A Pond In Your Garden, Principles Of Creation

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Some principles for creating ponds and streams in a personal plot

If your site already has a natural reservoir - a pond, a stream, a river, then the system has already reached the equilibrium at which a water body can exist from year to year. The main thing here is to adapt the reservoir to your needs, without spoiling anything. As a rule, human intervention, if required, is minimal. You can, for example, strengthen the banks, clean or deepen the bottom of the reservoir, plant ornamental plants.

A reservoir does not require the device of complex waterproofing systems, filtration, unless it is planned to radically change its purpose, for example, from a small pond with tadpoles to make a lake in the recreational area of a holiday home. These can be reservoirs of strict geometric shapes - round, rectangular, square, various types of fountains, cascades. For their creation, these structures require the same measures and techniques as artificial reservoirs of a natural type.

Agree, a pond on personal plots is a rarity. Your task is to fit this water body into the landscape of your garden. Starting to translate your idea into reality, you should think about the fact that this object should naturally fit into the natural landscape in order to have a feeling of naturalness - this has always been the case here.

In order for the reservoir to naturally fit into the landscape of your personal plot, when designing, you need to proceed from the existing relief. After all, even a small difference in terrain in height can determine the appearance of a stream on your site. For example, the appearance in the garden of a stream falling into a pond is even more appropriate, and it is much easier to build it. When creating a stream, it is important:

• first, build it correctly;
• secondly, to decorate correctly.

If you decide to create a stream in your personal plot, you need to start the work by forming a bed along which your future stream will flow. There are several different ways to form a channel, but now we will talk about one, the most commonly used method - this is the film-concrete method.

Starting to form a stream, you first need to dig a bed for it, pebbles and roots are removed from the surface of this bed, and then a sand and gravel pillow 25-30 cm thick is made, on which a plastic film is laid. In length and width, it should be two to two and a half times the depth of the bed. The film fits freely over the entire surface without tension and sharp corners. After that, you just need to cut off the excess film around the edges, fixing its ends and hiding them between stones and sand. The edge of the film should be located 5-10 cm above the water level. This strip is the watershed between the inner and outer environment of the bed under the stream. It prevents the transfer of moisture to one side or the other.

Concrete 10–15 cm thick is poured from above. A prerequisite is reinforcement of the bed with a metal mesh, which allows simulating any bends of the stream. The mortar is laid out in the formwork of three-millimeter plywood and leveled. When concreting large surfaces, expansion joints are left every three meters, which are filled with bituminous mastic.

Also, do not forget that the stream must be equipped with a pump that will supply water from the reservoir at the mouth of your stream to the beginning of the water flow. The pump is placed in a reservoir for overflowing water. The main thing when choosing a pump depends on what you want to see on your site - a stormy mountain stream or a gently babbling trickle. In any case, the pump must have a certain power reserve, and its performance at the outlet at the source of the stream is taken into account. It is most rational to use various submerged pumps, since they are compact, quiet and at the same time quite efficient. During the construction of the reservoir, the same methods are used as for the construction of the channel. Its dimensions should take into account the length of the stream, as well as the speed of the water flow and its volume. If these parameters are large enough, water evaporation is also significant. If the size of the lower pond is small, you will have to add water to it. In order not to be mistaken, when building a tank, proceed from the following:

• firstly, it is necessary to observe the aesthetic proportionality between the parameters of the channel and the reservoir;
• secondly, the minimum volume of the lower pond should be at least four cubic meters.

The water from the pond rises to the source through a pipe, which is placed underground along the shortest section connecting the source to the mouth. Better to lay a polypropylene pipe. Such pipes are frost-resistant and do not collapse, even if you forget to drain the water for the winter. When connecting polypropylene pipes, hot welding is used, which greatly speeds up and simplifies the installation process.

The source of the stream can be planted with evergreens - this will give your garden stream uniqueness and originality. You can also arrange it with a scattering of stones imitating a forest spring. Local limestone and dolomite rocks are best suited for this. In the design of the channel, large granite boulders are used, preferably not rounded. Large stones, up to half a meter in diameter, are laid out the retaining walls of the stream. The bottom is usually covered with river pebbles, flat sandstone, granite stones - pellets.

Downstream, especially with a large difference in height, it is advisable to build dams with terraces, rifts and waterfalls. For their device, flat stones are used - flagstone. Accumulating in the backwaters, the water flows in a powerful stream along the terraces. Small streams are spectacular if they are decorated with limestone. However, it should be taken into account that in terms of strength, it loses much to granite boulders. The range of plants for decorating the coastal zone varies depending on the size of the composition and the illumination of the site. Preference should be given to compact forms of evergreens, such as those that form carpets or cushions. They are effective in large areas and look like a multi-colored fluffy carpet. Such plants include yarrow, tenacious, beetroot, breakthrough … The central element of the entire composition is coniferous plants - dwarf forms of juniper, spruce, thuja, cypress, mountain pine. They give a unique charm. In addition, the combination of evergreens with stones gives the composition a special charm.

The Lawson cypress variety Minima Glauca 1 m high with very small bluish-green or dull blue scaly needles, the Cossack juniper Tamariscifolia varieties up to 1 m high with open needles of a bluish shade also look impressive in groups and singly. Due to its short stature and beautiful color of the needles, the Virginian juniper of the Kobold variety with bluish needles on top and green on the bottom and the horizontal Vilo Toni juniper with small silvery-bluish needles became very popular.

The Cossack juniper Cupressifiolia with bluish-green needles is also suitable. Ground cover forms are often found among junipers:

• juniper horizontal Hughes with silvery-blue needles and branches pressed to the ground,
• juniper horizontal Glauca with bluish steel needles.

To form well-drained steep slopes in the shade, more drought-resistant and shade-tolerant crops, for example, a horizontal cotoneaster, will be required. Coastal plants and moisture-loving perennials can be planted at the mouth of the stream.