A Pond, Please

A friend added a small pond to her yard last year and I was quite taken by it. I loved the water, the plants, and the fish, and knew I had to have a small pond of my own. I went home and began to read about ponds, fountains, and waterfalls and began to realize that all of these required a pump and that meant electricity. Since I didn't want to run a conduit under the driveway, I'd have to put my pond near the house so I could tap into the electricity there.

After some thinking, Ben & I agreed that the best place was near the walkway up to the house; we'd have a handy power source, there was plenty of sunlight, and we could see it every time we came home and enjoy it from the deck. We had reclaimed part of this space from the ivy last year, and were ready to reclaim the rest of it. I decided that I'd try a small container garden in a free standing pot, like these.

I didn't want a whiskey barrel and ceramic pots were very expensive. Finally, at Home Depot I found a kit that included a 25 gallon plastic pot, a pump with a fountain, and underwater LED lights, all for only $70. Ben ripped out more vines, dug me a hole, and we submerged about two thirds of the pot in the ground.


Then we built a little wall around it with wedged shaped blocks. They need to be leveled and aren't placed quite exactly right yet, and I wasn't sure if the next step was to add the water or the plants, so we were going to wait and get it all straight before we moved ahead.

But tonight Paul and I couldn't wait any longer so we filled the pond with water and fired up the pump. The pump and lights worked but I couldn't get the fountain to work right. Paul took up the task, looked over the parts we had, messed around a bit, and presto! there was fountain action. It was just about nightfall, and the lights looked quite festive and pretty.

Soon we'll get the blocks set just right and get the mulch down and the plants and fish in and I'll have photos of a real pond to share with you, but meanwhile this is pretty neat!