Have extra space in your garden? Don’t’ have anything to do with it? Then, most probably, your next thought would be somewhere along the lines of building an artificial pond for your garden. Artificial ponds have become increasingly popular additions to gardens and other outdoor spaces, both because of their aesthetic sense and their ability to lower temperatures. As such, it’s definitely no wonder that your mind might wander towards this thought as soon as you happen to find an ideal place for a pond within your home.
Whilst you might be eager to build a pond, there are certain conditions that you first need to consider. If we take a pause to look at the existence of natural ponds and lakes, we find that water tends to collect in these places because of the composition of the soil. Explained more in-depth, this composition of the soil is usually that of clayey soil – clay is the most impermeable among soil structures, and thus prevents water from percolating downwards and draining out. However, clayey soil is not something you find everywhere; you might very well not find it in your garden. But don’t worry – this does not mean that a pond is out of question for your garden; it simply means you’ll have to rely on modern technology a bit more.
Thanks to modern advances, methods to trap water and create artificial ponds have been invented – these do not use concrete, tiles, etc. to create ponds that resemble mini swimming pools though. Instead, they are more correctly defined as ‘impermeable geo-membranes’, and are known in common everyday language as ‘pond liners’. Simply put, they are ‘coverings’ or ‘coatings’ that inhibit the draining of water; under this definition, clay is also one of the liners – to be more exact, it is the oldest known material that has been used for this purpose, and also the one which is the most stable (it can remain stable even for a thousand years).
Process of pond liner installation today, however, does not make use of clay; instead materials such as PVC (polyvinyl chloride), butyl rubber and EPDM (ethylene propylene diene monomer rubber) are used currently for this purpose. Being flexible materials, they are either cut out beforehand to fit to the shape of the pond, or are welded together from separate pieces. Another newer, but more expensive method, is the use of polyurea – unlike the aforementioned rubber materials, polyuria is directly ‘sprayed’ onto the surface of the pond. By spraying this, a coating of polyurea forms and serves to retain water within the pond.
Thus, even if the soil composition is not favourable towards the construction of a pond in your garden, there are many new techniques that can circumvent that single obstacle and realize your dream of having a pond in your garden – therefore, don’t hold back because of the soil, and go build your pond today itself!