garden pond

[j]

I've acquired a 12' x 18' epdm pond liner. I can fit about 2/3 of that in. It's mostly shady where it will go.

I've never had a pond of any size. Water is getting expensive here and I wonder if I can fill this with runoff and use it to water my modest garden. We get about 4"/month. With somewhere between 500 (easy) and 1000 (harder) SF (horizontal) of roof to help feed it.

Any ideas on depths and what to put in it? Caveats? It looks to me that it will be marginal being able to withdraw water and it will be hard enough to fill if it is deeper than a foot, but I have no experience to back that up.

Jeff

[David Hare-Scott]

To store a decent amount of water you will need a big hole. By 'big' I am thinking at least 10 kl (12 cubic yards) or bigger. If you are thinking of only a fraction of that you will be going to much trouble for little return. Do some sums and work out how much water it will take to give your garden beds 1" of rain. You seem to have picked a spot already so how deep could the hole be there? What's the soil like? You are not going to dig that by hand on Sunday afternnoon. Either you will be digging for a week or hiring equipment.

For easy filling the hole needs to be close to and below the collection roof, plastic drainpipe about 90mm (3 1/2 in) will get there. It needs to have an overflow to a convenient drain of some kind. A pump and piping will reticulate it to your garden. If you were thinking of watering with a bucket you will get very fit indeed. Then there is the possibility of children, dogs, drunks drowning in it or the pond failing local pool ordinances if it is unfenced. The liner is only part of the cost. Plan well before you dig.

David

[j]

Oh, that will be tough for where it goes. I think 2/3 of that I can do.

If you are

I think I'll give up on the water storage. Digging the smaller hole is doable for me. I'm about half way there by using the dirt in the hole to form a levee around the edge, if you will. I'll make this a design feature instead. Just what I needed, another impractical project!

I'm OK there as the pond is next to the house. I have another 350 SF of roof I can drain off I overlooked.

It needs

Nope. I'm sold on drippers.

Then there is the

I have a friend that just put in a large pond (day with a bobcat). Probably around 24 cubic yards. He has no garden though. And is awash in water as it is as he has a good size stream running through his property. His only goal at the moment is bees.

Thanks.

Jeff

[Nanzi]

Jeff, runoff water is a bad idea to my way of thinking. It will contain all manner of contaminants. We have kept Koi for 18 years and even raised the pond halfway out of the ground to keep runoff water out of it. If it comes from the ground around the pond it will contain fertilizers or weed killers and pesticides. Not knowing what kind of roof you have, that may also contain remnants of the roofing material, dead bugs, bird crap, and anything else that falls out of the sky. The raised sides from the soil taken out of the pond area is a great idea.

Good Luck with your pond. Ours is 11 z 17' and has given us a lot of pleasure over the years. Nan in DE