Hello

[cicididae]

Hi,
I'm new to this forum but I know that I will be posting with a lot of questions so I thought i would tell you who I am and what I am doing.
This is my second pond. The "pond" is actually a lot of landscapers flags in a 44x22 oval awaiting the man with the backhoe. My liner sits patiently beside it, a lot more patiently than myself!
I am new to Kentucky so I have no clue exactly how deep I can go but am prepared to dream about 5'. My filter is sitting prepared and waiting (also patiently). It is an 8' diameter stock tank with pea gravel in it. After having cleaned a more natural bog when I lived in Washington, the idea of a drainage pipe with hose bib for cleaning makes me happy!
I plan to stock my pond with perhaps 5 koi or less of at least 12" long to fool the kingfishers. I am going to purchase my koi from a breeder whom I trust (no more KHV for me ever again!).
I have my pump, a huge mag drive thingie and am speculating on putting in like a venturi to ensure areation at the bottom of the pond.
I do not intend to put in a bottom drain (yes I know) but my pump will be in a hollow in the deepest area of the pond and I will never overstock. I will keep the bottom clean and will not put rocks below the water surface.
I am not in a mood to haul over 110 feet of rock so am curious if anyone ever considered using sod to cover the edge of the liner. Does anyone have any ideas of lightweight pond edging?
I look forward to any ideas and thoughts you may have.
Karen

[Indiana Karen]

Yipppeee........another Karen 

Sounds like you have a great plan.  I don't have any edging ideas, we hauled the rock and yes, that's a big job, thank goodness I was younger and had two good knees.

Just wanted to say 

Karen

[Esther]

If you sod the edge, do you plan on just letting the grass grow? You don't want the water touching the sod as it will leach the water out below what it touches anyway.

[karen J]

Yipppeee........another Karen 

Karen

Ditto!

There was once another forum member named Joyce who actually did have sod right up to the edge. That may have been a preform though. I think with a liner that yes, the sod would leach water out- but as long as you're willing to add the water back then it could work. However, with a pond 5' deep you may need reinforcement of the edge in something like concrete. "Coping", like for a swimming pool. What kind of soil do you have?

[tranquility]

5' is a dream pond--but, with 5' deep water how do you plan on keeping that bottom clean--my pond is 5' deep and I would hate to think I had to keep it vacuumed out...I have 2 bds and would NEVER be with out them...they really are super easy to put in and not awfully expensive...Now the pump sitting in a hole in the bottom---just a couple of problems arise right off--the gunk is going to stop that pump up and your going to have to be pulling it out ALL the time and cleaning it--not to mention that is really hard on a pump...2nd--what if something causes a break in the hose outside of the pond--your going to totally drain that pond and your fish will be dead....if you plan on doing the pump inside the pond I would suggest putting it up off the bottom so if there ever is a break then you still have a bit of water for the fish to survive in....again I really would reconsider a bd---alot less work will be involved if you put one in and you will NEVER have to do that hard on your back spring cleaning because the pond will never have accumulation on the bottom....not to mention having to move fish out to do that cleaning....and I would say yes the sod would wick the water out...
Lawanna

[Jerry]

Flagstone projecting over the edge looks good and will hide the liner.

WELCOME!

[Desertponder]

Welcome!

There was once another forum member named Joyce who actually did have sod right up to the edge. That may have been a preform though.

If that was her mine pond, yeah it was a small preform.

[tinkster]

howdy and welcome.  I am from Ky.. what part of Ky are you from?

tink

[karen J]

5' is a dream pond--but, with 5' deep water how do you plan on keeping that bottom clean--my pond is 5' deep and I would hate to think I had to keep it vacuumed out...I have 2 bds and would NEVER be with out them...they really are super easy to put in and not awfully expensive...Now the pump sitting in a hole in the bottom---just a couple of problems arise right off--the gunk is going to stop that pump up and your going to have to be pulling it out ALL the time and cleaning it--not to mention that is really hard on a pump...2nd--what if something causes a break in the hose outside of the pond--your going to totally drain that pond and your fish will be dead....if you plan on doing the pump inside the pond I would suggest putting it up off the bottom so if there ever is a break then you still have a bit of water for the fish to survive in....again I really would reconsider a bd---alot less work will be involved if you put one in and you will NEVER have to do that hard on your back spring cleaning because the pond will never have accumulation on the bottom....not to mention having to move fish out to do that cleaning....and I would say yes the sod would wick the water out...
Lawanna

That is a VERY good point.  I have a gravity fed bottom drain (where the pressure and gravity moves the water up and out of the pond at a halfway point. Pond would never drain). And what will you do with all that muck?

[Julles]

Sounds like a wonderful pond!

I know a lot of people have rocks around their pond edges, but I'm not a fan of that... doesn't look natural, and it's hard to access the pond to do maintenance or to just look at it.  Flagstone would be a good choice, IMO.

If you could figure a way to get grass to grow to the edge, avoiding the problems proposed above, that would be a really natural look, IMO.  Maybe you can put some kind of a concrete or concrete block ring right at the edge, and let the soil / grass come up to that ring.  That would eliminate the wicking potential.  You want your liner to extend as far as possible out from the pond, under the rocks / soil / grass / flagstone / whatever. 

[jatfla]

I brick-edged my pond and then ringed it with monkey grass.  It took off.  It looks good, softened the edge, survived our N. Fla. hard freezes.

[Jerry]

What is Monkey grass?  Love the name!