Recently it has become very fashionable, having your own summer cottage or your own house, to equip a pond in the yard with your own hands.
Although it is not difficult, but before starting work it is necessary to think over and weigh everything well. The very first thing that needs to be done is to decide in which place such a body of water will be located. There are some nuances here, you can’t build a pond with your own hands both in a sunny place and in the shade of large trees. When choosing a place, you need to look so that chestnuts, broom and poplar do not grow nearby, since their fallen leaves emit the largest amount of toxic substances. It is good to have a pond near a willow or birch, and best of all near conifers.
After choosing the place where the decorative pond will be built with your own hands, you can start marking its size. To do this, it is best to use a rope, since it can be used to designate the complex shape of a future reservoir. If you decide to make a stepped pond, then you need to extract the earth in this way.
If you plan to use a waterfall in your pond, then under it it is best to make a concrete pillow. Throughout the entire perimeter, a dug pond with your own hands must once again be circumvented by a shallow trench, 30 centimeters deep enough, and filled with sand, which then carefully compacted, this is done so that subsequently there is no shedding and subsidence of soil from the placed stones.
The difference between the terraces should be about 30-50 centimeters, in which case you can use them for landscaping the reservoir with various plants, since some of them need a small depth for full development, while others, on the contrary, grow at a depth of the reservoir not less than 70-90 centimeters.
After you have prepared the pit, you need to fill it with a layer of sand about 15 centimeters, so the depth of the pit must be done more than the depth of the reservoir. To make it easier to lay sand, the walls of the pit are made with a slope and, of course, the sand also needs to be compacted. To make it easier to do, you need to water it with water.
If you create a pond with your own hands with a waterfall, then the place where the waterfall will be is laid with large stones, the very bowl for the fountain and the channel for the brook are made.
Now you can proceed to laying waterproofing. But before that, it is necessary to calculate its dimensions, while taking into account the width and depth of the reservoir and add another meter to the indicated dimensions. After that, we first lay out a geotextile layer on the entire surface of the pit, and lay a layer of PVC film on top of it or you can use butyl rubber. The remaining edges of the film are pressed with small stones so that it spreads better, pour a little water into the pond.
After the film settles evenly, and for this it takes about 2-4 hours, you can begin to securely fix it. To do this, we fix the film around the entire perimeter of the reservoir with the help of wooden or metal pins; for this purpose, electrodes are most suitable. Now we completely pump out water from the film and cover it with another layer of geotextile.
The do-it-yourself artificial pond is practically created, it remains only quietly and, most importantly, safely, to conduct power supply to illuminate the reservoir, as well as for the electric pump, which will ensure the operation of the waterfall or fountain.
Now you can start decorating the created pond, for this you can use both artificial and natural stones, as well as a variety of decor. It is also necessary to decorate both the water surface and the coastal zone with various plants.
A pump is installed in the bluest place of the reservoir, it is best to use an ultraviolet lamp with which the water will be cleaned, as well as special filters so as not to damage the pump.
So, having spent a minimum of effort and money, you can make a pond with your own hands.