Don't get me started.....

I was just looking to put in a simple garden spot on the side of the house that gets sun most of the day. I knew this would give me a wide choice of plants. Then a friend mentioned he was opening his pond and I thought ... Water Garden, hmmm, how big, how deep, hang on, I know nothing about this ... Internet search - Ponds

Well, lots of searches later for ponds, water gardens, koi, and a visit to my friend's home to see what he did made me realize that this was gonna take some research. So I continued to read the search results and of course subscribed to rec.ponds. I lurked this newsgroup for a few days, then I decided this project is a go. Oh yeah next step, convince the wife that this is a great idea.

Bev was right into it, she said "sounds nice.... How Much?" We decided on a budget and she said "your not spending anymore than that ... right!" I agreed, but then I always do. Back to the internet, shopping for pricing and deals, looks like I might not have to try to squeeze more money into this hole. So here we go.

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Picking out a spot.

We have a wrap around porch in the front and side of the house, a deck and pool in the back so the side of the house with nothing was just begging for this project and it was the side that gets the sun all day.

I staked out an area that was on the most level part of the lawn with what looked like a good size. Level is important, the water wont tilt to fit the grade of the lawn.

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Pick a shape and size.

Most instructions say use a hose to determine shape and size of the pond. Lay it out look at it and see if it appeals to you. Its good advice and that's what I did. The only thing I might add is that you should do the math to determine what this shape size and your intended depth will give you for square footage surface area and gallonage. These things later will determine the number of fish, size pump and filter you will need.

The small sticks in the ground around the cutout hole indicate the level I needed to built up the sides to for a level pond

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Digging a hole in
New England.

With Pick and shovel in hand the digging begins. I had to edit this picture a little to lighten the shadowed area so you could meet the first inhabitant of the pond. He is in the upper left corner of the hole and he will be known from this moment on as "ROCKZILLA"

I don't know how big he is exactly but a friend in Bridgewater, MA a town about 40 miles north of here says they have his tail in their yard.

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How Low should
you Go?

This is the hole at about 22" deep and with two marginal shelves left for plants that don't like being too deep in the water. Also at this point I have decided that if "ROCKZILLA" won't leave I'll bury him and drown him later. He's Stayin!

It is recommended that the pond be at least 18" deep more if your planning fish like KOI and deeper depending on your freeze zone. General consensus was for 2 to 2½ feet and all the hardy plants and fish could winter in the pond.

Decisions... Decisions.

Two feet deep or two and a half? So I split the difference and have a 2' side and a 2½' side

The hole is dug, finally. It took about a 10 day span (had to be careful of this middle age bad back) with about 3 days off for rain

	Recommendations for this would be: a better back more Advil a hole digging party
	...or none of the above, just a small Backhoe