When you think about the pond construction and design, these are the things you should first consider before you start. By the way I wrote an eBook about how to build a pond and you can download it free of charge. Click Here To Download "How To Build A Beautiful Backyard Pond."

Anyway, back to things you should consider before you start constructing your pond...

1. How big do you want to make your pond? This is the biggest thing to think about. Of course a lot will depend on how much room you have to work with. Personally, I dug my pond three different times, making it bigger each time. I wish I would have made the size it is now the first time. My recommendation is to make it as large as you can the first time and be happy with it.

2. Do you plan on having pond plants? If so, there are many pond plants that actually live inside your pond along the inside edges. You want to be sure to create a ledge in your pond for the pond plants to set on.

3. How deep do you want your small backyard pond? Well you want it deep enough to accommodate pond plants and any fish you may have. If you live where your winters are cold, your pond will freeze over so take that into consideration.

4. Do you plan on having fish in your pond? Most people do and again you want your pond deep enough to keep your fish happy.

5. Placement of your small backyard pond. I would suggest that you try and put your pond in a place where won't get a large amount of falling leaves during the fall season, such as under tress. Having your pond fill up with leaves would not be good for it. You also want it to be on fairly level ground.

6. Another major thing you would want to consider is electrical outlets. Chances are you are going to be using pond pumps, filters, lights, etc. It's not ideal to use extension cords so try and have your pond close to electrical outlets. I will talk about different pond supplies and what you'll need later on.

7. The shape of your pond. You can make your small backyard pond in any shape that you would like. Round, oval, square, oblong, use your imagination, just remember the larger and deeper you go, the more expensive it will be.

8. Pond Safety! This is very important. Where do you live? Are there small children around the neighborhood? Would local codes dictate that you need to have a fence? Ponds are almost like small swimming pools and you need to think about safety.

You figured out where you want your pond and what size to make it, great, now it's time to start digging it. Do you have a shape in mind? Round, oval, square, whatever you like. Keep in mind that if you're going to have a waterfall you'll want it where you can clearly see it.

A good way to develop the shape of your pond is with an old garden hose or rope. Just lay it flat on the ground and manipulate it to the shape that you desire. Next, take a can of white spay paint and paint around the shape, remove the hose or rope and you have the shape you want and know where to dig.

Start digging around the circumference of your shape until you've made it all the way around. Now stand back and take another good look as to the shape you made. If you're happy then start digging the rest of your pond out.

Remember that you want to make sure that you make a ledge around the inside of your dug hole, this is where you will set some of your pond plants.

The rest of your pond should be dug deep enough to give any fish you may have plenty of room to swim around and also to keep your pond from freezing completely solid, if you live where it's cold in the winter, like here in Ohio. At least 2 to 3 or even 4 feet deep make for a good depth of your pond.

It's important that you keep your pond level so when it is filled with water you won't have high and low spots. Just put a 2x4 across the top and check it with a level.

After you've done all that work of digging your pond you want to be sure to put the right kind of pond liner in it.

What you want to use is a product called Firestone EPDM Pond Liner. This material is tough as nails and will last you for years.

I made the mistake many years ago when I dug my first pond. I ended up just using some regular 40 mil plastic. Suffice to say, after that first winter our pond developed a leak and a lot of work went down the drain. That's when I discovered this Firestone EPDM Pond Liner. It may cost a little more, but it's well worth it!

How You Can Figure Out How Much Pond Liner You Need:
Once the hole is dug and shaped to your satisfaction and with any protruding sharp rocks removed to provide a relatively smooth surface for the liner to rest on, do these quick calculations to find out how much pond liner you'll need. They are as follows...

Length: Length of the dug out area plus two feet plus the depth plus three feet.

Width: Width of the dug out area plus two feet plus the depth plus three feet.

For Example: The hole is ten feet long by six feet wide and the depth is three feet. Therefore, the liner LENGTH is 10+2+3+3=18 feet. And the WIDTH is 6+2+3+3=14 feet. So the needed liner size is 18 feet long and 14 feet wide.

By having one solid piece of pond liner you don't have to worry about seams that need to be joined together which you would not want to do.

Time To Put In The Pond Liner:
You will more than likely need some help with this next step. You and someone else should each grab an end of the pond liner and evenly position it over the dug out pond hole. Next, lay it down over the hole. Obviously the liner will start to cave into the hole. Try and get as much of the pond liner as you can into the hole. You want to try and have the excess pond liner outside the hole evenly as possible all the way around. Place just a couple bricks or rocks around the edges to keep the excess pond liner from falling in. Important Note: If you are going to have a waterfall, it's important that you cover where your waterfall will be with this single piece of pond liner. You can read more about waterfalls later on down the page.

Now it's time to start filling it up. This is the easy part, take your garden hose, place it in the hole, and turn on the water. Depending on the size of your pond, this could take a while. Monitor the progress and notice how the inside of your pond is taking shape as the water fills. Before you get too much water in it make sure that your excess pond liner outside the pond is evenly spaced all the way around. Remove the bricks or rocks as it's filling.

Once it's filled, you have your small backyard pond. Trim the excess liner around your pond but leave some, this will be covered with sandstone, rocks, or whatever you decide. Your next step will be to spruce things up. Continue reading to find out the details. As I mentioned before this Firestone EPDM Pond Liner will last you for years, you'll be glad you got it. If you would like more details you can download my free eBook. Click Here To Download "How To Build A Beautiful Backyard Pond."

Now that the hole is dug, the pond liner in place, and the pond filled to the top, it's time to get it looking good.

Basically the best thing to do is use your imagination and make it just the way you want to. I am only going to offer you some suggestions as to what works well.

Placing pieces of sandstone or rocks around your pond makes for a nice natural look. It also does a great job at covering up your excess pond liner. You can plant different varieties of plants and flowers. Mulch is also good to help make your pond stand out. A few small Malibu lights around the pond help make it look nice at night. You'll notice over the years as your pond gets established that it continually looks more natural.

How about a waterfall?
A waterfall is a nice accent for your small backyard pond. A good way to make one is to get a good size tub with a lip on it (they sell them at Lowes and Home Depot.) Build a mound of dirt on one side of your pond and place this tub in it. You'll want your one piece of pond liner placed over this also, so keep that in mind when you put your liner in. You will want this tub level with a slight tilt forward so the water pours out over the lip on the tub. Then you simply mound your excess dirt around the tub and cover the whole outside area with sandstone which makes it look like a natural waterfall. See the picture below, where you see the waterfall is where the tub is, it's just covered with rocks and sandstone.

Let's update where we are in this process. First you figured out where you want to have your small backyard pond. Next we make an outline of our pond and dig it out. Don't forget that if you are going to have a waterfall, you should make it before you put your pond liner in. You want to be sure that where your waterfall will be attached to your pond, you should have one single piece of pond liner, that way you won't have any seams in your liner which could lead to leaks. Not good! After that, we fill our pond with water.

After the pond is filled you can start placing sandstone, rocks, or whatever you desire around the perimeter of your pond covering up any excess pond liner. Things are shaping up and you'll really start feeling good about this project.

After you place your stones and rocks around the pond, you may want to consider adding some mulch, flowers, and even some outdoor lighting. The picture below illustrates how you can add some plants & flowers around your small backyard pond.

The following are the basic needs for your pond to be successful. It's not just digging a hole and filling it with water. Well I guess you can, however, it will just turn mucky green and not look very good.

If you want a small backyard pond that looks good and something to be proud of, these are the five things you really should have. I'm going to first list the 5 things you need and then later I will go more in depth about them.

1. A good quality pond liner. We have already discussed the importance of a good quality pond liner. Please don't take it lightly, it's really important and will save you plenty of trouble down the road.

2. A pond filter. A pond filter will basically filter out the larger debris in your pond.

3. A pond pump. This is the lifeblood of your pond, it's what moves the water around and through your filters.

4. A UV Clarifier or UV Light. This device is what keeps your water clear. I will explain more later.

5. Pond plants. Pond plants offer you natural beneficial support for your pond and your fish. Keep reading along and I'll explain.

Think about it, you're doing all of this work to have your own little backyard pond. The digging and buying of different pond supplies and you put some cheap plastic liner in, it's simply not worth it. You will eventually develop a hole somewhere and all that work is literally down the drain. It happened to me and I wasn't happy!

I strongly recommend that you get this stuff called Firestone EPDM Pond Liner. Yes, it's more expensive, but why not do it right. This material is 45 mil EPDM rubber especially for water garden applications, and carries a 20-year manufacturer's warranty. It is sometimes also called Pond guard.

Click Here To Save On Firestone EPDM Pond Liner

Below is a picture of what it looks like.

A pond filter is another necessity when having a pond. Without one, and if you have fish, your pond will get really mucky and dirty.

Many years ago when my wife and I first started our pond we purchased, at that time about a $180.00 pond filter. It was an external one that sat near the outside of our pond, it had these bio balls in it or something like that. It wasn't long after we set it up and because the way it was constructed, started to leak. (You don't want an external pond filter to leak, if you know what I mean.) Which led to another problem... what are we going to do about a pond filter?

Well, that's when I came up with my own homemade pond filter and we've been using it for all these years. It does a fantastic job and we couldn't be happier with it. If you're interested in seeing it you can see it at my pond website. See my Homemade Pond Filter.

In all honesty I cannot recommend a commercially produced pond filter to you, simply because I haven't had any experience with them except for what I explained to you above. But I would recommend that you get some kind of a submersible pond filter for two reasons, 1. you don't have to worry about draining the water out of your pond if it develops a leak and 2. it won't be an eyesore to your ponds appearance by sitting outside of the pond.

Click Here For All Kinds Of Different Pond Filters

The pond pump is vital to your pond to move the water around. Whether you use it for filtration or for a waterfall.

Again I can only tell you honestly about the water pump of choice that I use and that's the Mag Drive Pump made by Pondmaster.

There are plenty of other ones on the market and I'm sure they are quite good, but I would have to put my money with the Pondmaster pump.

This is the only kind of pump that I have used. (I have two of them.) I've had these pumps since I started our pond and they have performed exceptionally well. I have only had to replace the impeller on one of them once, which was simple to do.

What makes them so good is there are very few moving parts to them. It's just a magnet drive inside of them. Very basic, but very good.

These pond pumps come in different sizes and are rated at moving gallons per hour. The higher the number the more water it will move in an hour.

I use one for for our pond filter & UV Clarifier, and one for our waterfall.

Below is a picture of a Mag Drive Pond Pump by Pondmaster. Excellent for small backyard ponds.

Click Here For The Pondmaster Mag Drive Pond Pump

There's one purpose and one purpose only for a UV Clarifier or sometimes called a UV Light, and that is to kill the algae in your pond that makes your water green. Without one you are guaranteed to have green pond water.

Because you don't want to put chemicals in your small backyard pond, the ideal solution is a UV Clarifier. The UV Clarifier is hooked in some way to your pond pump which pumps the water through it. As the water passes through it, the ultraviolet light inside the Clarifier kills the algae. This is how you get and maintain clear pond water.

The UV Clarifier is a cylinder with an ultra violet light inside of it. It will have an intake and a outtake nozzle on it which you hook your pond pump to. It's very easy to hook up with the proper tubing.

Below is a picture of the Laguna Powerclear Max UV Clarifier. Very good for small backyard ponds.

Click Here For The Laguna UV Clarifier

Having some different pond plants for your little pond is essential to its success. Pond plants serve a couple purposes. 1. They add beauty in and around your pond. 2. They add nutrients to your pond water for your fish and provide them shade and cover.

There are quite a few different pond plants that you can have for your pond. Some of these include, Water Lilies, Water Lettuce, Water Hyacinth, Parrots Feather, Dwarf Cattails, and more.

Some of your pond plants will float on the surface and under water while others sit along the inside ledge of your pond. Below are some pictures of some different pond plants.

At this point I'd like to take a little breather and get some feedback from you, if I could. I have quite a bit more to offer and show you, but for now, how am I doing? Do you find this interesting at all? Are there any questions I might be able to answer? Let me know with the feedback form below. Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check back ofter as I plan on adding to this Lens on a regular basis. Thanks again, Bob