Step 1: Laying out the pond

The first thing that you need to do is to choose the site and lay out the design of the pond. Take either marking paint, tarps, or flags to mark off the area. After the area is marked off take a step back from the area and go to other locations on your property to veiw the design of the pond. Go inside your house and look out all of the windows that the pond can be seen from and check out your design. If there are areas that do not have good veiws of the pond go back to the pond and adjust those areas to enhance your views of your pond.

Step 2: Digging the pond

After the design has been finalized you can start to dig your pond. When digging the pond you need to be thinking of where your plant ledges will be, how deep the pond will be in each area, and how drastic the slopes will be in your pond. When placing plant ledges they need to be at least one foot deep. If f\you are going to have fish the pond needs to be at least two feet deep. At the same time that you are digging your pond you should be building your waterfall, leveling off the edges, and removing any rocks. Also at this time if you are going to have a pond skimmer, an out of water pump, or an out of water filter this is also the time to dig the holes for them.

Step 3: Placing the liner in place

After the pond has been dug you need to make sure that the pond still looks good from all of your viewing points, if not this is the time to fix them. If everything is alright then it is time to get prepared for the liner. At this point you need to either add a protective liner, like a thin foam padding, or add sand to the sides of the pond. Once this has been done you can put the liner into the pond. To keep the liner in place until the pond is full of water you need to place a couple of rocks along the edges. When the rocks are in place you can begin filling the pond with water. When filling the pond you need to be smoothing out the liner so that you minamize folds in the linear and have a nice fit with the sides of the liner and the dirt walls.