There are many methods to create your own unique back garden ponds or water gardens and we've some advice to help with making it a great and easy experience. Before creating your water feature determine what your targets are. Are you attempting to attract regional wildlife, like frogs, turtles and birds? Would you'd like to have a water garden with a lovely zen experience 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 room for a water fountain. They may be anything from a half-barrel to an enormous and deep pond in your back yard. Regardless of what your intentions are we can assist you to achieve them. The first rung on the ladder in creating your project is to pick a spot. You will want a location where you can create some shade for your pond in fact it is also wonderful to look for a place where one can protect the water from having too many leaves or other particles from entering. Shade could be created in lots of ways. Water plant life on the edge or in the pond will shade the drinking water, many ornamental trees are ideal so long as they do not drop too many leaves. Backyard ponds can quickly 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 fountain, any waterfalls or various other water features, filtration, and where and if you will be planting around the water. It is highly advisable to include into the design a number of different depths and slopes around the pond edges. This will provide extra places for fish and animals to go around and for putting different types of water vegetation. You can create your water feature out of concrete, prefabricated tubs, or use pond liners. Pick the option that's best for assembling your project and budget. Concrete is commonly more expensive when compared to a tub or a pond liner, but it may go 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 remember to think about protecting them from predators. Raccoons and Heron are voracious fish eaters. One of the best ways to protect your fish and animals is to supply a way for them to get away from the predators. The easiest way to get this done is to provide at least 3 foot of depth in the pond. Heron and raccoons possess a hard time catching fish and animals as of this depth or deeper. Filtration can be extremely simple or very intricate. It once again depends on your project. Drinking water Gardens with a couple small fish or no seafood at all do not need large filters. You may also make your very own filter out of a 5 gallon bucket, some hoses and a pump. It is very easy to do! In case you are keeping koi, then you will need something with an increase of flow and more mechanical filtration to eliminate waste. Koi are filthy fish and create a lot of waste. UV sterilizers certainly are a good plan on any water fountain. They kill nuisance algae that turns the drinking water green and also kill parasites that can attack your fish. Preferably you will place a UV sterilizer on the return line after the filter. Adding plant life to your backyard pond can be rewarding and beautiful. Water gardens need a lot of the same care and attention as any home plant or other garden would. You will have to research your plants, regulate how high and wide they grow, how exactly to prune them and what forms of additional feedings they may require. You also have to know where around the water fountain your plants would grow the very best. Some merely float on the surface, so you only need to protect them from becoming sucked up into filter systems or destroyed by waterfalls. Other plant life grow at different depths, which explains why we suggest building your water fountain with many depths. You can include to the appearance and feel of your pond by picking local stones, or likely to a local landscaping store and purchasing stone that fits the feel of assembling your project. Many landscaping stores are actually starting to specialize in products for backyard ponds. Backyard ponds make great set-ups for koi. There are some things you really need to consider. Koi get huge and produce a large amount of waste, so be sure you provide sufficient filtration. It is better to get a system that's too large than one which is too small. It is costly and may be very hard to upgrade a system later. It is always best to still do it the first time. Plants can provide another unique challenge when keeping koi. In other words, koi like to eat vegetation, swim through plant life and basically just tough them up. Your koi may just destroy the plant life and cause a huge mess in the pond. If you do use vegetation, and there are many that are suitable, just make sure you pick hard and tough plant life or place them in areas where the koi cannot get to them. Feeding your koi is simple so long as you are familiar with their desires. The feeding behaviors of koi are straight linked to the water temps and periods. In the Spring time you should start feeding the koi with reduced color improving growth food. During the summer you can continue with a color enhancer, and provide 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 a couple of 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 seafood at all. If you will become feeding then head to a simple to digest Wheat Germ food. Backyard ponds can be a large amount of fun! We wish you enjoy designing and building yours!
