My husband and I are planning to build our first smallish garden pond in the spring. We want to avoid digging because of a mature Sugar Maple and some other trees that likely have root systems that stretch into the area intended for the pond. (We don’t want to endanger the trees). We are thinking of constructing a raised pond and building up a berm around three sides (one of which will have a waterfall feature) with sitting “wall” along the fourth side of the pond. Has anyone ever done anything like this? Any pictures of something similar that’s been successful?
Planning a raised pond
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Welcome to our forum!
Mine are only in ground, others will chime in that have built above ground pond.
Mine are only in ground, others will chime in that have built above ground pond.
JBtheExplorer
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I've never done the berm thing, but I did originally have a tiny raised pond, long before I really knew anything about ponds.
I can imagine what you're planning to do and it sounds like an interesting idea! There's not much I can say that would be helpful, but I hope you update us as you go along. Would be fun to see the progress from start to finish!
j.w
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I built a berm on the low side of my pond and bog. Our yard is nothing but a steep slope. I dug down 4 feet on the up slope side for one edge of the pond and on the down slope side of the bog built a 8 foot wall of dirt to make the downhill slope bog side.
Our house is on the top of the slope right side, yard heads to the woods on the left side I planted the slope with miniature sea oats, which did great anchoring the slope dirt.
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The main thing I would try to do with three sides with a berm, make them go out into the yard so it does not look like a sudden bump in the yard. Then use rocks and plants to blend in the berms.
I was going to suggest @Jimmy Gibson as an example of a beautiful above ground pond and he beat me to it!
That’s the plan - to naturalize as much as possible. It would be an added bonus to create a noise/privacy barrier with the berm (and the waterfall). So we’re fine having the berms extend quite a bit. We’re mostly very private but the area we have in mind is next to a patio that is closest to a neighbor
This is great - thanks!
Not able to today but I’ll post location pictures and details when I can. We were planning on a liner (not preformed).
Have to remember it's not just digging at the roots that can kill a tree many species have a problem when you bury themunder more dirt or say a pond on top of them . Cutting off water to the roots in a percentage of the tree or the oxyen. and believe it or not what most trees hate more then even cutting out a few roots is to compact by driving on the soil with a truck or equipment.. Almost all trees and shrubs have the same rule of thumb if you look up and see where the branches reach out to the furthest then that is true for the roots. Even in the forest if you look up the branches really aren't that wide as say the same species out in a field. The root ball is choked out by other competing trees.
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I'm in a similar position about to start a similar project myself - look forward to seeing how yours comes along and comparing notes along the way 