When space is of a premium, there is still the possibility of bringing water into your garden or court-yard. Whether you want to attract wildlife such as birds, insects and amphibians or to keep fish, a little planning and research can get you the tranquil water feature you desire. A reclaimed wooden barrel that will hold at least 15 gallons of water will make a creative pond with rustic features and provide enough room to add a few plants and/ or fish. Lined with a rubber pond liner it will retain water and require minimal maintenance.

While adding a pond liner to the reclaimed wine or whiskey barrel is not an absolute necessity, it does offer two key benefits:

• Forms a barrier to toxins leaching out the wooden barrel into the water
• Guaranteed water containment

Pond liner installation

• Order enough pond liner to cover the internal surface of your barrel
• Place the liner in the barrel with enough to pull over the edges to secure the liner in place
• Start adding the water to your barrel. The pressure of the water will push the liner into place
• Cut the liner neatly around the edge
• Use rust proof nails to secure the liner in place (see attached photograph)

Before commencing with your wooden barrel pond, there are important factors to be considered in your planning phase:

• Location: your barrel needs to be sited on a flat surface where it will receive some daily sunshine. Avoid low lying areas and placing the barrel where there is the risk of stormwater run-off.
• Water: the water level needs to be retained at a certain level particularly during spells of warmer weather when evaporation can lead to a rapid drop in water level and therefore will need easy access to water to top-up your pond.
• Plants: choose native aquatic plants and avoid invasive exotic ones as much as possible. An example of a non-invasive exotic plant popular amongst pond owners are hardy exotic water lilies. Once planted you will need to cut them back if they start to cover more than three-quaters of your pond. Too much plant life will affect the ecosystem of your container water garden. It is best to plant all but floating plants in pots designed for submerging in ponds. This helps to control the size of plants.
• Maintenance: provided steps are taken to retain a natural ecosystem, a wooden water barrel pond is low maintenance. Sustainable measures to have in place are to remove leaves and debris, thin out aquatic plants, replace water to maintain levels and clean out any algae from the bottom of the pond.
• Fish: You may want to include fish in your pond, but the emphasis will need to be on selecting small fish such as guppies.

• Creating a container garden is a fun way to bring water into a garden of any size. As with all gardening, planning is important to ensure the greatest level of success. To order a pond liner for a wooden barrel pond, contact Liners Online today and we will assist in helping you order the correct size for your new project.