Artificial ponds in suburban areas are equipped quite often. In most cases, these are small decorative ponds inhabited by fish and planted with beautiful marsh plants. Also, sometimes artificial swimming ponds are arranged at dachas and in the yards of residential buildings.
How to make a project
The creation of an artificial reservoir in a suburban area is a difficult, but very exciting business. The owner of a private house, who decided to dig a pond, should first determine the location. Decorative artificial pond can be equipped almost anywhere in the yard or garden. It is important to try to make the pond as harmoniously fit into the landscape design of the site.
Artificial swimming ponds are located in a place well-lit by the sun. In the shade, the water in such a swimming pond, even on the hottest day, is likely to remain too cold. If you place a pond under the trees, there will be much more debris in it.
When designing an artificial reservoir, the owner of a suburban area, of course, needs to decide on its size and shape. It will be easiest to dig a rectangular or round pond on the site. But in most cases, the owners of suburban areas are still equipped with complex ponds. Ponds of this type look in the yard or in the garden as naturally as possible. Such reservoirs are called designer.
Cleaning methods
Ponds in the landscaping of suburban areas play a very important role. Even a swimming pond in the yard should look attractive. Too often to change the water in such a reservoir, the owners of the site will most likely be difficult.
In most cases, the pond is filled only once a year - in the spring. Because of this, the water in the cottage "lake" can stagnate, bloom and silt. To prevent this from happening, the owner of the allotment will have to, among other things, take care of cleaning the pond. It is easiest to prevent flowering in an artificial pond in two ways:
- by periodically adding special chemicals to the pond;
- by arranging a bioplate.
The first cleaning method can be used mainly only for a decorative pond. And even then it will be suitable only when it is not supposed to contain fish or plant any plants in the pond.
In most cases, the owners of suburban areas even at the stage of digging a pond provide for it and a bioplate. So called a small part of the artificial reservoir, which is a shallow water and planted with special plants that contribute to the development of beneficial microorganisms. It is believed that in order for the bioplate to work efficiently, it must occupy at least 15% of the area of the reservoir itself.
Large garden ponds are silted quite rarely. Basically, the owners of small reservoirs of this type face this problem. But just in case, it is necessary to equip the bioplate when digging a significant pond over the area.
What tools and materials will be required
To create an artificial pond in the countryside with your own hands, you will need to prepare:
- waterproof geotextiles;
- shovel and garden wheelbarrow;
- concrete mixer;
- natural stones of different sizes;
- seedlings of marsh plants.
To equip a swimming reservoir, you will also need washed river or artificial sand.
How to make an artificial pond: earthwork
Before you start digging a foundation pit for a pond, you need to identify its boundaries. This will be easiest to do using pegs and some bright cord.
The depth of the ponds - both decorative and swimming - usually have no more than 1.5-2 meters. The main thing is that when digging a foundation pit, you can’t get to the dirt core. Otherwise, the water in the pond subsequently, even when using a waterproofing device, may be too cold both for swimming and for fish or plants.
Excavation is carried out during the arrangement of an artificial reservoir in the usual way. That is, they take out the soil with a bayonet shovel and pile it near the border of the future pond. Then they collect the land with a shovel and take it out on a wheelbarrow outside the boundaries of the site.
To the bottom of the pond was subsequently gently sloping, it is best to start excavation work from its center. Next, you need to move to the edges, gradually reducing the depth.
Creation of an artificial reservoir on the site: arrangement of the bottom and walls
After the foundation pit is dug up, its bottom and walls should be carefully leveled. Also from the pit you need to completely remove the roots of plants and stones. At the next stage, the pit should be covered with geotextile with an overlap of at least 20–30 cm on the edges. Subsequently, the hydroinsulator will not let rain or flood muddy water from adjacent soil strata into the pond.
At the next stage, geotextiles in the pit are covered with a layer of sand. Then, colored pebbles are laid on the bottom and walls of the decorative pond and beautiful stones are placed on it in a chaotic manner. In the same way, geotextiles are masked on the sides of the reservoir.
How to strengthen the pit
If a swimming pond is excavated at the site , the work on equipping its bottom and walls after sanding will have to continue with concreting. The solution for this purpose should be prepared using moisture resistant Portland cement, sifted sand and granite crushed stone.
It is supposed to fill the bottom and walls of the swimming pool with a layer of not less than 5 cm. In this case, the cement substrate must be reinforced.
After the concrete has gained sufficient strength (not earlier than in two weeks), the arrangement of the bottom and walls of the swimming-type pond can be continued. In most cases, the cement layer in such reservoirs is covered with washed or artificial sand.
Arrangement of a bioplate
When digging a pond, another depth of about 15 cm should be provided next to the main foundation pit. Subsequently, the bottom of the sump is also laid with geotextiles and covered with sand or pebbles. In order for the bioplate to subsequently work as efficiently as possible, marsh plants such as:
- broadleaf cattail;
- black sedge;
- marsh iris;
- loosestrife;
- calamus;
- kaluzhnitsa;
- derbeynik;
- marsh callas.
Rules for the design of ponds
The creation of an artificial reservoir in a suburban area is, of course, creative. To design a pond in the garden or in the yard should be correct.
Artificial ponds are usually decorated in accordance with the style of the suburban area itself. For example, it is believed that in the Japanese garden in the design of the pond must be present large stones. Shores when choosing this method of decoration are often planted with undersized shrubs.
An artificial reservoir in the French style must have a clear shape. Moreover, almost always it is a fairly large garden pond. The banks of such reservoirs are usually emphasized with tiles made of natural or artificial stone.
The Chinese-style pond can be distinguished from any other by lush vegetation. Such artificial reservoirs usually have a very complex natural shape.
It is very fashionable today to decorate ponds decorated in any style with lighting. At the same time, to make the pond more effective, lamps can be placed not only on the shore, but also under water. In the evening, this site design looks just great.
What plants to choose for decoration
Of course, to make the artificial pond look as spectacular as possible, you should choose the right plants for its decoration. To arrange a beautiful pond in the country, you can use, for example:
- reeds;
- pontederia;
- head-to-head
- three-leaf watch.
Such plants are placed on the shore of the pond. In the pond itself, you can plant:
- water lilies;
- water hyacinth;
- a pistol;
- hornwort;
- azolla fern.
It is better to plant water plants not directly in pebbles, but in pots. In this case, in the future it will be much easier to control their reproduction, as well as clean them in the room for the winter. In the cold season, cottage plants intended for planting in a pond are usually kept at home in aquariums.
How to care
A properly designed pond can become a real decoration of a suburban area. An artificial pond will not cause any problems to the owners of a private house in the future only if it is properly maintained.
Very often, owners of suburban areas are faced with such a nuisance as the flowering of water in a pond. To prevent this from happening, the owner of the site should:
- clean the pond from foliage and accumulated debris in time;
- Do not allow aquatic plants to grow too much.
Weeding the swamp flora in an artificial pond is necessary simply by hand. Cleaning the pond from foliage and garbage is most often performed using a landing net.
Chemical application
Silting the bottom and walls often becomes a very big problem for pond owners. Manually unlikely to get rid of green plaque in a pond. In this case, even if there are beautiful plants in the pond, chemicals will have to be used.
Owners of suburban areas usually struggle with silt in artificial ponds with the help of flocculants. Fishes from the pond, if they are in it, must be removed, of course, before using such means. Contact with aggressive chemicals may result in death.
Ponds are usually filled with well water. In areas in different areas, it may have a different composition. In some cases, it may contain too much iron. The peculiarity of such water is that too little oxygen is dissolved in it. And this, in turn, has a bad effect on the condition of pond fish. To correct the situation, an aerator or a fountain should be installed in the pond.