Building a garden pond is not just a matter of digging a hole, lining it with plastic and filling it with water. There are other considerations such as whether it should contain fish or just plants; how big or small it should be; its shape, and so on. Be prepared to dig a decent hole and spend many hours complaining about your aching back … but you’ll be very pleased with the results and you can happily stand around, beer in hand, praising your efforts after the fact. For those who have done it, building a garden pond can be a very satisfying project indeed.
Step 1 – Decide on where to build your pond.
Naturally, level ground would be best or else you’ll spend far more time and effort doing the levelling yourself. Building a garden pond under a tree is unwise as the roots will continue to grow and could encroach upon the pond’s territory in the future. The shade of the tree will also mean a lack of sunlight, which is essential to your pond’s survival. Since you will need electricity for the pump, proximity to an outlet is important.Step 2 – Prefabricated or do-it-yourself liner?
Prefabs are the more expensive option but you pay for ease of installation, durability and low maintenance. Liners are available in different price ranges and generally speaking, the more you pay, the longer your liner will last.
Step 3 – Installation
For a prefab pond, tip it upside down on the area you’ve reserved, mark it out with 6 to 8 inches extra around the outside and start digging. If using liners, measure your outline keeping in mind the size of the liner you will be using.
Building a garden pond that will last for years means that all debris should be removed from the cavity to avoid punctures to the bottom of the pond. Once the hole is the required depth and size, add the prefab or lay the lining. Fill to about one quarter capacity with water so that the weight will keep the pond in place as you refill the gaps with soil.
Step 4 – Decoration
You can now add plants, rocks, bark and stone around the ‘banks’ of the pond for a more natural appearance. If you intend to add fish, plants that overhang into the water will be useful as shade and hiding spots.
Step 5 – Add aquatic plants
If you’re building a garden pond that doesn’t have a pump, you should aim for plenty of plant life to keep algae growth under control.
Step 6 – Install a pump and filter
There are dozens of models on the market and your retailer will be able to help you decide which size is best for your pond. Read the instructions and follow carefully, but it’s generally a simple task to place the pump in the water and connect the hose to it. The filter needs to be positioned in front of the pump to encourage water through the filter first. Building a garden pond and outfitting it should take little more than a weekend, which is one of the things that makes it so rewarding.
Landscaping is always a very rewarding occupation – whether you do it for yourself or as a profession you always learn something from the projects you take up and you always end up with something more beautiful than you envisaged in your plans. When you do landscape designs for the southwest landscape, you get to put in a little more effort than you would do regularly, as you need to choose the right combination or trees and bushes for it, and as a reward you get better results than in any other type of landscaping.
The Hoop’s Blue Spruce is a wonderful tree which fares exceptionally well in the southwest climate and environment conditions. This is an extraordinarily beautiful tree that grows fast achieving its full height and width of about 50 feet and 20 feet respectively in less than 24 months. Its form, color and imposing stance makes it a wonderful choice for any type of landscape designs for the southwest.
There is another tree that can be used here, i.e. the Afghan Pine tree. This is a huge 70 feet tall tree when fully grown and can become a great barrier in the path of winds even as a standalone specimen. This is the best choice for border as it requires a lot of maintenance for it drops a vast amount of cones.
There is many a landscaping tip out there to satisfy even the most desperate of landscapers or would be landscapers and you can find hundreds of them online. But in all of my years as a landscape artist I have come to the conclusion that while there are many different homeowner landscaping ideas only a few are universal and there is a good chance that only one landscaping tip will do you any good.
The best homeowner landscaping tip that everyone can learn from is to always make your yard one that will look great at any time of the year. This can be tricky because in the middle of winter many things do not look so hot. This is why it is so important to learn about the kinds of plants and trees that will still bring beauty to your home in the depth or winter and in the summer heat.
They are the experts and they should be able to answer all of your questions about what your choices in plants and trees should be. If this does not work for you then take a trip to the library and check out some books on local flowers and trees. These can be gold when you are trying to choose just the right things for your yard.
It is not all that easy to always come up with your own landscaping ideas. In fact, most people are going to need a little help with their landscaping, it is a good thing that it is easy to find your own homeowner landscaping ideas to use.
You should start by taking a walk around your property in order to get a good sense of what can be done. See how the drainage is and check out the slopes and levels of your property. This way you will be able to tell which landscaping idea is right for you right off the bat. The more you notice the easier things will be.
This way you do not have to pay for them and you will still get all that they have to offer. There is a lot of be gained from reading some good landscaping books, you might even find a landscaping idea in them.
Could your home do with a little more garden landscaping? Probably so, and that is a good thing. In fact you should be very excited about it because there is nothing more fun than garden landscaping, it will get your imagination working overtime and you will have a ball planting and rearranging your plants and flowers.
Layering your garden landscaping design is easy to do. You need to know the flowers that you are going to plant first however. The choices that you make as far as the flowers and other plants will affect just how your garden landscaping is laid out. For example you do not want to have the taller plants in front of the shorter ones. This is obvious but you should still make a rough sketch of where you want things laud out for your garden landscaping before you begin. This will help you to keep thins as simple as possible. Your garden landscaping will go a lot faster this way and you will run into fewer problems as you go.
The layering affect of your garden landscaping design will add depth and make your garden much more interesting to look at. This is what will make your garden landscaping a success.