Imagine a summer evening, sitting outside next to your backyard pond. You are entertaining, or you are just enjoying a quiet night. For so many reasons, people love to have water in the garden. It adds a focal point to your landscaping, and it is an opportunity to place different plant species in your garden. If you are considering adding a pond to your backyard this summer, here’s what you need to know.

Why Do You Want a Pond?

Knowing why you want a pond will help you choose its location and understand what role it will play in your garden landscape. If you love fish, and you would like to add life to your garden, you could install a koi pond. If you enjoy wetland plants or want to turn a wet place into a rain garden, you can design a pond with different habitats that are attractive to different plant species. If you enjoy the sound of running water, you could consider installing a waterfall or disappearing fountain.

Where Will You Put Your Pond?

Consider where you will place the pond. If you are creating it to make more opportunities for home wildlife viewing, you will want it to be in a location with good sight lines from inside the house. If you are adding it to a private, reflective corner, surround it with shrubs. Avoid putting your pond directly under a tree or shrubs that lose a lot of leaves in the fall, since you must clean it more often. Placing your pond closer to your home usually means that you will use it and maintain it more often.

How Will You Build Your Pond?

While larger ponds usually involve a pond underlayment or pond form, if you want a small pond that just includes plants, you can make a pond in many containers. You can place it in a raised bed or in a large pot. It just depends on the reason you want a pond: small ponds or fountains are an excellent choice if you are creating a pond as a melodious water feature, while you will need a larger space if you are trying to create fish and wildlife habitat.

How Large Will Your Pond Be?

Once you have determined where you would like to place your pond, place a rope around the outline of where your pond will be. You may want to increase the size of the pond to account for the fact that your plants will make your pond look smaller. If you have fish in a pond, you will want a larger pond to give room for the fish. Larger ponds also tend to be more ecologically stable, so it is easier to manage nutrients and pH. If you are planning to have koi, your pond must be at least three feet deep to allow the fish to move around easily.

Where Will The Water Come From?

What water source will you use for your pond? If you have a pond that’s full of fish, and you are using filtration to control the nutrients and the pH of the pond, then you probably don’t want to adjust the water with rainwater. This is because rainwater is acidic, and it can throw off your pond’s pH.

If you have a natural wet place in your garden, and you want it to turn into a small pond or rain garden, you can encourage rainwater to flow from your gutters or your garden. This type of rain garden works well for growing a pond that’s focused on wetland plants.

When you’re trying to protect your landscaping and manage water flow using gutter cleaners and covers, Lednor Home Solutions is here to help. We have many years of experience creating homes and garden landscapes that work. View our photo gallery and schedule an appointment today.

Written by Del Thebaud