How to start a pond.
Starting a pond is much easier than it seems, firstly you should decide where you wish to place your pool, the area should be out in the open with no overhanging trees and should have at least 5 hours direct sunlight.
Next you should decide on which type of pool suits your needs, an informal (irregular shape) or formal (regular shape i.e. square or rectangular). You should also decide on the depth at this time, being deeper than 3ft/90cm's at this part of the hemisphere is basically useless as the sunlight can only penetrate 3ft/90cm's of the clearest water, so more usual is 18"-30"/45-75cm's, as at this depth the water is still affected by the sunlight and the natural bacteria etc. that live in the bottom of the pool can survive and work much quicker with the sunlight.
Then you should decide on which type of membrane you are going to use, the easiest being a liner but there are also pre-formed pools or if you are handy with a trowel a brick or concrete pool.
Once the pool is in and filled up with tap water the next job is to obtain your oxygenating plants and to plant them into containers of soil and then place them in a shallow part of the pond with the maximum amount of sunlight. Remember that the oxygenating plants are only cuttings so that they need the warmer water created by the direct sunlight to establish themselves. Once these plants are established you can then place them deeper in the pond.
The soil is used for two reasons, firstly all plants in a pond need soil in one respect or another, most of them gain a lot of nutrients from the soil and would suffer greatly without it. Also a pond without any soil introduced is said to take up to a year for the natural bacteria to inhabit the pool. A pool that has soil introduced into it automatically introduces some of the bacteria needed in a pool so you are basically gaining a year on a sterile pool.
Once the oxygenating plants are planted then you can start on the marginal plants and more especially the waterlilies. Remember that when you choose a waterlily that you are choosing a plant for life as if treated well that plant will last you as long as you have on this planet.
Marginal plants come in all different shapes and sizes; you should look at your garden and color schemes so that you do not make the pond clash with your other plantings. Waterlilies tend to come in basically 4 colors, Red, Pink, White and Yellow and a few in-between. Waterlilies and Marginal plants do not clash in color and I have not seen two waterlilies yet that clash with each other. Your waterlilies and marginal plants should again be planted into containers of good quality top soil and placed in sunny positions.
By now you are probably asking what about the fish? Well there are two options firstly if you do want fish then you should leave the introduction of them for at least 4 weeks from the planting of your oxygenating plants. Fish are the one thing in a pond that create the algae problems, the longer you can leave a pond to mature the better the pond is able to cope with the introduction of fish. Also fish should only be introduced gently i.e. 2 fish to start with and then add a few more at a time leaving at least 1 week between introductions. This allows the pond to be able to cope with the Carbon Dioxide and Nitrogen which are the natural waste products of fish.
The other option is to go without fish and have just a plant pond; you will be amazed by the amount of natural life that this will attract.
