How to make a pond for your yard

I don't know about all of you but I was a bit lazy this winter. The amount of snow we got was so depressing. I didn't work out nearly like I should have with the exception of shoveling snow.

So, my motto this spring is, "a project a day keeps the weight gain away". No, I don't mean painting a sign....I am talking intensive yard work. I began about a month ago with all of the leaf blowing. There is still so much to do because the wind and rain have kept this project slow moving. The other day I finally started to tackle my perennial gardens. I showed the messy before photos HERE.

I have to say I love to do yard work. The final results always make me so happy, and like I said, I look at it as a work out. Living in the middle of the woods, yard work is intense. Pulling weeds (some tree weeds take your entire body to pull them out), moving rocks, wheeling wheelbarrows full of "Crap" to the cliff in the back of the yard, leaf blowing, planting, transplanting, mulching, etc.

Today I am going to share with you how I made my man made pond. It's a few days of work but relatively inexpensive.

I can't show you what I did from the very beginning because I put this in ten years ago. But, I'll do my best to explain. I was lucky because I was given a black pond tub. These can be purchased at Home Depot or a garden store. Next, I dug out all of the grass where I wanted it to go plus a surrounding area to plant flowers. Then I dug a huge hole. This was the hardest part. I had to keep putting the tub in and taking it out to see where and how much more I had to dig. Once this was done, I put sand on the bottom of the ground and leveled it out so the pond tub would be level. Once this was done I gathered flat rocks to place around the edge to build a mini wall around it. Other rocks were put in the tub to cover the black.

Now I can share photos of the process I go through each year to clean it. You saw the photo above. The water is filthy and filled with leaves. The surrounding garden is covered in weeds and very unmanicured. I start by taking a bucket and bailing the dirty water out. (sorry about my shadow)

All of the rocks are taken out and thrown to the side.

Once the majority of the water is out, I spray clean water around to get the rest of the dirt and dirty water down at the bottom. I bail out as much as I can and use a shovel to get any remaining dirt out. I used to clean it out perfectly, but over the years have learned that dirt gets in there anyway, so don't go crazy.

Then I hose all of the rocks off and put them back in. I fix the rocks around the pond that have fallen through the winter season. I just stack them in a shabby form around the edge. Next I fill the pond back up. My hose was about a foot to short to reach the pond, so I had to conjure up a contraption for the water to reach.

Once it is filled, I tackle the dreaded surround.

My perennials in this area have become so overgrown that I decide to yank a ton out. I wanted to start the year out with a fresh look. I added a bird bath the was my grandmother's, a bench that I took from another part of my yard, and a headboard and foot board from a vintage crib. They look kind of out of place now, but I plan on growing morning glories up them. Many of you have seen the side rail to this crib that I turned into a magazine rack.

Here is a photo of it done before I put the mulch down.

Today I got around to laying the mulch.

I'll be sure to share a photo in a month once everything starts to fill in. If you decide to build a pond and have any questions, be sure to let me know. I'm sure I left something out.

If you get the chance, be sure to join me in my quest to get back in shape working out in the yard. The past two days I put in about 7 hours each day which is obviously unrealistic on a day to day basis, but I do plan on spending a minimum of an hour a day doing yard work.



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