We thought a few of our ideas on water
garden design would be helpful in making your water garden a greater success.
We had a large area of mud caused by water flowing out of the pipes
from drainage system that was protecting a house. We felt that all of that water
should go to some better use than to make the weeds grow. The new pond is roughly
the shape of the mud hole
at the end
of the summer. I used the wet zone as a rough gauge of how much water was being
provided by the local aquifer.
I marked a natural looking shape and called some
friends with tractors. We cut a basin about 6" deeper than our
intended depth of the pond. We made a shelf around the outside of
the pond that we intended to use as a foundation for our stone
edging. The two foot wide shelf is at a depth of 9" below our
expected waterline. The finished bottom is 18" deep. The
sides above the shelf were tilted at an angle that made it so the sides of
the pond would not slide. Four ramps were built into the
pond. Three are now planted with sedges and are used by the ducks as
beach entries to the pond. The fourth is cut significantly lower and
is being used as the outflow. A second smaller basin was cut to make
the entry point for the water more intimate. A bamboo
bridge was built over this smaller alcove. We used a pond liner
in the larger area and made a concrete waterfall for the alcove. The
concrete was underlain by a section of the liner to make sure that if
there was leakage in the concrete all of the water would end up in the
pond.
Due to the large size of the pond and expansiveness of the soil I
chose a pond
liner. Clay expands when it is wet and shrinks as it dries. This will crack a
concrete basin in short order unless it has a large amount of reinforcing
steel in it. I protected the pond liner from the sharp rocks
underneath with a 4" layer of sand. Newspapers or old carpet can also
be
used. I protected the liner from the UV rays with a second layer of sand on
top. Then I laid rocks around the margin to keep the sand in place when there were
waves and because I liked the reflection of the rocks on the water.
The pond site
is in a natural drainage. I diverted the flow of the local runoff around the pond so that we would not
pick up excessive sediment and nutrients from an adjoining pasture. This pleased
the downstream neighbors because the water had been threatening their garage during high flow
periods in its previous course and we were able to release the water into
a drainage system on his property.
It has been amazing to see how attractive this
pond has been to the local wildlife. We have regular visitations by a Kingfisher, several
Blue Herons,
Great Egrets, a Green Heron Family, Mallards, Black Phoebes and a near constant swarm of
Cliff Swallows in the Spring and Summer. We have planted Lotus, Water Lilies, Flag
Iris and Hyacinth in the water and a range of flowering plants around the margin.
The copper arches were an inspiration caused by a doubling in the cost of redwood. I
am only too pleased that we paused long enough for this bit of inspiration.
The arches have proven to be a great
addition to the unique nature of this landscape I have used them to
support lights, chocolate
vines and the evergreen
clematis.
