[fat-tony]

With many thanks to the invaluable info on this forum and the examples of the work posted by other contributors, I embarked on my little garden pond project a couple of weeks ago. It's very much a natural, wildlife pond, rather than a water feature as it's in a corner of my garden away from the house. I already have a lot of birdlife in the garden and have feeders with sunflower seeds, niger seed etc.
The intention is to have a place where the birds can bathe and eventually I can introduce some goldfish and maybe some frogs.
The pond is 2m x 1.7m x 0.75m deep and is near a north-facing fence. There is no direct sunlight on it, except maybe around sunrise.

[ponddigger]

well done, lovely job fat tony.how long is the stream. yours ponddigger

[fat-tony]

It runs about two metres. It's less than one metre head above the pond level. I kept the drops to a minimum to keep the noise level down! At night it sounds like it's raining all the time, but it's not too intrusive for the neighbours I hope!
Here's a shot of the waterfall during the construction phase:

[ponddigger]

hi fat tony ,what pump did you use ,also any more photos of the construction of the pond, yours ponddigger

[fat-tony]

I used a Hozelock 2500 pump and Bioforce 3000 filter. The pump outputs 1,750 litres/hour at 1m head. Some of the construction photos attached:

[fat-tony]

What would be good would be some advice on suitable (compact!) plants for the margins of the pond - bearing in mind that it gets no direct sunlight. I'll be introducing some goldfish once the pond matures. Then I'll just have the herons to worry about

[ponddigger]

hi fat-tony,look at jennys profile on this forum for info on water plants. yours ponddigger

[fat-tony]

Thanks ponddigger

[ponddigger]

hi fat tony ,did you use a waterfall box on the start of the stream.yours ponddigger

[fat-tony]

No - I didn't really have the room as there is an old, ivy-covered tree stump there. So I went with a pressurised filter, as per the earlier photo and ran a 1" hose up to the top of the berm. What I did was to get a small, plastic paint roller tray and use the lip on it as a mini-spillway. I siliconed the tray to a flat rock and I built rocks at the sides and up to the spillway. The hose runs directly into the paint roller tray and gushes over the edge. I used expanding PVC foam to hold the rocks in place and block off any water run-off. Once the foam had hardened, I cut off any excess and spray painted with outdoor paint. In other areas I covered the expanding foam with gravel and sand. I couldn't seem to find the black foam that's used in the US, so I improvised! As far as I could research, the black waterfall foam is the same basic stuff but is UV stabilised and black!

[ponddigger]

hi fat-tony,a job well done,how long did it you to complete the pond and stream. yours ponddigger

[fat-tony]

About 10 days elapsed, all told - I'd say about 40 man hours. As per my name, I'm not exactly greyhound fit! I took it handy with the digging, so as not to wreck my back. Moving the rocks and re-distributing the dug soil was a killer even though. I had a bit of a hand from the youngest when putting in the liner, which was the most awkward part, otherwise I worked alone!

[ponddigger]

hi fat -tony,good workout for you.what kind of liner and underlay did you use, yours ponddigger

[Neptune of the Seas]

hi wow, somejob,worth all the hard work,hope you enjoy the pond .neptune

[fat-tony]