Spread your liner over your raised bed, with at least 3 ft of material overlapping over each side, and use a hose to fill the pond about 1/3rd of the way- just enough water to weight your liner down into the frame. If you’re on a hard surface like a patio, you can purchase a patio pond kit and adapt it using the instructions below. Commercial pond liners are easy to find and nice because they are low maintenance, but for this project, I managed to find a used advertising billboard tarp for my pond liner, helping keep my project cost very low. Next, you’ll need to find something to use as a pond liner. Hawk Hill’s above ground pond, populated with ferns and hostas in the summer, is a popular hangout for the chickens, who prefer it to their waterer when free ranging. You may choose to dig an inch or two to set the boards on one side lower, or just use bricks or shims to lift the boards of the lower side. Leveling your raised bed isn’t technically necessary, but if you want a waterline that is parallel to the top edge of your boards, you’ll need to pay attention to high and low edges. I built my pond on a slight hill, so 3 sides have stacked 2×6’s while the highest side has only one board. Don’t use a flimsy set of raised bed brackets- they will need to be strong to support the outward pressure of water. (Or you can use a commercial pond liner.)įirst, create an above-ground frame for the pond by constructing a basic raised garden bed using pressure treated lumber and raised-bed corner brackets. Use an unprinted advertising billboard tarp for a UV-protected, slightly less expensive alternative. Pond Liner – You’ll need a pond liner that matches the dimensions of the raised bed you build + extra for the sides and additional overhang just in case.Furring Strips (small boards that can be screwed along the narrow side of a 2×6).They need to be strong enough to support the wood planks that bear all the outward pressure of the water (and that’s a lot of pressure!). Raised Bed Corner Brackets – I used hinged brackets which no longer appear to be available, but if your pond will have corners that meet at 90-degree corners, these steel brackets should be stronger and more supportive than hinged ones.Cordless drill (Electricity and water don’t mix! A small cordless drill can complete the project without dangerous voltage).Best of all, unlike other garden pond projects, there is absolutely no digging involved! I dismantled this pond in late 2015 and repurposed the materials, but even after four summers and winters, this pond was structurally sound and leak-free. As long as the top of the wood frame is adjusted to be level, the water level will be even and adapt around/over natural landscape. This is very easy and very cheap- even I was surprised at how well this idea worked! Using shims, I was able to create my pond on rocky, uneven ground. When the dust finally settled in late summer, I wanted to get my hands dirty and create something peaceful in my garden space- so I built this above-ground koi pond! Unfortunately, 2011 was before I began taking photos at each step through my projects, but I’ve attempted to explain the process here in detail so you can make your own above ground pond. When a tornado hit my city in 2011, my summer overflowed with balancing my full-time job with lots of volunteering.
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