Re-positioning a Pond

This was a job we did for a friends mother who wanted the current pond in the same place, but raising up so it was level with the surrounding surfaces as it was sunken.  With the arrival of a new granddaughter and another to follow this made sense so as to minimise the dangers of having a pond with young children around.

Firstly we needed to dig up all the surrounding plants for dividing and re-planting around the new pond. Lifting and dividing should be done in late autumn or early spring when the plant is dormant.  It is a fantastic way of getting more plants for free, (plant swaps are a good way of getting new plants for free).

The fish were taken out using a net and put in a tub of the pond water ready for re-housing in the new pond. It was drained off with a length of hose using a syphoning method.  This takes a little time, but is much cheaper than hiring a pump.

Unfortunately working on a pond in winter means disturbing hibernating pond life such as frogs and toads.

Unfortunately the frogs kept coming and we ended up with a box full of about 40!  A trip to the local French restaurant followed! (joke!!)

As we are compassionate people we built the frogs a temporary home to house them until their new home is ready.

The empty area.

The area has been banked up using rubble and then packing with topsoil.

We used empty bulk bags to form a protective layer for the liner to rest on.  The most common way to do this is to form the edges with sand, which we did under the bags.

The liner is in and an island has been put in the middle for the frogs to bask on in the sun.  Plenty of liner is needed as it gets pulled in when being filled with water.  You don't want to be left with not enough so over compensate.

The pond is re-filled and as we wanted to re-house the fish straight away we used a product that gets rid of the chlorine from tap water so it is safe for them to breathe.

The edges of the pond need covering to hide the pond liner and make it look natural.  Here we have used stone, but you can use most other things such as pavers.  There needs to be areas for pond life and any mammals such as hedgehogs to get out if they need/want to.  When using stone with high edges be sure to leave the occasional gap.

Here we have created a rockery as its looks lovely on the slope and also helps to keep the earth banked up.  We built a waterfall in the corner for some extra interest and it creates a very relaxing falling water sound.  The plants are re-planted and if you look very closely you can see the fish have been re-housed.  The frogs were too, but they scarpered quick sharp!!