Landscaping ponds DIY the Peter J May way.
Pegging: the procedure to follow for landscaping ponds on uneven ground
Use wooden pegs for landscaping ponds design and layout:
To landscape a pond on uneven ground, peg the pond out before you make the final decision about where and how big it will be. Your pond landscape project will be much easier and it will enable you to get a good overview of size and location.
To my knowledge, this is the best book ever produced on how to construct pools, waterfalls and streams in any style and in any position. We stock it in all of our shops as the most reliable guide available on how to build any sort of water garden. Peter Wheeler Aquajardin Managing Director and owner.
A valuable detailed DIY manual approach to pond and water garden landscaping
Is full of very highly practical sketches that will allow even the most inexperienced to successfully cost, design and complete the perfect pond, waterfall or stream for the garden
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Landscaping ponds on uneven ground .. tools required:
3foot straight edge. This could be a good piece of timber (perhaps 2inches by 1inch) that has an un-curved, unwavering edge to it as you look along the edge from one end to the other. A very heavy hammer. As long a spirit level as you can find. A 'Dumpy' builders level can be hired from a tool hire merchant. These need two people to operate them, but they help you find levels very accurately when landscaping ponds and are indispensable for a large landscaping ponds project. Levels that shoot out a laser spot to a level some yards away are a useful new invention for pond landscaping and pond construction. Several stout pegs., some longer than the depth of the pool, others just longer than the depth of the marginal shelf.
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Landscape pond building This landscaping ponds photograph shows the excavation, pegs in position and the marginal shelf |
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Marking the pegs for landscaping ponds Take several strong 5cm (2ins) square pegs and mark them ready to pinpont the pond area. Landscaping ponds - the perimeter To mark out the perimeter of the landscaping ponds area the pegs may not need to be more than 30cm long since they are just going down to the marginal shelf level. But if the ground drops a way sharply then those marking the low edge will need to be a few centimetres deeper than the proposed depth of the pool (between 60cm and 1mtr - 2ft to roughly 3ft). Landscaping ponds - mark your pegs Mark the short pegs with an indelible line at 23cm (9ins). This mark will be an indicator to you when you have dug down to the marginal shelf level. Mark the long pegs with an indelible line near the bottom of the peg that will indicate the final depth of your excavation (adding 5cm for a layer of sand to the mean landscaped pond's depth that will cushion the liner) e.g. for a pool 60cm deep(2ft) add 5cm (2ins), the total depth excavated 65cm (26ins). If you are keen enough to contemplate a concrete lined pool add on an extra 15cm in every direction. Visually checking your landscaping ponds design: If the pond is going to be created some way from the house, paint the tops of the pegs with something to make them easily visible so that you can see the landscaping pond's shape from the house. Choose one of the long pegs as a datum peg for the pool water level and drive it into what you consider to be the centre of the pond's surface area to roughly the water level you foresee. The top of this peg will mark the level to which you drive in all the other pegs. Keep them less than 2.5 metres (8 ft) apart. Save the longer ones for gauging the depth of the excavation later if you can. Mark the perimeter with shorter ones, but in steeply sloping situations you may need the long ones to mark the landscaped ponds perimeter on the low side. Keep all the pegs roughly 15cm (6ins) inside the line of your proposed landscaped ponds perimeter. If there is turf roughly undulating around the site it may be necessary to remove some of it in the landscaped ponds area to get a clearer view of the lie of the land .... maybe even a few inches of soil. Landscaping ponds - why so much trouble? I expect you are beginning to wonder why you just don't launch into it straight off , having dedicated so much effort so far. Well at this stage at least you haven't dedicated any hard earned cash nor made a decision you cannot reverse. Having got this far, now you can sit back, look, consider and firmly decide upon any possible changes. You can gauge the size precisely and the amount of engineering involved and the amount of expense effort and hard landscaping required. Landscaping ponds on uneven ground needs much more thought and planning than for other landscaping ponds ideas. Take a look at Sean's blog and here's a site of his about pond pumps in the garden too |
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