Here's the project we've been working on for the last couple of weeks, which was a spur-of-the-moment decision and done on a shoestring budget. It's a pond cum swimming pool measuring 11m x 5m x 2m at the deepest.
Day 1: Excavation begins, using a local farmer who had the necessary equipment and had done a few of these.
End of day 2: Fully excavated, with a stepped area for plantings.
Day 5: Pond lined with carpet scraps obtained for free from a local carpet warehouse skip. The carpet prevents any pond liner punctures.
Day 6: Made-to-measure pond liner inserted.
Day 8: Filling starts.
Day 14: Pause to build up raised planting areas from bags filled with ballast.
Day 15: Planting area complete and back-filled with gravel for plants to grow into.
The Pond Filter: Works in 3 ways to clear biofilm naturally and aid filtration. It floats around on top of the pond, using compressed air to do its business.
The plants are on order and have to be mature so they can start working on water filtering immediately. They're arriving in about 10 days from somewhere in deepest, darkest Somerset.
The edges of the pond have yet to be started and we're not 100% certain how we're going to do that - paving stones, gabion baskets, decking - whatever. The tyres currently surrounding it are temporary and were obtained for free from KwikFit up the road. I'll probably get rid of those as fenders for boats at Bath Marina, or somewhere similar.
So far the cost has been in the region of £2,500, which is phenomenally little for such a huge pond. The groundwork was only around £800. The majority of expenditure went on the liner, which was produced in only a couple of days due to the company, which specialises in marquees, having no other work on during the lockdown. The filter alone was £700, but was well worth the purchase. Here it is in action:
The land here is pure clay under a very thin layer of topsoil. I was considering merely puddling the clay and not using a liner, but we hit limestone bedrock at 2m, and that would have acted like a wick to the water table. Additionally, we live very close to a railway cutting and had there been any fissure in the clay, water could have ended up in the railway cutting, which is about 60 feet or more below the surrounding land level.
Day 1: Excavation begins, using a local farmer who had the necessary equipment and had done a few of these.
End of day 2: Fully excavated, with a stepped area for plantings.
Day 5: Pond lined with carpet scraps obtained for free from a local carpet warehouse skip. The carpet prevents any pond liner punctures.
Day 6: Made-to-measure pond liner inserted.
Day 8: Filling starts.
Day 14: Pause to build up raised planting areas from bags filled with ballast.
Day 15: Planting area complete and back-filled with gravel for plants to grow into.
The Pond Filter: Works in 3 ways to clear biofilm naturally and aid filtration. It floats around on top of the pond, using compressed air to do its business.
The plants are on order and have to be mature so they can start working on water filtering immediately. They're arriving in about 10 days from somewhere in deepest, darkest Somerset.
The edges of the pond have yet to be started and we're not 100% certain how we're going to do that - paving stones, gabion baskets, decking - whatever. The tyres currently surrounding it are temporary and were obtained for free from KwikFit up the road. I'll probably get rid of those as fenders for boats at Bath Marina, or somewhere similar.
So far the cost has been in the region of £2,500, which is phenomenally little for such a huge pond. The groundwork was only around £800. The majority of expenditure went on the liner, which was produced in only a couple of days due to the company, which specialises in marquees, having no other work on during the lockdown. The filter alone was £700, but was well worth the purchase. Here it is in action:
The land here is pure clay under a very thin layer of topsoil. I was considering merely puddling the clay and not using a liner, but we hit limestone bedrock at 2m, and that would have acted like a wick to the water table. Additionally, we live very close to a railway cutting and had there been any fissure in the clay, water could have ended up in the railway cutting, which is about 60 feet or more below the surrounding land level.
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