I believe at this point in time I have the only above ground pond in our Water Garden Society. (Wabash Valley Water Garden Society, in Indiana) For those of you who still haven't made up your mind about what kind of pond to build I would like to tell you a little bit about mine, and how it is to live with this kind of pond.
The "pros"
1) Being above ground it is easy to get in and out of to work with the plants. It is also easy just to lean over the side to do small maintenance chores.
2) I have a closer view of my fish and flowers while sitting and looking at my
pond.
3) I can sit on the side of my pond on the "cap" boards.
4) Children can easily, and much more safely, view my pond.
5) Above ground ponds are considered more handicapped accessible.
The "Cons"
1) The pond tends to heat up during the hot Summer and requires steps to make sure it does not over heat and kill my fish or plants.
2) A waterfall would look silly in a pond like mine.
3) It tends to settle and become "unlevel".
My pond is made of 6 x 6 inch timbers, it is 10 feel long and 6 feet wide. The actual inside dimensions of the water surface area are 10 x 5 feet. It is 18 inches deep and totally above ground.
In building the pond I had 2 old maple trees and an underground cistern to contend with. Originally I wanted to make the pond 24 inches deep and have about a foot of that in ground. The tree roots were the main thing that stopped me from doing that.
"If I had it to do over note"
I wish that I would have had someone with machinery dig the hole 18 inches deep and clear out the tree roots. I would still have 18 inches above ground and the extra water plus the "ground insulated" area of the pond would have made all the difference in keeping the pond cool in the Summer and making the temperature more stable.
The pond was built on level ground with patio blocks as the foundation. We put 3 inches of sand in what would be the bottom of the pond. Someone gave me an old swimming pool liner that we cut up and lined all along the inside of the timbers and over the sand with 2 layers. The 45 mil EPDM rubber liner went in on top of that. The excess liner was cut off and then cap boards were nailed on and they hold the top of the liner in place.
"If I had it to do over note"
I would have had a concrete footer poured. I believe it would have helped to make the pond stay level. The patio blocks we used just sunk into the ground. My son has twice used a car jack to lift the pond up in a low corner so we could put an extra block under it to bring it back to level (or close).
The timbers have steel reinforcing rods running through all 3 layers and about a foot into the ground. They also have 12 inch nails hammered in where the end timbers meet the side timbers. It is very sturdy. At the far end of my pond I have 6 electrical outlets (ground fault interrupter type) for my pumps and for my underwater lights.
In the Summer when the temperatures reach into the high 90's and sometimes in the 100's for several days I put a shade cloth over my pond. It does not cut all the sun out but it filters it and keeps the pond from cooking. During one extreme heat spell I used plastic milk jugs and froze water in them, and put a couple in the pond several times a day, to help keep the temp down. I think that was the worse thing I've had to deal with as far as high temps are concerned. We lost several limbs from the Maple trees from a bad Spring storm that year and lost some valuable shading from the hottest times of the day. It has grown back out now, and the good news is that I no longer have critical heat problems, while the bad news is my lilies don't have as many blooms as ponds that have more hours of sunlight. It is a trade off, but one I can live with.
When I built the pond most people I talked to were concerned that it would freeze solid in the Winter but no one voiced any concern about the Summer. As it turned out the Winter is no problem at all. I started out my very first Winter leaving everything in the pond, fish and plants. I prepared everything for Winter just as anyone would by cutting back the lilies and other plants, putting the marginals on the bottom of the pond and so on. It was a gamble but I didn't want to go through bringing each and every plant and fish out of the pond into the basement every Fall if I didn't have to.
We had a very cold Winter that year and I did put a stock tank deicer in the middle of the pond and I kept the bubbler on the pump running all the time. The deicer was one that would only come on if the pond reached a freezing temperature. I don't believe it ever came on that Winter. I had no ice on top of the pond at any time and I didn't have a fish or a plant die. We have been down to 20 below zero actual temperatures with strong winds and the most I had was a little ice around the edges of the water iris plants. I believe that the pond being built out of the 6 x 6 inch timbers plus having the 2 layers of the heavy swimming pool liner and then the EPDM rubber liner provide excellent insulation. Also I have a privacy fence around the yard and I think that helps cut the wind.
Because of the success of that first Winter I still only bring in my "monster umbrella palm" because it is tropical. It stays on the back porch all Winter. I also put netting over the pond late in the Fall when the leaves start to come down and I don't remove it until the little Maple tree "twirley things" are gone in the Spring.
Even though my pond does take a bit of extra care in the Summer it is worth it to me. In the evening when I'm sitting in a comfortable chair with a cool drink, and a gentle breeze is blowing and my feet are propped up on the side of my pond and I'm watching my beautiful fish swim in the glow of the under water lighting, all the effort is definitely worth it.
Come by and join me some evening and see what I'm talking about. If anyone would like to talk to me about any aspect of my pond or come and visit it yourself, please give me a call
or E-Mail me.
