There are many methods to create your own unique back garden ponds or water gardens and we have some advice to help make it a fun 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 lovely zen feel to it, offering lilies, lotus and additional aquatic plants? What about incorporating water into the design of your home? Remember you more than likely DO have room for a water feature. They could be anything from a half-barrel to a huge and deep pond in your back yard. Regardless of what your intentions are we can help you achieve them. The first step in creating your project is to pick a spot. You will wish a location where one can create some color for your pond in fact it is also wonderful to look for a place where one can protect the drinking water from having too many leaves or other particles from entering. Shade could be created in lots of ways. Water plants on the edge 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 end up being overrun by this kind of debris. The next thing is to start the design process. This consists of choosing the actual form of the water fountain, any waterfalls or various other water features, filtration, and where and if 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 will provide extra places for fish and animals to go around and for placing different types of water plant life. You can create your water fountain out of concrete, prefabricated tubs, or use pond liners. Choose the option that's best for assembling your project and budget. Concrete is commonly more expensive than a tub or a pond liner, but it may go longer if professionally installed. If 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 seafood eaters. Among the best methods 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 supply at least 3 feet of depth in the pond. Heron and raccoons have got a hard time catching fish and pets at this depth or deeper. Filtration can be very simple or very intricate. It once again depends on assembling your project. Drinking water Gardens with only a couple small fish or no seafood at all do not need large filters. You can even make your personal filter out 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 something with more flow and even more mechanical filtration to eliminate waste. Koi are filthy fish and produce a lot of waste. UV sterilizers certainly 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. Preferably you will place a UV sterilizer on the return line following the filter. Adding vegetation to your backyard pond can be rewarding and beautiful. Water gardens need much of the same care as any house plant or other garden would. You will need to research your plant life, regulate how high and wide they grow, how to prune them and what types of additional feedings they may require. You also need to know where around the water feature your plants would grow the very best. Some merely float on the top, so you just need to protect them from becoming sucked up into filters or destroyed by waterfalls. Other plant life grow at different depths, which is why we recommend building your water feature with many depths. You can include to the appearance and feel of your pond by picking local stones, or going to a local landscaping shop and purchasing rock that fits the experience of your project. Many landscaping stores 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 really need to consider. Koi get huge 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 little. It is costly and can be very hard to upgrade a system later. It will always be best to still do it the first time. Plants can provide another unique problem when keeping koi. Simply speaking, koi like to eat plants, swim through plant life and basically just rough them up. Your koi might just destroy the vegetation and cause a large mess in the pond. In the event that you do use plants, and there are many that are suitable, just make sure you pick hard and tough vegetation or place them in areas where in fact the koi cannot reach them. Feeding your koi is simple so long as you are familiar with their demands. The feeding behaviors of koi are directly related to the water temperature ranges and seasons. In the Spring period you should begin feeding the koi with a premium color enhancing growth food. Through the summer season 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 again in the winter you should remember a couple of things. One, cut way back on feeding. If your drinking water gets right down to 50 degrees or lower you do not need to feed the seafood at all. If you will end up being feeding then go to a simple to digest Wheat Germ meals. Backyard ponds could be a lot of fun! We hope you enjoy developing and building yours!
