Talk to us: 0786 342 7294 or E-mail
    HOME    
Make a point of visiting us weekly!
Growing Stuff  Articles:  10. Projects for your Garden
- Creating a Pond or Water Feature (Continued)
d) Rigid or Preformed Liners
A visit to Garden Centres or DIY stores who cater for garden pools will show you the range of sizes and shapes of liners that tend to be either lightweight fibreglass or other synthetic material.

The construction is going to be somewhat different, as follows:
1. Sit the liner on the grass where you want to locate it. Drive canes in the ground around the outer edge at regular intervals and then run either a hosepipe, rope or cord, around the canes to copy the top shape of the liner
.
2. Ensure the ground is level before starting so the finished pool will be level.

3. Remove the liner and then with either a spade or half-moon cutter mark the shape and remove the turf, including a couple of inches larger than the preformed shape to allow for leeway.

4. Most preformed liners have shelves for plants. Excavate the earth to the depth of the shelf and then sit the liner in the hole and press down so it leaves an imprint of the deeper area to be excavated. Excavate to about two inches deeper than the liner and provide a two inch bed of sand. Check the level and ensure the top of the liner is not protruding above the surrounding ground level. Finalise the location and gradually backfill until the liner is secure.

5. Fill pool with water and leave to settle. Finish off as with the flexible liner.
Water Features

Now my simple definition of a water feature is anything  less than a proper pond that involves water. It may involve simply a tank or barrel that holds the water, a fountain in a pebbled stone area with a water reservoir beneath it, or even a water course where water runs from one end to another and then is returned by a hidden pump.
I make no apology for saying that such water features tend to be the alternative for having a pond.

A number of years ago I had decided I didn’t want a pond for a variety of the reasons above, but had a large plastic box shape and a number of old bricks. I had sufficient bricks to build a box about three feet long, and about eighteen inches wide and about three feet high.
The plastic box fitted inside this structure but was only about eighteen inches deep. I filled the bottom eighteen inches with earth and then sat the box in the  remaining eighteen inches..
This I then filled with water and plants and so for a number of years we have had a raised mini-pool which has housed numerous frogs over the years – to the delight of the grandchildren who stand and peer over the edge.

A water feature will be what your creativity makes it. It can have many plants or no plants. It can be a formal structure like my brickwork, or an informal tub or barrel, or just a pile of pebbles over a reservoir with a fountain in the middle (but you will need an electricity supply somewhere nearby!)
And so...

  Here we’ve just given you some starter ideas. If you can overcome all the negatives we gave you earlier, then water can be a pleasant addition to your garden. It’s often not cheap to buy pond liners and then plants, but if you can afford it, then it is very worth while adding something that will no doubt give you a lot of pleasure for years to come.

Top of Page


To return to Part 1 of this article please CLICK HERE