There are many methods to create your own unique back garden ponds or water gardens and we have some advice to help make it a fun and easy experience. Before creating your water feature determine what your goals are. Are you attempting to attract local wildlife, like frogs, turtles and birds? Would you prefer to have a drinking water garden with a beautiful zen experience to it, showcasing lilies, lotus and other aquatic plants? How about incorporating water in to the design of your house? Remember you more than likely DO have area for a water feature. 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 are able to help you achieve them. The first rung on the ladder in creating your project is to pick a location. You will want a location where one can create some color for your pond in fact it is also nice to find a place where one can protect the water from having way too many leaves or other particles from entering. Shade could be created in lots of ways. Water plant life on the advantage or in the pond will shade the drinking water, many ornamental trees are ideal provided that they do not drop too many leaves. Backyard ponds can easily be overrun by this type of debris. The next step is to start the design process. This includes choosing the actual shape of the water feature, any waterfalls or various other water features, filtration, and where and if you will end up being 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 move around and for placing various kinds of water plants. You can create your water fountain out of concrete, prefabricated tubs, or use pond liners. Choose the option that is best for assembling your project and budget. Concrete tends to be more expensive when compared to a tub or a pond liner, nonetheless it may last longer if professionally installed. In the event that you will be keeping Koi, Goldfish, Tadpoles or other styles of fish you might want to remember to consider protecting them from predators. Raccoons and Heron are voracious seafood eaters. One of the best ways to protect your fish and pets is to supply a way for them to move away from the predators. The simplest way to get this done is to provide at least 3 foot of depth in the pond. Heron and raccoons have got a hard time catching fish and pets at this depth or deeper. Filtration can be quite basic or very intricate. It once again depends on assembling your project. Water Gardens with only a couple small fish or no fish at all don't need large filters. You may also make your very own filter out of a 5 gallon bucket, some hoses and a pump. It is extremely easy to do! In case you are keeping koi, you then will need something with an increase of flow and even more mechanical filtration to remove waste. Koi are dirty fish and create a lot of waste. UV sterilizers certainly are a great idea on any water fountain. They eliminate nuisance algae that turns the drinking water green and in addition kill parasites that can attack your fish. Preferably you will place a UV sterilizer on the return line after the filter. Adding plants to your backyard pond can be rewarding and beautiful. Water gardens need much of the same care as any house plant or other garden would. You will need to research your vegetation, regulate how high and wide they grow, how exactly to prune them and what forms of additional feedings they could require. You also have to know where around the water fountain your vegetation would grow the best. Some basically float on the top, so you only need to protect them from getting sucked up into filter systems or destroyed by waterfalls. Other plants develop at different depths, which explains why we recommend building your water feature with many depths. You can add to the look and feel of your pond by picking local stones, or going to a local landscaping shop and purchasing rock that fits the feel of assembling your project. Many landscaping shops are actually starting to focus on items for backyard ponds. Backyard ponds help to make great set-ups for koi. There are a few things you really need to consider. Koi get huge and produce a large amount of waste, so be sure you provide adequate filtration. It is better to have a system that is too large than one which is too small. It is costly and will be very hard to upgrade a system later. It is always best to still do it the first time. Plants can provide another unique problem when keeping koi. In other words, koi love to eat vegetation, swim through plant life and simply tough them up. Your koi might just destroy the plant life and cause a huge mess in the pond. If you do use plants, and generally there are many that are acceptable, just make sure you pick hard and tough plants or place them in areas where the koi cannot reach them. Feeding your koi is easy as long as you are aware of their demands. The feeding practices of koi are straight related to the water temperature ranges and months. In the Spring time you should begin feeding the koi with a premium color enhancing growth food. Through the summertime you can continue with a color enhancer, and offer multiple types of food. There are some great spirulina pellets, krill and various other treats for your seafood. As the drinking water cools down once again in the winter you should remember two things. One, cut way back on feeding. If your drinking water gets down to 50 degrees or lower you do not need to feed the seafood at all. In the event that you will become feeding then head to a simple to digest Wheat Germ food. Backyard ponds can be a large amount of fun! We hope you enjoy creating and building yours!
