In January 2014 we built a fish pond outside our bedroom window. It had been something we’d been thinking about ever since we shifted in, in 2009. I’ve had a fish pond in every home I’ve owned over the past almost 40 years. This one took two whole days and my husband, our son-in-law Ben, and his father, Dave, assisted with the project. We were very grateful for their assistance, especially in transferring rocks from our bottom paddock up to the pond site and Ben for meticulously placing the rocks onto the lining and working to make it all smooth as the water filled. We were also grateful that we had our own rocks this time round, instead of having to source them from elsewhere.
Below are the images of the progress. The hole had to be dug first, with stones and rocks removed and anything else that might have been sharp. My husband is an engineer so he likes to measure everything and make it just right, including the smoothing process of the soil. We chose to do a ledge around the pond to put plants onto, and provide a deeper section to help protect our fish from flyby fishers – the local bird life.
Once the hole was complete the guys then put in a heavy duty pond liner and Ben stood in the pond to help smooth out the lining as the water filled. Once there was enough water to weigh down the liner, Ben then proceeded to line the pond with the rocks he and his dad had collected earlier. Now it was beginning to look like the real thing! There was a section at the head of the pond where I did the planting of bushes and groundcovers and we placed some water plants in pots onto the ledge of the pond.
Because we used rainwater to fill the pond we didn’t have to wait for chemicals to settle in the water and were able to put fish into the pond within a couple of days. It was completed on a couple of hot summer days, late January 2014 and we were delighted with the end result. Easily the best fish pond I’ve ever had!
We added a fence around the pond a month later to protect our grandchildren from accidents around the pond.
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