Making a garden pond- preformed rigid liner or pond liner ?

[Ca1mingC1arySag3]

Garden on slight slope but planning to level pond area out if that makes any difference.

Liner sounds easier. You have to get the hole to precisely match the rigid liner so it’s being supported everywhere. The liner will match the hole. Its a long time since we did ours (30 years) so I’ve forgotten most of it. Pay a lot of attention to lining the hole with a thick layer of sand so there are no stones to puncture the liner. I think ours may have old carpet as well. Use the longest life liner that you can get.

planning to level pond area out if that makes any difference. It doesn’t matter what the ground is doing under the pond, and the water surface will be level whatever you do . So you’re really thinking about what will happen at the top end, where you will have a steep bank. It may be that you don’t have to level as much as you think.

Our biggest pond is on a slope, and we’ve built a stone wall round it, so it’s ground level at the top, with the wall at a nice sitting height at the bottom.

Liner, and dont forget pump of suitable size. Ours is on a slope so we have a wall at the higher end, like previous poster, we can sit on it. But with a slope you may need to dig a lot to get enough depth for the whole thing.

Liner. Preformed are a pain in the a. Liners make it easy to dig whatever size/shape pond you fancy and just fit the liner into it.

You only need/want a pump if you are keeping fish etc. Wildlife ponds tend to be better with still water, I think?

Agree liner. We made a small pond using a liner and its great. Losds of frogs. We have a small pump just to aerate the water and hearing trickling water is lovely. Pic of pond last year

I used a pre-formed one and it was a piece of cake. 28yrs on and it's still perfect.

Hedjwitch

Thankyou , love that shape.

Sorry to butt in, but I too am thinking of building a pond. May I ask those of you who've done it, if you have a piece of netting/mesh over the pond? If not, why?
I'm concerned about wildlife drowning, even if I only build a very small pond.

I'm scarred for life by that thread on here once about the drowned badger 😬😳😣

Liner BUT you need to have all the liner covered - so you need to work out what to do with the slope. We had a vertical stone wall to hide the exposed liner.

So i probably made every mistake in the book but got there in the end. Mine is a wildlife pond- no pump. Here’s what I learned:

1. Do have a shallow granulated bit (or use rocks etc) so anything getting in the pond can get out. No badger or hedgehog issues then. I’ve never had an issue. I also have planting around the pond for shelter and cover.
2. you need to do shelves to rest plants on so think about the depth and width of the shelves. Basically as you dig you get gradually deeper and create the shelves. at least one bit has to be reasonably deep ( sorry can’t remember exact depth). The aquatic baskets you need to put the plants in are quite wide so my plants wouldn’t fit properly.
3. if you go for an organic shape Do take a photo so you know where the shelves are- especially if you’ve gone random!🥴
4. Do be careful accepting plants from other peoples pond- any sign of emerald green thin strands of weed . Duck weed etc politely refuse- it will bloody take over! 🥹Barley straw is brilliant for combatting the stringy weed stuff- they sell it in horridplastic nets at pond places but you can buy a bale of it in a pet shop and put in a weighted Tupperware box (drill holes in it). You replace it every 6 weeks). My pond is in full sun so I had lots of weed until I got more plant coverage over the pond surface.
5. water- I used rainwater but tap water you need to leave standing before you add anything- check for how long
6. Plants- you need an oxygenator but some are very prolific (again beware freebies as some of these aren’t sold any more)Still trying to get rid of mine! Then think about water hawthorn or water lily (but not with a pump). Then the pretty marginals - rushes and king cups etc. Flag irises get big and take over.
7. Soil for pond plants. So you need the aquatic compost. Funnily enough our garden soil is very sandy so we could use it. If you use ordinary compost or the wrong garden soil you will add nutrients and have issues with weed/algae. You will get this anyway at some point but barley straw and fishing it out at intervals will keep it manageable.
8. I love my pond and it’s a constant delight. It was stressful for 6 months but has now found its balance. In year 1 I had newts, frogs, toads, dragon flies, damsel flies, an array of water beetles. It is well worth it. It never became the stagnant stinky puddle my husband predicted. Good luck!

Definitely let tap water stand for a few days before topping up or you get tons of pond weed.

Some plants will take over a small pond- looking at you water mint- so be ruthless and yank out handfuls if it threatens to overwhelm. Leave the yanked out weed and plants on the edge of the pond overnight so the wee beasties can return to the water.