Pond Construction And Management

Notes on Pond design

• The planted zone should represent at least half of the total area of the pool.
• Recommended min surface area: 120 m2 = 1291.67 sq ft
• Our ponds:
  • small - 12 X 30 = pi * 5 * 15 = 283 sq ft
  • large - 24 x 45 = pi * 12 * 27 = 1,018 sq ft

Natural Pool-ponds

• DIY Natural Pool Manual - Saved locally. e-book provided by Carrie
• DIY Natural Backyard Pond
• Top 10 tips for building your own affordable DIY natural swimming pool
• A Step-By-Step Guide to Building a Natural Swimming Pool
• Building a natural and eco swimming pools – DIY
• Wikipedia:Natural_pool
• Videos:
  • how to build a DIY organic pool:natural pool in 3 minutes
  • Build a swimming pool for under $3000, not impossible - useful for cheap materials and construction ideas
  • How to make a Natural : Organic Pool in America

General Pond Resources

• Pond Building: A Guide to Planning, Constructing, and Maintaining Recreational Ponds -
• NC Pond Management Guide -
• Managing Small Fishing Ponds and Lakes in Tennessee - The most thorough overview I've found.
• Backyard Conservation - Backyard Ponds - USDA
• Operation of a Bottom-Withdrawal (Lake-Cleaning) Spillway
• Water (catching it, saving it, treating it, using less of it, reusing it) - not really about ponds but good links for more general water-related projects.

• Free-floating: duckweed, algae
• Shallow water (1-5'): lotus, water lilies, pond weeds, arrowheads
• Plants for springs: watercress, calamus, cowslips, some mints, pepper cress, saxifrage, Jacob's ladder

Plants for pond edge:

• Identifying and Managing Aquatic Vegetation
• Native Wetland Plants
• Plants for Rain Gardens and Pond Edges
• Plants for edge of pond
• Choosing Water Plants

Constructed Wetland

• First basin: 2 foot deep basin; line bottom with nylon mesh and straw landscape cloth to stabilize
• fill basin with 18 inches 1/2-3/8" gravel; plant in gravel and top with 2 " soil and 3" mulch
• maintain water level at 2 inches below gravel surface
• surround basin with berms to prevent rainwater from flowing in
• Water control structure between first and second basin: 2" header pipe (with vertical clean outs); gravity flow to flexible pipe chained to inside of control structure
• adjust water level in first basin by raising and lowering flexible pipe; water leaves control structure through 2" pipe to second basin and is distributed through 4' long header pipe.
• 2" PVC header pipe lies horizontally across the basin and is drilled with 3/8" holes spaced 6" apart on top, bottom and sides of pipe. Header also includes vertical cleanout pipes.
• Second basin: same as first but not liners and has only an inlet header (2"). Serves as drain field. Basin has 4" monitoring pipe with 1/4"holes below surface of water to allow water to flow thru.
• Planting 1st basin: plants already existing like bulrushes, sedges, sensitive fern, water horehound, arrowheads
• Planting 2nd basin: seasonal wetland plants like reeds, iris, calamus, sedges, rushes, horsetails, mints, ferns
• Links:
  • A HANDBOOK OF CONSTRUCTED WETLANDS - detailed overview and includes lists of plants.
  • Constructed Wetlands for Wastewater Treatment - addresses smaller scale
  • Constructed wetland for household wastewater treatment
  • Selecting Plant Species To Optimize Wastewater Treatment In Constructed Wetlands