There are many methods to create your own unique back garden ponds or water gardens and we've some advice to help make it a great and easy experience. Before creating your water fountain determine what your goals are. Are you trying to attract local wildlife, like frogs, turtles and birds? Would you prefer to have a drinking water garden with a beautiful zen feel to it, featuring lilies, lotus and additional aquatic plants? How about incorporating water into the design of your home? Remember you more than likely DO have space for a water feature. They can be anything from a half-barrel to an enormous and deep pond in your yard. No matter what your intentions are we can help you achieve them. The first rung on the ladder in creating your project is to pick a location. You will desire a location where you can create some color for your pond in fact it is also good to look for a place where one can protect the drinking water from having way too many leaves or other particles from entering. Shade could be created in lots of ways. Water plant life on the advantage or in the pond will shade the drinking water, many ornamental trees are ideal so long as they don't drop way too many leaves. Backyard ponds can easily become overrun by this type of debris. The next thing is to start the design process. This consists of choosing the actual form of the water feature, any waterfalls or additional drinking water features, filtration, and where and in the event that you will become planting around 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 seafood and animals to move around and for placing different types of water vegetation. You can create your water fountain out of concrete, prefabricated tubs, or use pond liners. Pick the option that is best for your project and spending budget. Concrete is commonly more expensive than 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 you might want to take time to consider protecting them from predators. Raccoons and Heron are voracious fish eaters. One of the best ways to protect your seafood and pets is to supply a way to allow them to get away from the predators. The easiest way to do this is to provide at least 3 foot of depth in the pond. Heron and raccoons have trouble catching fish and animals as of this depth or deeper. Filtration can be very basic or very intricate. It again depends on assembling your project. Water Gardens with a couple small seafood or no seafood at all do not need large filters. You can also make your personal filter out of a 5 gallon bucket, some hoses and a pump. It is very 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 eliminate waste. Koi are dirty 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 may attack your fish. Preferably you will place a UV sterilizer on the return line after the filter. Adding plants to your backyard pond can be rewarding and gorgeous. Water gardens need much of the same care and attention as any home plant or other garden would. You will need to research your plants, regulate how high and wide they grow, how to prune them and what forms of additional feedings they may require. You also have to know where around the water fountain your plant life would grow the best. Some just float on the surface, so you just need to protect them from getting sucked up into filters or destroyed by waterfalls. Other plants develop at different depths, which is why we recommend building your water feature with many depths. You can add to the appearance and experience of your pond by picking local stones, or likely to a local landscaping shop and purchasing rock that fits the experience of your project. Many landscaping shops are actually starting to specialize in products for backyard ponds. Backyard ponds help to make great set-ups for koi. There are a few things you should consider. Koi get large and produce a lot of waste, so make sure you provide adequate filtration. It is best to get a system that is too large than one that is too small. It is costly and will be very hard to upgrade something later. It will always be best to do it right the first time. Plants can provide another unique challenge when keeping koi. In other words, koi like to eat plants, swim through vegetation and basically just tough them up. Your koi might just destroy the plants and cause a large mess in the pond. If you do use plants, and now there are many that are appropriate, just make sure you pick hard and tough plants or place them in areas where the koi cannot reach them. Feeding your koi is simple so long as you are familiar with their wants. The feeding habits of koi are straight related to the water temperatures and seasons. In the Spring period you should start feeding the koi with a premium color improving growth food. During the summer you can continue with a color enhancer, and offer multiple types of meals. There are some great spirulina pellets, krill and additional treats for your fish. As the drinking water cools down once again in the winter you should remember two things. One, cut way back on feeding. If your water gets right down to 50 degrees or lower you do not need to feed the fish at all. If you will be feeding then head to an easy to digest Wheat Germ meals. Backyard ponds can be a large amount of fun! We hope you enjoy designing and building yours!
