Enhancing your property can occur inside and outside your home’s four walls. For people who want to make their backyard more beautiful, it may be worth looking into pond excavation. It’s an attractive outdoor installation and makes the place more conducive to spending time relaxing or with company.
If you follow the right steps, you should end up with a pond that is easy to maintain. In this article, we’ll share an eight-step guide to help you build a sustainable pond on your property.
- Make Room to Maneuver Around the Pond
It may seem like a good idea to situate your pond on a fence or resting on a wall. This is usually the case in smaller properties. However, you’ll have an easier time maintaining it if you reserve at least half a meter of space all around the pound for tending.
- Create a Slump Hole
To easily empty out your pond for cleaning, create a sloping floor that leads to a 3-inch deep slump hole. This way, you can easily gather all your water in one spot when you pump out the water.
- Make Your Border Mowable
Since grass will grow all around your pond, you can make them easier to maintain by setting edges as mow-over borders. You can still have aesthetic stones and the like, but you can place it in a way that is level enough to just mow over for a smooth cut.
- Create At Least a 12-inch Liner
Plants, even ones that grow on dry land, will start growing toward sources of water. To prevent an invasion from unwanted plants, make sure you place a liner around your pond’s edges and cover this with gravel or mulch. It should be at least twelve inches beyond the edging stones you place, but you can go further if you desire.
- Build In Steps
You can actually cut steps into your soil so that it’s easier to add different depths for plants and access them when you need to clean. You’ll want to go at least half a foot underneath the water line for your top step, and add more as you wish.
- Steer Clear of Trees
You may want some shade so your pond’s not constantly exposed to the sun. However, you should also place your pond away from trees. Otherwise, you’ll end up having to clean up leaves from your pond all the time and you even risk seeds falling into the pond. This can harm your fish and murk up the water over time.
- Consider Root Zones Before Digging
Another thing to be wary of is root zones. You can end up killing a tree if you hit the wrong roots, or it can end up sucking water from your pond. Try to make space so you can dig as deep as you like. If the proximity is too close, you can go above ground instead.
- Create a Ridge to Prevent Runoff
Runoff can get into your pond, dirty up the water, and bring harm to your plants and fish. To protect your pond from these chemicals and debris, build a three-inch ridge around the pond while building.
Conclusion
If you include these steps in your building process, you should be able to have a sustainable pond that’s easier on the upkeep. Pond excavation can be quite a bit of effort, but it’s worth it to see the results. If the process seems too challenging, you can always get a bit of help to get things done.
Future Forest Inc. is one of the top pond excavation contractors in Western New York. We specialize in quality forest management and logging services. Connect with one of our experts today.