If you need some help digging I could send over some eff'ing moles I have here :lol:. Think gophers are bad, at least you can see them to get them. I am worried about them damaging my pond liner.

My pond digging experience wasn't too bad. I did give up after my shovel was bouncing back at me every time I hit the ground because the ground was so hard, but no too many rocks. Lots of clay though. I filled it in last year and have decided to go with 3 level above ground pond this year.

In this climate I would not worry about a bottom drain. It's no worth it as we usually do not go deep enough to get under the frostline. A good pond vac is great.

Algae is not much of a problem if you keep enough plants in the pond and even better if you have a marsh area to plant even more plants. The trick is to keep the soil out of the pond as this adds lots of nutrients. I used a mixture of barley straw in my filter and concentrated barley and never had any problems with algae. I also used a UV to get rid of the green water when it got really bad.

I miss my pond and hopefully my multilevel design will help keep my plants apart from the fish and apart from the turtles. One thing kept eating the others. They don't do well together I find. :)

I have a questions for you pond goers...

How important is the fabric underlay underneath the pond liner itself? I really don't want to buy one. lol.

That depends how smooth the dirt is going to be under your liner. I didn't use an underlay under mine either because like you, i was too cheap LOL. Instead, I made sure to get as many pointy rocks out as I could and laid down a significant layer of newspaper. I collected like 4 weeks worth of flyers from my house and my parents house. use duct tape to tape them together when you lay them down otherwise they will fly and shift all over the place! The newspaper was probably as thick as the underlay that you could buy and that cushioned the liner well. Also, I don't have any large trees with roots anywhere near my pond so I didn't have to worry about that, but if you do then you need to take those roots into consideration.

Mind you, I did look up what the underlay cost at Burnco just a few days ago and it's actually not that expensive there. for a 300sqft sheet that I would need I think it would only cost me like $60 ? That seems pretty cheap to me but honestly I think the thick layer of newspapers provided more cushioning.

With my reno I was going to do the same and lay down news papers/flyers again but this time I also have the added advantage of having my old pond liner that I will also use to lay down underneath the new liner.

Bottom line is, you should put something that you trust, in between the pond and the ground. You WILL need to walk inside the pond and you will probably lay down heavy pond plants/baskets, etc, so it's good to have that cushioning to prevent puncture.

I had a friend who was removing there old shag carpet and I took it off their hands and used it , but I agree with Kien you should have something because if you miss that one rock, the weight of the water pushing against it could cause a tear in your liner which is a lot bigger pain then buying some cheap underlayment at .25 per square foot.

Hey Kien, where did you buy that autofeeder. That is the exact one I want to buy but I was going to have it shipped as local prices were insane. Was the price similar to online vendors?

Would carpet work? I have a ton of that lying around! haaha

I got it at Pisces up north. It was the same price as online (but without the cost of shipping). This was last year though. Not sure what the retail would be this year.

Ya, I've seen people use all sorts of stuff as underlay. Carpet, carpet underlay, thick vapour barrier. Even a combination of all of the above. Had a friend that put carpet on all the horizontal spots and newspaper on all the vertical walls. Looked funny but worked great.

yes :-) A few years back a friend of mine and I went dumpster diving at construction sites for old carpet and underlay to use in his pond LOL.

Thats great news. Mine is going to be about 1 foot underground, and 2 foot above ground, so a plywood form was going to be used anyways. It would be super easy to staple some carpet to it. Save me some $$$

That sounds like a great size ! I'm too chicken to go 36". While that would be a great depth, a) I have young kids and b) there does exist a bylaw that says 24" is the max that you're allowed unless you have a 6' fence with a gate immediately surrounding your water feature, or some such thing. I've seen quite a few ponds that ignore that bylaw though :-)

wait, shouldn't you be discussing this in your build thread?!?! :lol:

Well you did delay your build because of a little snow so we thought we might as well take advantage of that.

Good point. Carry on.

I am just using pink foam board for my above ground to give it a bit of insulation as well. :)

HAHAH ... NO! I want mine to be all pretty. Not cluttered up with silly banter like this one!

And...... every time I start a build thread it plagues the build and it ends up shutting down half way lol.

or you could just man-up and finish the damn build. Just sayin'.:lol:

I just made sure all rocks were out of the hole and put news paper under my rubber liner. It lasted 10 years without a single leak until I sold the house. Even after 10 years the liner was still soft and pliable.

Leak test!!
 

Made some progress on the renos. I ended up using the old liner as an underlayment to protect the new liner. I decided to throw down some cardboard on all the horizontal surfaces as well.

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I then picked up the new pond liner and spread it out on my yard to spray it down. The manufacturer usually coats these liners with talcum powder to help keep the liner from sticking together when it's all rolled up.
http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...pse6a513c3.jpg

I then proceeded to roll it up again so that it was easier to haul over to the pond in my wagon. I then unrolled the new liner in place and started to fill with water.

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Hopefully this weekend I can finish up the landscaping around the pond and start on the waterfall.

And here are some of my plants waiting to be returned to the pond.

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This bog plant that I grow in the pond has actually bloomed already.

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Marsh marigold is always the first to bloom. Mine hasn't started yet but it's close.

Which is strange because there are no pollinating bugs out yet, I don't think!

lookin' good hombre.

Kien,
Your pond is looking better and better each year. I am just wondering what the use of the cardboard is.

Thanks! For additional cushioning to help keep sharp objects like rocks and twigs from poking at the pond liner. It's a bit overkill but I had LOTS of cardboard boxes around and it worked out quite well. A lot cheaper than buying actual pond liner fabric. I have also previously used a generous layer of newspapers and have also seen old carpet or carpet underlayment used.

Thanks for the info. Your pond and Dez's are my inspiration of getting a pond myself. I will probably have tons of questions for you when I do have the courage and $$$ to get it started if you don't mind.

Don't mind at all. It's not as expensive as you might think. Well, I suppose it depends how big you want to make your pond. My 300 square foot pond liner was only like $250. Probably the bulk of your cost is going to be landscaping materials like rocks or whatever you choose to landscape your pond with. But also, you can still enjoy your pond while your slowly landscape the around it :-)

Yeah, I have nothing in term of rocks or landscaping. I don't even have a fence yet :redface: If I get everything done, it's probably in the 10K plus. Yikes!

Well then, I suggest you work on the fence first maybe :-) I take it you have a new house? If so, ya, you have an uphill battle with landscaping ahead of you! Been there, done that..

Maybe this is a stupid question but would it be wiser to put the fence (with a gate) in later so it's easier to move things in (rocks, tree, etc).
My house is newish. I have a lawn, fence on one side but not the other.

Hey Kien,

How do you overwinter your plants and where did you buy the liner from?

Well, I'm not a landscaper and don't know what your yard is like, but it probably wouldn't be a good idea to put a gate into your face if it shares the fence with a neighbour. The new neighbour might not like that. I know I wouldn't. If you have a back lane then I would definitely put a gate there. I suspect you will have a gate to access the back yard from the front yard?

For me I have two gates to access my back yard from the front yard. This is handy for hauling stuff from the front to the back yard If you don't have a back lane typically landscape companies like Burnco will drop off your stuff on your front driveway where you'll have to haul it to the back yard.

All of my plants hang out in the pond with my fish over the winter. They've done well for 4 winters now and come back every spring. Sometimes they start trying to sprout through the thin layer of ice in the early spring (March/April).

I got my liner from Burnco in the South East.

Not really that strange, it will sometimes bloom in April but spring arrived late. You don't need pollinating bugs to get flowers, but there's plenty out my way, both bees and butterflies.

Ya I know it's possible and happens all the time. I have daffodils and crocus flowers everywhere which I always thought was strange too. I guess I'm looking at it from a genetic point of view. Over years of evolution, I would have thought that plants would "learn" bloom at the optimum time for pollination. As it is I think my blooms are wasting their energy :-). Maybe these plants aren't indigenous? I dunno, I'm no botanist !

Lots of bugs been out and about for a while! I was seeing mosquitoes over a month ago even with all the snow. Hardy little buggers.

Mosquitoes don't pollinate. They just suck blood! :-)

Well, the females anyhow :p

There have been, you know, other insects out and about. They're out there... pollinators and non pollinators alike.. I just meant I was dismayed to see mosquitoes in particular over a month ago already. Nothing slows them down, apparently!

And as long as you're enjoying the flowers I don't think your plants are wasting their energy. :)

Ya I don't have anything against blooms. My indoor plants bloom year round with no bugs at all LOL.

In terms of rock, my pond in the front yard is a 5 x 10 pond 2 and a 1/2 shelf high with a 19' stream bed and I didn't pay for a single piece of rock. My wife and I drove around a couple of nights a week to new neighborhoods and looked for freshly excavated sites for houses to look for rocks. It took a little while, but free is better than spending $$$$. I'm not sure how much rock costs, but I'm sure it ain't cheap.

Thanks Dez. Now I know what I will be doing during my free nights then :mrgreen:

Just like mine too. Countryside ditches, trips out west to the mountains and best of all co-workers with huge rock piles on their land. I would be interested to see how many pounds of rock I hauled to build mine--probably a couple of tonnes at least. I have nothing against Burnco but do yourself a favour and save yourself a pile of cash. Rock from these places cost a fortune.