What's In Your Pond?

What’s in your pond?

Hi and good day to you, this article is not really about bonsai but still if you have a garden it might be of interest to you .

I have a fairly large garden and in it I have not one but two ponds and they both are active most of the year.

I believe that a nice well developed pond can really ad a nice effect to any garden and especially a bonsai garden. I have no fish in either of my ponds simply because I do not want the added work of feeding and cleaning the pond for fish or the added expense of high end filters for fish.

Not to mention that we have plenty of small varmints and critters that would feast upon the fish and have a field day at the pond if they were fish in it.

There are ways to keep the critters out and one is by adding netting to the top of your pond. However I want to be able to enjoy my water effect and to have netting in place would to me destroy the effect.

I love the flowing water and have both ponds set up so that the flow of water is very much cascading and this also makes a nice sound as the water splashes down over the rocks and then empties into the pond.

I made my first pond about four feet deep and about 5' feet by ten' feet in diameter and used a heavy rubber based liner to hold the water in. I have a pump that pumps 1900 gallons and hour on this pond and it is more than enough and keeps my pond fresh and clean even without a filter.

I learned the hard way that if you’re going to build a pond by all means try to do it with liner rather than a perform and here is why.

The perform pond type designs are attractive and nice but they do tend to contract and expand with the weather and after a short while the plastic will eventually spring a leak from a crack some where in the material.

But if you do by a perform pond type liner or already have one not to fear if it does spring a leak then simply by enough rubber liner material to go cover over your entire surface area and allow a little extra for contraction and your back in business.

Simply put the liner in place and cover the outer edges with interesting rocks and line the edges of your pond with some nice plants to hide any areas that you don’t want seen.

Some of the benefits of having a pond to me at least are the relaxation of the water flowing and trickling down over the rocks and it ads humidity to my back yard garden and also makes a nice place for the birds to take a drink and have a bath.

Butterflies love it too and the ever so tiny honey bees and not to mention frogs and toads and other little fine aquatic creatures that I know nothing about but still enjoy seeing.

Even the next door neighbor’s cat welcomes a bath and some times believe it or not sits for hours just staring into the water.

Probably looking in hopes of finding the not to be there fish.


It also provides a lovely home for my water plants and some of my trees that love a bog type setting such as my cypress and my alder trees that I have had growing there now for a long time.

There are so many nice features of having a pond that it makes me wish I could have more and if I had the space I would have more or at least have a much larger one for a more desired effect.

If you decide that you want a pond and you don’t have the space then look into trying your hand at one that can be totally self contained in a very small space even in a space as small as the diameter of a fifty gallon drum top or even perhaps in an old whisky cask or many other options the choice is all yours.

Many people have small ponds on there patios and enjoy the water effect with out even having a lot of space at all.

I have four other small pounds that are small container type in various places in my garden and I enjoy them all just for the added beauty and sound of water running that they ad.

So next time you have some spare time and a little pocket change consider a water pond for your garden or patio I promise you that you’ll always enjoy it once you have created it.

Thanks for reading,
Harold Yearout
C) Copyright 2005 by Harold R Yearout All rights reserved worldwide.