There are many methods to create your own unique back garden ponds or water gardens and we have some advice to help with making it a fun and easy experience. Before creating your water feature determine what your targets are. Are you trying to attract local wildlife, like frogs, turtles and birds? Would you'd like to have a water garden with a beautiful zen experience to it, offering lilies, lotus and additional aquatic plants? How about incorporating water in to the design of your house? Remember you more than likely DO have area for a water feature. They may be anything from a half-barrel to a huge and deep pond in your back yard. No matter what your intentions are we can help you achieve them. The first step in creating assembling your project is to pick a spot. You will want a location where one can create some shade for your pond and it is also wonderful to find a place where you can protect the drinking water from having too many leaves or other debris from entering. Shade can be created in lots of ways. Water vegetation on the advantage or in the pond will shade the water, many ornamental trees are ideal as long as they don't drop way too many leaves. Backyard ponds can easily become overrun by this kind of debris. The next step is to start the design process. This consists of choosing the actual shape of the water fountain, any waterfalls or other water features, filtration, and where and if you will be planting about the water. It is highly advisable to incorporate into the design several different depths and slopes around the pond edges. This provides extra places for fish and animals to move around and for placing different types of water plants. You can create your water fountain out of concrete, prefabricated tubs, or use pond liners. Pick the option that's best for assembling your project and budget. Concrete tends to be more expensive when compared to a tub or a pond liner, nonetheless it may last longer if professionally installed. In the event that you will be keeping Koi, Goldfish, Tadpoles or other styles of fish then you may want to take time to think about protecting them from predators. Raccoons and Heron are voracious fish eaters. One of the best methods to protect your fish and animals is to provide a way to allow them to move away from the predators. The simplest way to do this is to provide at least 3 foot of depth in the pond. Heron and raccoons possess trouble catching fish and pets at this depth or deeper. Filtration can be quite simple or very intricate. It once again depends on assembling your project. Water Gardens with a couple small seafood or no fish at all do not need large filters. You can even make your very own filter of a 5 gallon bucket, some hoses and a pump. It is extremely easy to do! If you are keeping koi, you then will need a system with an increase of flow and even more mechanical filtration to remove waste. Koi are filthy fish and produce a lot of waste. UV sterilizers are a good plan on any water feature. They destroy nuisance algae that turns the drinking water green and in addition kill parasites that can attack your fish. Ideally you will place a UV sterilizer on the return line after the filter. Adding plant life to your backyard pond could be rewarding and gorgeous. Water gardens need a lot of the same caution as any house plant or other garden would. You will have to research your plant life, determine how high and wide they grow, how exactly to prune them and what types of additional feedings they could require. You also have to know where around the water feature your plant life would grow the very best. Some just float on the top, so you only need to protect them from becoming sucked up into filter systems or destroyed by waterfalls. Other vegetation develop at different depths, which is why we recommend building your water fountain with many depths. You can add to the look and experience of your pond by picking local stones, or going to a local landscaping store and purchasing rock that fits the experience of assembling your project. Many landscaping stores are now starting to focus on products for backyard ponds. Backyard ponds produce great set-ups for koi. There are a few things you really need to consider. Koi get large and produce a lot of waste, so be sure you provide adequate filtration. It is best to possess a system that's too huge than one which is too small. It is costly and will be very hard to upgrade a system later. It is usually best to do it right the first time. Plants can offer another unique challenge when keeping koi. In other words, koi like to eat plants, swim through vegetation and simply rough them up. Your koi may just destroy the plant life and cause a large mess in the pond. If you do use vegetation, and right now there are many that are acceptable, just be sure you choose hard and tough vegetation or place them in areas where in fact the koi cannot reach them. Feeding your koi is simple as long as you are familiar with their needs. The feeding habits of koi are straight linked to the water temperatures and months. In the Spring time you should start feeding the koi with a premium color enhancing growth food. During the summer months you can continue with a color enhancer, and offer multiple types of food. There are some great spirulina pellets, krill and additional treats for your fish. As the drinking water cools down again in the wintertime you should remember two things. One, cut way back on feeding. If your water gets down to 50 degrees or lower you do not need to feed the seafood at all. If you will be feeding then head to a simple to digest Wheat Germ meals. Backyard ponds can be a lot of fun! We wish you enjoy designing and building yours!
