On leveling ground to make a pond work I have a 16" drop from the high end nearest the house to the 14'at the lower end from the fill needed to provide good runoff of rain. Starting at the high end, I dug the hole down 12", left a 12" wide ledge, went down 16", another 12" ledge and then down another 16". I used the diggings to level everything to about 16" up from the first ledge. Giving me about 48" total depth. I built a form to make trapezoid shaped concrete blocks 3" thick. Lots of work, but then what does a retiree have but time. The shape allowed me to form curved or straight lines around the pond to give it a roughly kidney shape. Ultimately, I used all the dirt to fill the concrete shape with no leftover. I gathered limestone rocks from the hillside beneath the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River and laid them on the concrete for a rugged, natural look. My grandson found a chunk of limestone with a roughly bowl shape that had a hole worn in the middle. He gave it to me to use as the "spring "inlet to the waterfall used for aeration. All this nearly 15 years ago. There are pictures buried somewhere around here. Maybe I can find them. Oh, yeah, the hole is lined with EPDM pond liner. After a disastrous massive dieoff 3 years ago, I ignored the pond for 2 years and am now trying to rejuvenate it again. So far I put in 12 feeder gold fish last summer. 2 died off, but I now have 10 healthy 4-5" common goldfish swimming in a very bare pond. I am waiting for planting weather so we can have some plant life again. I was at a funeral this morning and saw a nice peace lily. I remember when we had one in a large vase with a Beta living under the plant. Thought when it warms up I might try making a float and put in a peace lily. Thoughts?

We used a floating alligator decoy in our pond and worked like a charm. 24/7 protection, from herons and raccoons. We actually got it since a racoon had decimated all our very large koi, except for 3, over a week. He actually also destroyed all of our pond plants as an extra bonus as well. Haven't had any problems since we added the gator. It's also quite handy for scaring the relatives and guests. Definitely worth a shot for those with pond predators lurking nearby.

I've no idea if this is the ''best'' way but I took one of those heating strips sold for gutters and tossed it in small pond and it kept an air hole with temperatures down to 11Fð.

I am totally put off by the idea of keeping cleaning supplies in the back yard in a yard barn/shed, for the help to use. I can't get past THAT. But anywhoooo first you have to decide if you are most concerned about being "green" or being germ freaky. I am finding in 2016 these concepts are opposed to each other. I have all my bathroom cleaning supplies in a blue caddy and yes the toilet bowl cleaning wand is in it. Do the chemistry--it MOSTLY touches cleaning chemicals. Maybe it depends on the size of the home or the number of bathrooms but one caddy in my hall linen closet fills our needs. Other wise a container of those wipes under the bathroom sink is what many are using for cleaning supplies. To each his own I suppose. I just hope all those wipes are not going into the toilet!!!