We have always liked water gardens so we installed a pond in the back yard of the house where we can see it from the breakfast nook when we are eating. The main pond is 30 feet by12 feet and holds about 5,000 gallons. The upper pond is a fifteen foot diameter by eight foot deep inverted cone filled with three feet of river rock on the bottom then pea gravel for three feet. It acts as a giant biological filter and we have never had any problems with water quality.

We wanted a pond that wasn't going to leak so we chose a rather elaborate design. Both the ponds and the creek are constructed from a layer of sand, followed by a layer of thick felt, a Hypalon liner, then a layer of chicken wire and shotcrete. Once the shotcrete was in, the rocks were cemented in place and a final decorative layer of concrete was applied to the top.

Underneath the small deck is the pump pit that houses an automatic fill valve and two pumps that feed into the bottom of the upper pond. The 1,200 gph pump runs continuously and we run the 15,000 gph pump when we have friends over. There is also a diversion valve on the large pump line that allows us to pump out the pond into the french drain when we want to clean the pond.