Concrete and the Water Garden

Creating and detailing your water garden does include a few choices of what types of materials you would like to use. As when building any other type of structure on your land, your choice of materials, what you like to work with the most, and the price of the materials are going to come into play. Concrete can be expensive if you are creating a larger size pond, but in the end you may well like the overall look much more than a preformed pond liner.

Concrete that you use to make your pond is going to be made of a mixture of sand, gravel, water and cement. You may have also run across the term mortar when talking about building with stone and block, but mortar doesn’t have any stones or rocks in the mixture.

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Choosing a Water Garden Style

Before you begin choosing the plants that you want to use in your water garden, you need to figure out what kind of atmosphere and the style of water garden you want to create.

There are many choices out there for a water garden, two of then are Japanese or Oriental flavor. These are popular with koi-keepers. Not only because koi are associated with Japan, but also because they architectural. A subtle setting will enhance rather than distract the from their shape and color. It is a structured, but informal style. This is idea for small gardens or a secluded corner of a larger area. Japanese gardens are a peaceful retreat from the stress and hubbub of everyday life. The gentle feeling of harmony that it creates with foliage rather that bright flowers, and a pattern of greens and grays relying on leaf shape and size for variety.

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Building a Pond with a Liner

A water garden is something that will require a little planning, in how you are building it, how you will care for it, and what you want to use your pond for. A water garden can be as small as a television set or it could be as large as your house or any size in between, the exciting part is that you get to determine all of it!

After you have determined the rough outline of your water garden you will need to find out how large of liner you will need. This is determined by figuring how deep the pool is and how wide the pool is so you can determine how much the liner is needed to cover the soil through out the hole for your pond. If you figure that your garden is ten by ten you need a hundred square foot, but the pond is six foot deep, so you need to add six foot by ten to cover the additional portion of the pond that is going down as well.

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Building a Pond with a Liner

A water garden is something that will require a little planning, in how you are building it, how you will care for it, and what you want to use your pond for. A water garden can be as small as a television set or it could be as large as your house or any size in between, the exciting part is that you get to determine all of it!

After you have determined the rough outline of your water garden you will need to find out how large of liner you will need. This is determined by figuring how deep the pool is and how wide the pool is so you can determine how much the liner is needed to cover the soil through out the hole for your pond. If you figure that your garden is ten by ten you need a hundred square foot, but the pond is six foot deep, so you need to add six foot by ten to cover the additional portion of the pond that is going down as well.

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Building a Concrete Waterfall

Concrete waterfalls make permanent features that have much to commend them. When used with rocks and stones, they can be the most effective and natural looking of all moving water features. When you make the concrete waterfall, the first thing that you need to do is excavate the cascade feature. Remove sufficient soil to comfortably accommodate the edging stones. If the excavation is being made on disturbed soil, this should be well compacted.

You will need to install a liner of your choice that overlaps along the sides. This will act as a waterproof membrane and prevent rapid drying out and cracking of the concrete.
You are ready to put a layer of concrete down to about two thirds of the required finished depth and place the wire mesh reinforcement over the top. Push this firmly and evenly into the concrete. Add another layer of concrete over the mesh and pack down firmly to provide and even finish. You can position your edging stones now while the concrete is still wet. You can add some decorative pebbles into the final layer of concrete. You want to take your time and place each stone so that you do not disturb the wet concrete.

You will want to cover the fresh concrete and stones with damp sacks and keep watered to prevent the concrete from drying out too quickly. If it does dry too quickly this will cause cracks to appear.

Concrete waterfalls do not have to take a traditional form, however the construction methods lend itself to a number of variations. You are now ready to install your pump and add in the water. At the bottom of your waterfall, be sure to have a pool below to catch the water. You can plant flowers there or add more decorative stones to add to the beauty of the site.

taken from PondSupply.com tips and tricks archive

Backyard Water Garden

A small backyard pond filled with pants and fish can add a wonderful and soothing touch to your yard. With a little effort, you can install your own water garden in your backyard by yourself.

Planning your water garden.

You can purchase a complete kit that will contain all the supplies you need or you can design your own. There are some important things to consider before you start digging. Make sure that you have the perfect location. The sight that you choose should get good sunlight. You may want to pick a spot away from trees for easier maintenance. Plan to build your water garden in a higher area because lower ones collect the most rain and might be hard to dig in. Stay away from areas that have utility lines when you are digging. Pick a spot that is close to water and electrical sources. You need to figure out what shape you want your garden and what decorative items to place near your garden,

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Starting a Series on Pond Building

Hey, we are going to be posting some articles about Pond Building starting tomorrow and continuing for a few weeks.    enjoy........

Affordable Small Water Gardens

Gardening on a budget is not as tough as you thought. If you want a water garden you can have one – you just have to be a bit creative in where you find the materials and in the planning of your water garden. Doing the project yourself is going to save so much money that you are going to be excited about what else you can do when building a water garden. Contractors are expensive, but doing the work yourself you can afford a few other accessories that you have been dreaming about.

Starting out you need to plan your water garden. You will hear this over and over again. If you start digging without planning where you are placing your water garden and the size of your water garden, your project can get out of hand with expenses and materials.

After you have planned on where you are going to put your water garden, you can think about the size. When on a strict budget, you want to get the most for your money. The smallest water garden is actually going to be less expensive using a preformed pond liner. The preformed pond liner prevents you from having to spend more on other materials year after year, such as the plastic lining, concrete repairs and a preformed pond liner is going to make your project look more professional overall.

Choose a size of a preformed liner that is going to fit your budget. If you are not planning to raise fish because you don’t want the added expense you can pick one, any size or shape that fits your budget instead of fitting the size and types of fish that you are going to raise. When you are on a budget, you won’t want to raise fish so you don’t have the added expense of having to get a filter, or other types like filtration systems.   more of this article about Affordable Small Water Gardens

About PondMoose and PondSupply.com

Hello, PondMoose here!

I am not a real moose, although moose do like water. I am a cartoon that serves as the voice of the camera shy staff of PondSupply.com However ; from this point on I am pretending to be real.

About PondSupply.com

• Started 1995 in the backyard of a typical Boise, Idaho neighborhood.
• Graduated into the Garage of said home.
• Moved into a mini-mall in town.
• Became a full service watergarden center called PondWorks in Boise.
• Morphed into an online store PondSupply.com.
• Grew into America's 158th fastest growing company by 2004.

Hello, PondMoose here!

I am not a real moose, although moose do like water. I am a cartoon that serves as the voice of the camera shy staff of PondSupply.com However ; from this point on I am pretending to be real.

About PondSupply.com

• Started 1995 in the backyard of a typical Boise, Idaho neighborhood.
• Graduated into the Garage of said home.
• Moved into a mini-mall in town.
• Became a full service watergarden center called PondWorks in Boise.
• Morphed into an online store PondSupply.com.
• Grew into America's 158th fastest growing company by 2004.