:

• Inspired by designs from The Pond Advisor (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEhx1ZATHf4YjV4dDNfpDEQ) and The PondDigger (https://www.youtube.com/user/ThePondDigger)
• I prefer informal ponds but it is surrounded by slightly formal context so will probably have elements of both
• Dimensions 2m x 3.5m x 0.6m deep (Everything I read says a minimum of 18"(46cm) depth to give temperature stability)
  • For local council regulations I can't go deeper than 30cm without a 1.2m high fence OR a wire mesh on top of a sump that can hold 150 KG
• Use an intake bay instead of surface skimmer (better for wildlife, looks better IMO)
• Use a small waterfall with biological filter to provide oxygen and aesthetics (not done yet)
• Shelves 30cm wide
• Location can't really change, soil is clay, position is North facing (good sunlight in Australia)

Questions

Please let me know any issues you see in the design but the key areas I am worried about are:

1. How would you suggest I do the edging where the pond is very close to the pavers (border of intake bay)?
   • I was considering using a 10cm box drain to border the pavers and prevent any runoff but it is 5cm from the pond to the box drain at the moment. I dont know if this is too close or how I would hide the liner in this area.
2. Should I keep the small strip of dirt between the retaining wall and the pond liner or on that boundary just place the liner directly against the retaining wall?
   • I really wanted to plant a few small terrestial sprawling plants to soften the edge of the retaining wall, I may be able to do that with aquatics as well though. I am not sure that having such a thin strip of dirt may make the wall easy to collapse and may be difficult to grow anything in.
3. Should I include the drain?
   • I have read a few people saying you will regret if you dont include a drain but most designs I have seen dont include one. I probably wont be able to make it gravity drained.
   • I also considered I may need to introduce some water flow in the deep section under the grate to prevent stagnation, and *may* be able to direct some flow of water backwards through the drain to achieve this so it serves a dual purpose.
4. What special precautions need to be made in creation of the retaining walls?
5. How deep should a intake bay be?

Thanks for any feedback you can give me.



Pond Design Overview

Pond Landscape Context

Pond Design (More Detail incomplete)

 

[bagsmom]

This is incredible! I'm also a huge fan of Mark Wilson and Eric Triplett. I'm not an expert by any means, so I won't attempt to advise. But I can't wait to see this pond!

 

[j.w]

@bcosta
Sounds wonderful to me. Are you going to make it so you can't see the liner all around the top inside of pond. If so you can make small step down a few inches all around and hide it w/rocks on the step down and squeeze plant roots in-between some of the rocks. Looks like you may have already planned for that tho.

 

[bcosta]

Are you going to make it so you can't see the liner all around the top inside of pond.

Wow responses already. Thanks

Yep. The plan is to hide the liner all the way around if I can. From the inside I have the 15cm shelf around most of it where I can place stones to hide the liner in the pond. Looking at the holes dug in some of Mark Wilsons ponds they appear about that depth for the first shelf used to achieve this. I did plan to have the viewing/interaction areas a bit deeper at 30cm and hope I can cover that in the same way but will need a few larger but thinner stones in those two locations.

As for the liner around the outside edges I am not sure about how to handle all of it yet.

Near the retaining wall, I am thinking I will do the formal thing and place the liner hidden under a capstone on the wall. Where I have a lot of dirt around the outside of the liner I plan to do the same as I see in a lot of Mark Wilsons wildlife ponds where he blends using rocks and plants into the surrounds.

The only one I am not sure about is the very narrow edge of liner near the pavers. I wont be able to blend as there wont be space, and I was thinking it needs to be level with the pavers and so would be exposed. I guess I could raise the pavers relative to the pond (or lower the whole pond a bit) and do the same thing as I was planning for the retaining wall on that small edge.

 

[addy1]

Welcome to our forum!

One way you can hide liner nicely is to dig a shallow shelf that is slightly below water level it will hold rocks covering the liner. They will be partially covered with water then come up and out of the water to cover the liner around the edge. Red is rocks.

Just saw JW said the same and so did you lol.

The drain up to you, I have used in the past and do not have one on my current pond.

 

[SherrysPond]

Welcome to our forum!

One way you can hide liner nicely is to dig a shallow shelf that is slightly below water level it will hold rocks covering the liner. They will be partially covered with water then come up and out of the water to cover the liner around the edge. Red is rocks.

View attachment 124669

Just saw JW said the same and so did you lol.

The drain up to you, I have used in the past and do not have one on my current pond.

Addy1 professional pond graphic drawings......... Love your green fishy!!!!!!!!

 

[addy1]

Addy1 professional pond graphic drawings......... Love your green fishy!!!!!!!!

Hey I worked hard on that ................hours and hours lol