Your Garden Pond

There is a wide variety of reasons why garden and wildlife enthusiats go about building a pond. In a survey carried out in America, 45% of pond owners said they constructed a pond in their garden for aesthetic reasons while only 11% said that they did it to provide a sanctuary for wildlife. Whatever your reason, the first and most important step of proper pond management is choosing your primary objective for your pond and understanding the management requirements.

So, whether you have a pond or are planning to construct a pond and lining it with a pond liner and protective underlay, installing a prefabricated pond or a natural pond with no man-made intervention, it will require a level of ongoing maintenance.
Natural ponds decline through the years, however, there are things that can be done to extend the life of a pond and optimize the benefits desired from the pond. An annual maintenance plan can help locate and solve pond problems at early stages before they become difficult or unmanageable.
Without human intervention (including laying an edging around a pond), ponds go through a predictable series of changes. A new pond gradually fills in with silt and organic matter from washed in leaves, and decayed aquatic vegetation. Pond banks erode producing increasingly large areas of shallow water that grow aquatic vegetation. The open water area shrinks with passing years. Time necessary for succession varies with many factors, however, the average useful life of a pond is about 25 years.

The life of the pond can be extended indefinitely with proper pond management.
A routine annual maintenance plan can extend the useful life and enjoyment of your pond. Each year take time to briefly examine your pond and fix potential problems before they require expensive or difficult repairs. Check your pond for leaks. A pond constructed using a high quality pond liner and lined on both sides with a protective underlay is less likely to leak during a ponds general 25 year life span than one constructed from a less durable pond liner and not protected from the stones, grit and gravel of the dug-out or the visits from clawed creatures. Also include in your ponds maintenance plan, to manage excess aquatic vegetation growth.
A well managed pond with balanced ecosystem following a monthly maintenance routine, whether for a wildlife, natural pond or a Koi pond, will give you years of pleasure.