The Garden Pond • Jan Goldfield

There are many kinds of garden ponds, small and soothing, or large filled with color and a roaring waterfall. When designing a pond, we must consider our lifestyle. Is it formal and therefore demands a formal pond, a rectangle, circle or other regular geometric shape? If this is the case, usually the pond is built from concrete or gunnite and might be covered with masonry or tile both in and out. The formal pond usually holds a fountain or statuary. Sometimes it is a reflecting pool with no fish or vegetation and needs to be treated like a swimming pool. Other ponds are informal with rocks or boulders placed around the pond. A roaring waterfall or trickling stream might be the moving water feature rather than a formal fountain. This pond might also be chlorinated, but most have vegetation, fish and are treated as a balanced ecosystem. The pond must fit our lifestyles.

After the style and type of pond are determined, the location is the next most important factor in pond installation. I always recommend the pond be as close to the viewing area as possible. The pond/bog plants move in the breeze, the waterfall makes a delightful noise and the fish are colorful to watch. If the pond is in a far corner of the yard, chances are you will not enjoy it as much as if it is near a den or kitchen window or even a bedroom window that can be left open in good weather. So before installing the pond, at least three things must be decided: style, type and location. After these decisions are made, the rest is easy.

Often when confronted with a small deck or a courtyard, I recommend a free standing, self contained water feature. The water feature can be a classic statue purchased from a water gardening retail outlet or a specially commissioned design of copper and brass. This water feature demands no more than deciding where to put it, placing it, filling it with water and plugging in the pump. Many times, this is the best way to have a water feature in a very small courtyard or on a deck.

The free standing pond pictured (left) was built using a large decorative pot (I used Plumbers' Epoxy to seal the hole in the bottom), and an old clay pot inside the large pot as a stand for the top pot. I drilled a hole through the bottom of the smaller pot, inserted black flexible tubing running from the pump in the bottom pot through the hole in the top one. The black round river rocks are filling the old clay pot that holds the top decorative pot. Hide the pump in the bottom, the cord with a plant and you are in business. The water sound comes from two sources; the water falling from the top ceramic pot and then cascading from the hidden clay pot into the large decorative pot. I filled it just full enough to cover the pump so the echo effect of the falling water is mysterious and hidden. Some folks want the look of an ÔOld New Orleans' courtyard or patio. (below) This can often be done with a water feature made from masonry and made waterproof with a specially sealed interior concrete skim. When hiring a mason to build a pond like this, I would make sure that the mason has experience building fish ponds and knows that waterproofing material must be fish and plant friendly. Many masons are pond hobbyists and realize the proper materials to use. If your mason is unsure, check with a local waterproofing distributor for the proper materials.

The cranes in this pond either in the water or standing on the edge lend a grace seldom found in pond statuary. A pot of azaleas hides the pump cord and the cranes perch on wide flat rocks. One pump with a T-fitting is sufficient to pump water out of each crane. I find that I must wire the cranes' feet to the rocks so they don't take a nose-dive into the water when the wind decides to blow around in the patio.

When building a pond near a swimming pool, other challenges arise. Often there is little spare space for an ornamental pond. Rocks, bricks, pool or patio decking or flagstone can be mixed to create a very attractive and unusual space. If you can't dig into the ground, you can build your pond on top of the ground. In figure 3, I built a rock wall and used flexible liner inside. By cantilevering the rocks around the edge of the pond so the plastic doesn't show, there is still the feeling of a natural pond. You can see that the combination of the statue, the wall and the plants in the wall draws your eye toward the pond and the concrete pool decking becomes less shiny and intrusive.

In this photo I built the pond with a flexible liner, using cinderblocks and moss rock for the interior wall and moss rock only for the exterior wall. The entire pond is on top of the concrete. Again, using plant material in spaces between the rocks, anchored in sphagnum moss makes a dramatic effect and softens the harshness of rock on concrete.

Water gardening adds a focal point to the landscape and is a delight for the homeowner. The sound of a waterfall, fish darting in the water, dragonflies and butterflies flirting with the sun reconnect us with nature and provide us with a sense of tranquility and a resulting lessening of the stresses of everyday living.

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