Thanks everyone for all the compliments. My floating baskets aren't doing too good this year. Don't know if it's the weather or my koi (now that they are bigger they are able to tip the basket with their body just enough to nibble. They remind me of deer they don't eat the whole plant just enough to stress it out). I heard a rumor it could be my water is too clean. Pond is in it's third year so it may be fully cycled now. Don't know if any of you read Nosambos (Lisa's) post earler this month so I am linking it to mine. She is so creative she can turn anything that floats into a planter as you can see from her post. I just love visiting her pond because I never know what she has created that is going to surprise me. I got 4 large sheets of styrofoam pads from work. They are about 3 ft long by 1 1/2 ft wide. I am planning on connecting them together with computer cable ties. I am going to try to make a large floating impatiens, watercress island out of them by cutting holes in the pads and placing punctured styrofoam cups in the holes (hopefully this will make them koi proof), then placing impatiens and watercress bare root in the styrofoam cups. It may work unless my koi decide to tip it over. (They completely destroyed one floating basket of watercress in a day). I will post pics if it does work. I am just wondering if I should surround it by pond noodles to make it more stable. Only problem will be getting it in and out of the pond. My pond is in full sun and my fish have no shade other than the floating planters you see in the post here. As they are getting bigger their shade is getting smaller. Jenny Here is a link that might be useful: Nosambos floating watercress idea

Our pond is dirt based - no liner. It was a former cellar under a small building but kept filling with water. The previous owner filled it up with rocks. We tore down the building, rearranged the rocks and let Mother nature take over. The pond filled with water. Our gutter water runs into the pond to help keep it full. We have an overflow running under our driveway and down a hill to keep the pond from overflowing. Fish and one now large water lily are doing well. A filtration system was added 5 years after the original set up. Muck is a problem so a few years ago we removed the fish and sucked out all that we could. Instead of using small rocks again, we replaced them with various sizes of field stone. We have 30+ fish and they seem to thrive. We never feed them. Our situation is unique. This pond somehow links underneath our patio as the fish winter under our patio. They swim through the rocks and re-emerge in the Spring. We have no idea what is under our patio. . how much water is held. . how deep. .but we know when the pond gets low the fish disappear. I do add tap water during the summer months as the pond does evaporate rather quickly. It's not likely the chlorine will hurt the fish as I add it in gradually over a few days. Sometimes I put dechlor in but usually I am careful not to add too much. Our tap water has never hurt the fish that are in there. In fact, as the water is added, the fish swim underneath - possibly enjoying the cooling hose water. This pond is approximately 10' x 10' and 2' deep.

The pond is 8 X 10 X 3 and we used 1 piece of 45 mil liner 20 X 25 for the job. There is no bottom drain or skimmer box; however I do plan to add a skimmer box this summer so we left enough liner for this to be done with relative ease. We used 2300 lbs of stone, not sure what they call it but IÂll look into it. The pump is from a Home Depot kit 1200 gph, came with the waterfall box, and a small liner. We will likely replace the pump with a larger one at some point in time but for now we are content with what we have. The whole pond thing is all new to me so your feedback good or bad is greatly appreciated. Any suggestions on a new pump? Skimmer box? Can I get 1 pump to operate the Skimmer box and falls? Lights?

Thank you all so much!!!! That means alot to me coming from ya'll. Joann, your pond and fish are simply amazing! Destany, I added a couple more pix tonight. I will post more when we get a little more finished. Marti8a, I know what you mean, you can lay on the deck, get very close to your fish and see alot of different kinds of bugs swimming around in there. There have been several beautiful little song birds that come to the waterfall, some I have never seen before and I have always kept a birdbath and feeder. I LOVE this new adventure!