Garden Pond Designs For A Natural Look

Garden Pond Designs are limited only by your imagination. Even when using preformed pond shells, your creation can be beautiful and natural-looking. Pond shells can be round, orval, square or rectangular and can be made to appear a natural part of your landscape if designed around an object such as a tree or boulder. In fact, the goal should always to be work your garden pond design into the existing landscape so that it looks like it was always there and isn't something that you created yourself.

Having a large yard and using the right garden pond designs to accent a particular area of your yard can be an attractive alternative to extra grass that has to be mowed and can provide a natural setting in which people can relax. Choosing to build it near the house or near an outside deck can create a park-like setting and become a gathering point for neighbors and friends. However, the size of the pond should not be more than the homeowner can expect to be able to care for easily.

When considering garden pond designs, try to imagine the property and where the pond will fit into the existing landscape. Also try to visualize the purpose of the pond in both the short and long term future. If it is simply being installed to add to the appearance of the landscaping, it can be as shallow as 18 to 24 inches and still have plenty of depth in which to plant aquatic plants in and around the pond.

Koi Habitat Considerations

When a pond is expected to hold fish, there are some additional features that need to be built into the design. For example, many garden pond designs include a deeper section that allows the fish to have some privacy and protection.

Koi fish especially make exciting additions to ponds for the home. These fish like lazing around in shallow water and under overhangs such as bridges or large leaf trees and shrubs, especially on hot sunny days. They also like to eat, but like all fish, they leave a "mess" behind throughout the day. If you intend to keep fish, your garden pond design must include a filtering system large enough to handle the amount of water in the pond as well as the number of fish expected to live there.

Be prepared for the occasional cleaning that will be required when keeping koi fish. The location of pumps and filters can often help to reduce those areas of your garden pond where waste seems to want to settle. If properly designed, the water should move through the filtration system on a regular timetable.