The Water Garden Magic

Guide for Backyard Ponds

If you are planning to have a backyard pond for your house, here is a complete guide for backyard ponds…

Where we love is home, home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.

Our home is truly is special place, our very own place on earth, which welcomes us with arms wide open, and embraces us with an atmosphere that breathes love, tranquility and comfort. We do everything we can to make our homes comfortable and cozy, be it the interiors or the exterior of our home. The front yard and the back yard of the house are also important elements of the home and need to be groomed and taken care of.

A backyard, is not just an open space behind your house, a backyard is a place, which you can modify and turn into a place for relaxation. A backyard is the place where kids can play after school, or a place where adults can sit out and unwind. Creating a pond in your backyard might be a great idea but it requires a great deal of planning before getting one and a whole lot of maintenance after getting one. Here is a step-by-step guide for backyard ponds.

First and foremost you need to decide the location for your backyard pond. Think of a spot that is not exposed to excessive sunlight nor is too shady. Once you have finalized the location, use a rope to roughly demarcate the shape of your pond on the ground. In addition to the conventional round and square shapes, try and incorporate modern shapes for your pond to make it look stylish and contemporary.

Once you decide the shape, it is time for you to start digging. Make sure you excavate the soil in such a way that you create different depth levels in your pond. The different levels allow you to include a wide variety of plants in your pond that require different depths of water. The variation in depth can range from 18 to 24 inches or 24 to 36 inches.

While you are digging, remember to save the top layer of the soil so that you can use it for landscaping. Once you have excavated the entire marked area, clean it and remove all the rocks, or any other sharp objects which will prevent punctures in the plastic liner of the pond which you will be introducing next. You can also put one-inch layer of damp sand on the bottom of excavated area to prevent punctures in the liner.

Now place the plastic liner on the excavated area, if possible put water on top of the liner so that the liner sinks in the pit on its own due to the pressure exerted by the water. Now see to it that the plastic liner is completely settled in the pit. Now place a few bricks or holders to hold the liner in place. Now start filling your pond with water, as the water flows over the liners, it also helps to smooth over the creases of the liner if any.

Now you can remove the bricks or the holders placed on the edges of the liner. Having done that you can now trim the plastic liner a bit, but it is always advised that you leave some extra liner around the excavated area. Once you have done this, you can line the pond area with tiles or stone blocks. At the end you can add your plants, fish and the filtering pump into your backyard pond. Your backyard pond is ready to house colorful fish and plants now, would make for a beautiful sight when you want to sit back and enjoy the evening sunset in your backyard.

For future maintenance, make sure you use appropriate plants and fish in your backyard tank, keep on filtering the water to get rid of impurities and use de-chlorinated water for survival of the plants and fish. Taking care of the backyard pond is important if you want it to be a value –addition to your home, or else, carelessness can only lead to a murky water pit with dead and decayed plants and fish leading to unhealthy surroundings. As far as aesthetics are concerned, you can adorn your pod with ornamental statuettes and verdant creepers.

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