How much does a pond cost?

[user0512]

Putting this in AIBU for more traffic.

How much does a pond cost realistically?

Considering it can be a bucket to a lake, as little or as much as you want to spend.

A good liner, and time/labour. Fish and plants could be a money drain.

As a minimum you need a liner and a pump/filter (could be second hand). I'm sure you can get some plants and fish for free from Facebook.

We've literally just collected 20 fish today from someone who wanted to get rid of their pond as they were too old to look after it anymore.

I have a small pebble pond
Cost less than £100 - I love it - wouldn’t believe how much pleasure I get from my 🐟🐟

You might want to ask on the gardening topic. Definitely need an idea of size and type.

Depends on what you want, how big, any extra features. My DH wanted and started building a water feature which is assuming the dimensions of a garden Niagra - several waterfalls, streams, pond, bog garden. Cost? Very nearly the marriage as it's construction started 5 yrs ago and still is nowhere near completion. Concrete mixer bought, tons of concrete mixed (at the start of lockdown when materials were difficult to get), loads of concrete blocks, the biggest sheet of butyl, sleepers for retaining walls, 5 lovely summers - wasted!! Should have put my foot down at the beginning but then there would have been a ginormous strop.

We made both our garden ponds for no cost, apart from a roll of pond liner.
What are you trying to create?
The day we filled our pond we saw a dragonfly in the garden - amazing.

At my last house ex DP dug me a pond - cost less than £200 for pump, liner, edging etc, but took a lot more maintenance than my current smaller version

2@JaceLancs Your pebble pond sounds nice - I thought they just bubbled through stones, but you have fish?

I have a wildlife pond. Cost £40 for the liner, and maybe £30 for the rocks to go around the edge.

It really depends on the pond. My mum and dad's pond cost them about £100 in total - liner, solar pump, some plants. They already had enough stones/rocks/bits of paving lying around to make the edging etc. It's a nature pond so they didn't buy fish for it or anything; they just dug it, filled it, put the plants in and waited.

It didn't take long for wildlife to move in - it's teeming with newts, and they get lots of dragonflies and damselflies. It also has lots of other little creatures - water snails, water beetles, pond-skaters etc.

@LadyAddle
Water volume wise it’s ok for 4 goldfish size

Better picture

Dcat thankfully does not eat fish!

I bought a pre formed pond, plastic??
They cost approx £30 for a small one obviously get more expensive the bigger you go.
Dig a hole roughly the shape of the pond, then shape it underneath as they usually have shelves in them and you need to support the shelves with dirt etc. Then I lined the hole with builders sand.
Fill with water to hold it down, tidy the edges using flat stones or put plants around the edges, add some oxygenating plants in the pond, if you plan to add fish you need to make a shelf / hidey place for the fish to get under.
You can buy solar fountains on ebay or buy an electric one.
Love my pond, attracts wildlife, birds, hedgehogs, frogs etc but make sure any wildlife can get out if they fall in, put some big stones on the shelves to help them

That pebble pond is definitely not big enough for healthy fish. Mine is much bigger and I don't have fish in as I don't think it's fair on them.

You keep fish in that? Its a bucket! That's a water feature, not a pond. That's not big enough for fish.

That pebble pond is lovely, but unfortunately I agree there's not room for fish to be happy and healthy in it.

My parents have a teeny tiny pond, it's about 2 ft square, no pump, they just top it up in the summer. No fish of course but a lovely frog has set up camp there.

Top tip when establishing a new pond is get a bucket of mud and water from a well established pond so you get all the little creatures you need for a healthy pond. We have a little pond made from an old sink. No money was spent. No fish as would need to be alot bigger and small ponds can change temperature too rapidly for fish. Hoping frogs will turn up one day but not so far! In the summer we have to top the water up regularly as used as a watering hole by the birds and squirrels. (And local cats).

If you've got clay in your garden, a pond will cost nothing, just time and effort. Use the clay to puddle the pond and fill it up with rain water. You can buy plants, but if you know someone with an established pond, help them to clear it out & divide plants, take some of the plants as 'payment' for your work. Wildlife will soon populate it.

That's a bucket with some stones in - please tell me you don't actually keep fish in there? 😞

@JaceLancs

Your water feature looks lovely but totally unsuitable for any sort/size of fish. Please re-home them - they need to be able to swim.

That bucket full of stones is not a suitable home for anything except… stones. That’s made me really sad.

Yes, those pebble ponds are far too small, and unsuitable for fish. Maybe without the rocks it might be an OK size for one. But probably not. With the stones though, no way. Where do the fish even swim?
Does your dcat live in a bread bin?
That's very sad to see.

Please do not keep fish in a bucket @JaceLancs That is cruel to them.