Small pond with big rocks

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I'm new to this site and am in the early stages of designing a backyard pond. I have a tiny yard and the space for my pond is maybe 4' x 4'. However, I really want a large rock structure at the back (to hide some storage areas in my yard). I'm thinking about a 4' x 2' pond with a stack of large slab rocks behind it, hopefully extending over the water. This means that I'll have to have some steep sides and not a lot of room for shelves.

Does anyone have thoughts on really heavy rocks next to my pond? I'm slightly concerned that stacking a few thousand pounds of rock on the edge might eventually settle and cause the pond wall to slump. I've got clay soil.
 
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No fish! Seems pretty small to keep it stable. We get a lot of salamanders in our yard, though, so I'm hoping they use it (also why I want the overhanging rocks to give them a place to hide)
 

j.w

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18" deep with the surcharge on the 2' width of the pond with the surcharge weight evenly spread (across what size of space?) on clay soil is... probably fine? Worst case scenario in your position really not that bad, so I'd probably go for it were it me.
 

Jhn

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Agree with c.w. Clay soil will be fine. If you are worried though, on the side where you are going to be stacking large rocks start at the bottom of the pond. Having the upper rocks rest on the lower ones, working your way up will keep them from going anywhere in any type of soil.
 
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How about skip the pond altogether and build a pondless feature? A tiny pond with large rocks stacked behind it will look like... a tiny pond with large rocks stacked behind it. But a big bubbling boulder could be really cool. You can create it so the water pools and creates an oasis for tiny critters in your yard.

Just an idea - post a picture of your space and maybe we can make more suggestions!
 
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I second @Lisak1’s idea. I got caught up thinking “can it be done?” and forgot to ask, “should it?”

A pond in that size space with big rocks will look really odd. But a pondless feature could look really cool.
 
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Jhn

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If you know what your doing, large rocks in a small water feature can be done and look great.. Have seen some fantastic looking small natural pools in nature surrounded by large rocks with water running over said rocks. When I say large rocks/boulders though I am talking minimum of 2000lbs.

Will say I think the pondless feature would look great too, any water feature looks fantastic though when thought is put into it.
 

TheFishGuy

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I think a small pond with large rocks could look amazing, there are plenty of small pooling areas in nature surrounded by massive boulders. I will agree with the others that a nice looking pondless waterfall would probably be easier to pull off though.
 
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I think a small pond with large rocks could look amazing, there are plenty of small pooling areas in nature surrounded by massive boulders. I will agree with the others that a nice looking pondless waterfall would probably be easier to pull off though.

If you add a bib liner, a pondless + boulders is basically a small pond with big boulders.
 
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Thanks for all these thoughts!

I agree that the scale has potential to look weird, but the pond is probably more important to our planning than the waterfall. Moving big rocks will definitely be a challenge (the access is too small for heavy equipment).

I have another thought which is to stand a large thin slab of lava (maybe 4' x 3' x 10") up on edge which would let the pond be larger. Pretty sure that would have to be cemented in.
 

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