Pond edging and overflow

[gastonbe]

Hi all,

I'm new to this forum. Seems like a lively place!
Short summary: I just finished building my small wildlife pond (3x1.8m) and absolutely love it. One thing remains: the pond edge.

I have put rocks all around the edge of the pond. There's still around 30cm of excess liner left. I now plan to roll that up and fix it vertically with sand and gravel. This should have a couple of benefits: prevent runoff and make the maximum water level slightly higher (preventing any capillary leakage). Also, this will allow me to plant closer to the pond without having to cut much of the excess liner. I hope everyone thinks this is a good way to go? A bit of a combination of these two techniques:

But then with gravel on top so there's no soil going into the pond.

However, the pond is in a bit of a low spot. Putting the excess liner up 10cm will deal with runoff but I am thinking of overflow scenario's. It's not incredibly rainy here but still, there are rainy periods. There's a 1-2m overflow section of the pond (it's slightly lower than the rest). Will it suffice to plant a bunch of marsh plants in this area? That was my idea but i wanted to get some thoughts. Another idea I had was to put more gravel around this part of the pond but I would much prefer planting this area densely.

In short: I'd prefer to plant a bunch of bog plants all around the pond to deal with excess water but I am not sure if this is enough.

I guess I could try and find out. If it doesn't work, I could always lower that section and make a proper "bog" section out of it (with a liner buried underneath it).

gaston

 

[JRS]

Welcome Gaston!

 

[j.w]

@gastonbe
I like the 2nd guys video as dirt won't get in the pond. That's one thing I always try to do is keep the dirt from flowing in the pond when the rains come otherwise your pond will be a mucky mess!

 

[brokensword]

Hi all,

I'm new to this forum. Seems like a lively place!
Short summary: I just finished building my small wildlife pond (3x1.8m) and absolutely love it. One thing remains: the pond edge.

I have put rocks all around the edge of the pond. There's still around 30cm of excess liner left. I now plan to roll that up and fix it vertically with sand and gravel. This should have a couple of benefits: prevent runoff and make the maximum water level slightly higher (preventing any capillary leakage). Also, this will allow me to plant closer to the pond without having to cut much of the excess liner. I hope everyone thinks this is a good way to go? A bit of a combination of these two techniques:

But then with gravel on top so there's no soil going into the pond.

However, the pond is in a bit of a low spot. Putting the excess liner up 10cm will deal with runoff but I am thinking of overflow scenario's. It's not incredibly rainy here but still, there are rainy periods. There's a 1-2m overflow section of the pond (it's slightly lower than the rest). Will it suffice to plant a bunch of marsh plants in this area? That was my idea but i wanted to get some thoughts. Another idea I had was to put more gravel around this part of the pond but I would much prefer planting this area densely.

In short: I'd prefer to plant a bunch of bog plants all around the pond to deal with excess water but I am not sure if this is enough.

I guess I could try and find out. If it doesn't work, I could always lower that section and make a proper "bog" section out of it (with a liner buried underneath it).

gaston

the only problem I see is if you don't get enough 'overflow' to keep these marshy plants thriving. You may need to augment.

 

[addy1]

Welcome to our forum!

 

[poconojoe]

Sounds like you have some good ideas there.

Rolling or folding the excess liner is especially important. I'm glad you're doing that. It's never a good idea to cut extra liner. You never know when you'll need it.

 

[gastonbe]

Thanks for the welcome and replies! Always good to get some feedback.

I spent this weekend rolling and folding and things turned out well! I was able to keep a very generous amount of excess liner except for one small corner (my girlfriend accidentally cut it to 15cm of excess liner, which isn't a disaster).

Still thinking of digging a lower section (with bog plants) a bit away from the pond to relay big flood rains away from the pond. Not sure if it's truly needed. I have a tiny garden so I always have to think hard when making these design decisions in the garden! We are landscaping it now since we recently moved in.

I'll see see if I can post a pic when it's finished somewhere this week!