The location we are working with in these photos was decided on by the customer.  It is almost the perfect spot for a water garden. It is tucked in an area that is close to the home.  It can be heard both inside the home and out. There is a wonderful patio / porch area where the sights and sounds of the water garden can be enjoyed.  The part sun part shade location makes it even a more perfect spot for a healthy water garden.

This location was an excellant choice for a water garden.

Excavating the area for the  water garden was some tremendous work. We used a small dingo and some manpower to begin. There are so many different ways to excavate the hole for the water garden.  Some books will tell you to make a slight angle or slope your walls and floor.  Other instructions will say to make a gradual incline from the outside of the water garden to the middle.  I prefer and have been very successful in making walls straight, having visible depth  and then having a ledge for your rocks.  The size of your ledge depends on the size of the rock.  Some areas as you will see in the photo will have larger ledges than others.  Ledges are used for rock and plants.

The largest member of the aquatic plant family is the marginal plants.  Marginal plants need shallow areas to grow and flourish.  Most people do not plan large enough areas for the marginal plants.  I often hear people say that is the one thing that they would do differently in planning a water garden.

Showing the excavated hole with the ledges and the skimmer filter

Once the excavation of the main water garden is complete it is time to take into consideration the filters that will be installed.  In this water garden we have a skimmer filter and a waterfall filter.  The skimmer filter houses the pump and keeps debris from directly accessing the pump.  This extends the life of the pump.  It will run smoothly without leaves and debris restricting the flow.  There is a net and sometimes some filter media that separate the pump from the intake of the water garden that protects your pump.  The Waterfall filter is just that.  The water is piped in from the skimmer filter or other side of the pond into a boxed filter that acts as a waterfall.  This filter usually has some filter media or some biological material to capture bacteria that helps to fight algae.

It is best to place the skimmer filter with pump on the other side of the water garden so you will be moving as much water as possible.   I chose to place the filter more than halfway across the water garden.  This will pull water in from all areas of the pond.

The drain plug and pipe that carries the water, sludge and debris out of the water garden

A bottom drain is a good addition to any pond.  It will help in draining the pond in cleaning.  The water and pond bottom sludge and debris will flow thru the pipe to an area in the garden.  The drain in the photo has a plug that is removed for cleaning the pond etc.  Other drains are like a dish drainer that stays open and a valve on the pipe leaving the pond is used to open and close to remove water, sludge and debris.

Once all excavating for the main body of the water garden, the ledges, the filters and the bottom drain are done you are ready for installing the liner.

The drain plug installed in the liner

We used an under the liner material to protect the liner from rock or anything that could puncture the liner.  You could use carpet, carpet pads, paper, magazine, or ground cloth.
This under the liner material can be in strips or pieces, whatever it takes to cover the floor of the pond.

We folded the rubber liner so it could be placed in the middle of the hole and unfolded out to its full size.  Pulling, stretching and folding the rubber liner as needed to smoothly cover the hole dug.  Don’t worry about creases etc.  The weight of the water will hold down big creases on the bottom of the pond.  The rocks on the ledges and side will cover up creases on the side.   No matter how hard and perfect you try to be there will be creases and folds.  The liner comes in width and length and most times your water garden has a rounded shape to it.

Pulling, strecthing and creasing the liner to fill the hole

With the liner in place now it is time to lay the rock.  I will be dry stacking the rock and not laying or using any concrete.  Concrete can mess with the ph of the water garden and can cause problems with the plants and the fish.

Laying the rock is a tedious and very time consuming job.  It works like a puzzle flipping and turning the rock to fit in place.  I lay the rock out so I can use every rock.  Small ones are used on the bottom rows and to stabilize larger rocks.

Rock piled up and ready to use

Most all larger flatter rock is used for cap rock to finish off the project.  Some areas I will use boulders to fill in.  This is done carefully not to block the  view of the water from the sitting areas.

Stacking and Laying the Rock

I lay a few larger rock along the bottom of the pond to hid the drain, and add areas where the fish can play and hide.  I also pile rock on ledges  and pond bottom to add areas where you can tuck in plants.

The final look of the water garden, complete with plants and mulch.  It does look a little to clean.  Soon there will be plants and fish added and it will begin to look like a true natural water garden.  Note the large boulder in the foreground.  It is a seat boulder,  just perfect for sitting and feeding the fish and checking out the water garden.  This boulder weighs in at a little over 2 tons.  It was a bully to manuever around.  But, with some equipment and a plan we placed it exactly where I wanted it.  Needless to say the guys thought I was a little to picky and it could not be done.  I think it took about 3 hours to get properly placed.

Final Look complete with Boulder Seat