Dale Rodgers Pond Build

This is now my fourth pond build, and I have to say it's definitely my best so far. A lot of effort has gone into the building of this pond, and there was a lot of catastrophes along the way - but now the project is finally coming to and end and I can begin to relax a bit more!

I was sad to see the L shape go, but a square was a challenge enough for me. The hole itself wasn't too hard to dig surprisingly. Even though it was all solid clay, once I got into a sort of "rhythm" it was fairly easy going and must have only taken me a couple of weeks.

Unfortunately living in Britain I didn't exactly have the weather on my side, and I woke up one morning to find the hole had collapsed in and I had to do some frantic digging in an attempt to recover it, as the concrete base was due to be laid the next day. Then literally just as I had finished pouring the base, another storm came and the rain came down so hard it was unbelievable. Thankfully there was no major damage to the base, just left it longer to dry out.

Then, a change of plan. I originally decided to lay the concrete blocks upright for maximum pond volume, but instead decided to lay them flat for peace of mind. Still, the pond is around 7ft x 4ft x 4ft.

The black pipes you can see around the perimeter of the pond is actually guttering, which I plumbed into the drain so that in the event of a storm, the surface run off from the surrounding areas won't go into the pond. I haven't actually got any filters running on it yet, I had to take them out because of problems with the pipe size not matching.

The pond design is based on a "formal Koi pond", straight edges, constant depth etc. Therefore I hope to be stocking it in the near future

I have to say despite the amount of hard work, frustration, and sheer determination it was definitely worth it. As I said before, when you stand back and look at something knowing that its something you yourself have done, you just feel so proud. There is however that voice in the back of my mind shouting "why didn't you make it bigger!" But that's something to look at in the future when I get a place of my own!

Editors note: Dale says "get a place of his own" because he is only 16. So we would like to say "Well done Dale!"

Want to see what dale did? Click here

(Written by Dale Rodgers 05 09)

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