My pond is only about 6x10 ft or really close to that and I made a shallow beach area that is about a foot deep, and it drops to another shelf before dropping into the deeper area
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here is a picture of the beach area.

This is a picture of the pond and it has a plant shelf all the way around except close to the waterfall on the left side, the pond place that was giving us clues said don't make it all the way around or all the same width and I have to admit I like it that way. By the falls we put a spot about 1.5 ft wide without the shelf and it was about 2 ft. wide on either side and we put a piece of slate over it and it gave a great cave for the fish..(in fact has saved them from the racoons twice, he could just barely reach them to scrape them up some but not enough to pull them out or do serious damage.(the cave is under the floating water lettuce in the picture.

The bottom is about 2.5 feet deep, if I had it to over I would make the beach shorter so I had more of a deep area and I would make the deep area about a foot deeper, but I wouldnt get rid of the plant shelf.
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You have a beautiful pond! I love it. Those are great suggestions. Maybe I will put in the shelves. Ugh. So many decisions!
I like your shallow beach! I also like your use of all the different rocks. Do you mind if I ask how many rocks you used? We're trying to gauge how many to get for our pond and I've read it should be anywhere from a ton to 1 1/2 tons....

Thanks!
Gail

I put shelves in my pond when we dug it out a few years ago. They are now slanted and whatever I put on them I have to prop up now with rocks under the planters. Wish I had never put shelves in. Wont be long and I'm sure it will look like I have slanted walls. I'm grateful I have about a 15' x 20' area 2 feet deep to put plants in before it drops off to 6 feet. If I build another pond it wont have shelves.

What I did in lieu of shelves is use bog pockets. They are holes, say ten to twelve inches deep, dug at the very edge of the pond, usually in the corner where there is extra liner. The plant pots are placed in the hole and gravel is used to conceal the pot.

I'm at work as I write this, but if you're interested I can post a picture of one of my bog pockets tonight when I get home.

Yes, please post some pictures on the bog pockets! Thanks.

Okay, here's one of my bog pockets. I haven't put gravel in the others yet, but this one should give you an idea of what it looks like. The plant is a dwarf cattail.

[IMG]http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh86/WhisperingWind56/BogPocket.jpg[/IMG]

Okay, obviously it didn't come up, so let's try again.

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Okay, the inside edge of the pocket is low enough that the water comes in between the rocks to keep the gravel and the plant wet.

I couldn't even guess at how many rocks we used.... everytime I turn around my husband is adding more of the darn things... ugh. Told him that if we ever have an earthquake it will fill in my pond.

we used all different sizes of the big rocks, we gathered for about 5 months everytime we seen one. also went to the forest product company and purchased lots of the really really big ones.
Then we bought buckets and buckets of the pea gravel
and then buckets and buckets of the next size larger in the pea grave. We got the rainbow rock and it looks so nice in the water. We did not put any rocks in the deep area, figured we wouldn't be able to see it anyway and thats where the fish hang out so we figured it would get very messy, the do love the beach area though.

We didn't leave our shelves bare, the have the different size rocks all over it then pea gravel dumped in all the crevices, so even though the were very uneven and slanted the rocks snugged down in them has made is look very natural.
Here's a picture of the shelves as they were building it. You can't even tell that they are shelves with the placement of the rocks, we also dug several holes in the shelves and squished the liner down in them and put plants and pea gravel right in the pond.
see the cave opening on far left? not the one under the fall but the one under the horizontal rock? It goes back in there about 1.5 to 2 ft. also made a cave opening lower right under small slab piece but it only goes back about 7 inches.

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Here is the pond finished product, we have since finished the planter around the side and back of waterfall and it is full of greenery.

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I tried to draw a diagram.. I am not very creative so sorry it's messy. I also couldn't figure out how to make it bigger

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This is "Bones" enjoying his pond

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Thanks everyone, for the ideas. I'm not sure what I am going to do. It's a good thing it's supposed to rain this weekend. It'll give me more time to make a decision! Keep the ideas coming.....

One thing to think about with plant shelves is predatation. Herons, raccoons and cats can get to your fish that way. If you put the shelves in be sure to put something on the pond bottom where they can hide if danger comes.

As for shelves I use bricks. Over the long run they can raise your PH levels if you dont acid wash them first. If you already have hard water it isnt a problem though. Milk crates if you can find them are great too. Was fun having a kid at the grocery store look at me like I was asking for alien artifacts when I asked for some.

Gail........I use black milk crates all the time to hold up my various plants. They work great, plus fish and frogs can swim right through them, so its not like they take up that much room. And since they're about a foot square, they're very stable. Good luck.

Mybusyfamily, it looks like you uploaded a small image of your diagram. Maybe you can try to upload the large version of it to your Photobucket album.

Brenda

Gee duh... Brenda I didn't even think of uploading it to photobucket like the other pictures.. thank you

Plant shelves can harbor a lot of debris that is hard to get out. If you plan to vacuum the bottom of your pond or place a bottom drain not having shelves will make debris removal easier. We use milk crates for the lilies and floating planters for the marginals and floaters.

Floating planters anchored close to the edge and cascading type plants that grow over the rocks in to the water will provide places for toads, and frogs to enter and escape your pond.

Regards,
Lisa

Thanks all. I really like the milk crate idea.
Where can you find those, a grocery store? Any place else?

AZPonder....how do you acid wash the bricks?

Thanks!
Gail

Milk Crates or storage containers can be bought at an Office Supply Store such as Office Depot, Staples, Office Max, etc. Glenda

I think I got my milk crates at Menards (a big box home improvement store). The trick is finding black ones (they don't show through the water.) I even got a couple baby ones from a drug store once, to use in my little preform. They work great.

I agree, if I had to do it over I would never have plant shelves in my liner pond. Mine are uneven, never in the right place, etc (my fault i confess!) Milk crates, bricks, upside down pots, even a shelf across 2 bricks works great and are easily changed and less likely to help out predators. Everything is the same color once the algae grows on it!

LOL Sarah........I just love that algae "patina". haha

Thanks everyone! I think I decided to go ahead and use the milk crates. It rained on Saturday so no pond work. However, I did manage to get my pond plants out of cold storage in my garage today.
And, to my surprise, I had two blooms on my lily. I had the tuber buried in damp peat moss and when I uncovered them, I had two separate growths on either side. I was so excited. I wasn't sure the whole burying-in-the-peat-moss-thing was going to work, but it did. Wow. How in the world did it bloom in complete darkness????
I now have two separate plantings for my new pond.

Thanks again everyone. I'll keep you guys posted as the pond takes off.

Gail

I got my black plastic milk crates at Staples Office Supply Store.

Ditto, I got my milk crate/file box at office depot. I put a piece of flat slate on it to increase the space for plant pots. It works great.
Dianne

Hi Gail,
What kind of lilies? hardy? tropical? Do you mean "blooms" or "leaves"? I'm thinking you meant leaves. I will really be amazed if its blooms!!
It is very interesting how they know when to grow, even in total darkness. It must have something to do with temperature, rather than increased daylight.
I have a lily buried in my yard. Its an extra one of one I have in the pond. And I'm seeing a leaf coming out of the ground now! lol! They are determined little buggers!

Silly me. Of course, just the leaves. That would be something if it bloomed in the dark. I think I would be a very famous gardener if that happened!

It's a hardy lily. I ended up dividing it because there were two sets of leaves. Pretty cool. I just wonder how they know it's time to pop up. Maybe they have itty bitty internal clocks!

Gail