One trick I've heard about is to bury something underneath the edge of the liner to give it support - say some bricks or small concrete slabs. What this does is gives the liner edge some support, and it also allows you to place the extra liner behind these supports and under the soil (creating a rubber-lined "lip" that is above the water line). This will allow you to have excess liner available, and will also allow you to plant terrestrial plants extremely close to the water's edge. Don't forget to wrap the underlayment over these supports as well. One thing I plan on doing for my upper pond (that I will be adding when spring hits) is to create some bog areas on the edges - make a wide and/or deep "shelf" that is a couple inches below the water line, and then use something as a divider between this bog and the main pond. Bricks, stacked rocks, wood planks, etc can work as dividers - just depends on what look you're going for (I'll be using Trex-type composite lumber). Fill in behind the divider with dirt and you have your moist soil/bog area. Combine this with the edge treatment above and you probably wouldn't be able to tell where the yard ends and the pond begins if you pick the plants right.

Hi Everyone. Thanks so much for all your supporting words. Im sorry I havent been able to get back to you till now. But we lost one of our bunnies on Friday, so pond has been a bit at a stand still. He was the cutest little thing and only 4 yrs old, so it was quite a shock. We've had bunnies for 10 yrs, so I know they have to go eventually. But he was one of our own babies and the youngest. He got sick and died in only a few hours though and without pains, so we have to be happy about that. He had a really happy life though, living with his mum all the time. (He was neutered ;-)) Now we only have mum and dad and a daughter left. And weve decided to not have any more, as theyre such delicate animals and its just too sad when they die. Ive been able to get back out and work a bit at the pond again today and finished filling it. I just LOVE it... Its just the way I wanted it, and this time I think I got the size right. The instant I filled the preform earlier, I just knew it was way too small :-D You were all so right... I really dont have too many folds now its all full, and only a few of them are really big. But the fish easily swim in and out of them, and they seem easy to clean too. Mondotomhead; Ive been reading most of the old posts on here and I remember reading about someone that had a lot of the dig-out crash in with rain, maybe that was you... that was why I was so desperate to get the liner in. I feel sad you had to go through all that extra work. Janette, the exhaustion is such a good point. Building ponds are just such hard work, so it makes it extra hard when we have to do it over and over again. I know what you mean about the edges too... argh! I had lawn up to the edges of some of my preform too and I loved it. Also being able to sit on the lawn and look down into the water while petting my dogs :-) There is a picture in one of my old threads where you can also see mine. It worked so well even if it only got one month to establish. Im having lawn edges again on the entire right side of this pond too. But Im still debating if I have to put something under the edge, timber or stone, to reinforce it, seing it doesnt have the solid edge of the preform. Did you do that? Im really glad I didnt spend the extra money on the tape, Lisa, if it only holds up for a short time anyway. Thanks again to everyone for your helpfull comments. Take care, Hanne Here is a link that might be useful: My first pond

Glad I can help, but I don't want to overstep my experience, so I will answer the questions where I have some hands on knowledge. Bottom drains - they will sweep any sand in the immediate vicinity, but have no effect on things a foot or two away as the velocity is negligible. The idea is to get solids to fall to the lowest point and get swept away. If the solids sit in rock crevices two feet away, they stay there. This is the source of the "rock bottm vs smooth bottom" discussion. River rounds - if you have them available, great. If you have to buy them by the bag, you are going to spend a lot to cover a 9000 gal pond. You understand the tradeoffs here- smooth doesn't stack well, but othewise is great. I doubt you can get anything over 30% with rounded stones. There are actually engineering formulae for determining the max stack angle for differnt shapes and density of material, but I don't think pond builders worry about them. Any slope that goes to the edge can be used by raccoons and herons. I find that having a deep pond where the fish can get away from predators helps a lot. I haven't used overhanging rocks. Sand is graded by size, source, and shape. You want a "sharp" builders sand for it's ability to pack. Playbox sand is usually too fine and rounded. Not the most critical issue however. Overhanging deck - a great Japanese design style that works the wonderful contrasts between man made/natural; linear/irregular; water/land; static/changing and many others. See my posts for one example. I use Ipe because it weathers to a beautiful grey, doesn't need any maintenance or finish, and doesn't contain any toxic metals to drip into the water. It has natural toxins of course which make it durable, but I don't let too much in the water. I have dropped a few pieces in by accident (it sinks like a stone) and haven't noticed any effect. I hope the rising water table and tree limbs don't damage the liner. Swimming pool installers (gunite and liner) often use a reverse drain valve meant to allow water in if the pressure is higher than the pool. The big tree limbs probably won't penetrate a rock lined pool but what about the roots? could be an issue digging and in the future. Good luck.

I notice nobody has responded. There are certainly many many more people out there with greater experience, but I'll tell you what little I have. I'm new to large gardening, but we had windowboxes for a few years at a former house. My husband made them, as well. They were painted on the outside, can't remember if they were painted on the inside. We didn't use liners. The boxes were too small so liners wouldn't fit and it was always a challenge to keep things watered in the Georgia heat. Now we inherited wooden window boxes (commercially made) in our current house up here and they have the standard liner. I will say that the liners do seem to protect the wood from water damage. Without the liners the wet soil holds the water against the wood and accelerates rotting. How visible the liners are once plants get going depends on the color contrast between planter and liner and how many plants drape over. If your husband has some time, maybe it would be possible for him to add some type of trim around the top that would be the right height to hide the liners. Our current boxes are deep eggplant purple and the forest green liner just fades away and is hardly noticeable. If height isn't problem and the windowboxes are higher than the liners but you can see them up close because you're standing above them, then I have no suggestions there! Maybe try to paint the top rim of the liner the same color as the window box? As for shallowness and dirt, most liners have that water bin underneath to hold water. Between that and the fact that plastic isn't as porous as wood, I wouldn't be surprised if liners actually held moisture better, even thought they leave less room for good potting soil. Last year I put soil retention beads in our windowboxes as two are extremely difficult to water. Hopefully that helped keep them from drying out quickly. They certainly didn't get watered every day! As for ease, it certainly is easier to cart the liner around when it's time to remove dirt and change plants--that's for sure!