Chiming in for my own interest as well as to offer a suggestion. Warning: I am a novice - my advice might be detrimental! Hopefully, those with greater expertise can chime in and offer an opinion. I put in a 12 x 10 pond years ago. Did it on the cheap. I used the thickest black plastic on a roll I could find. It is not unlike painter's drop clothes only a lot thicker. Every 2-3 years I have to replace it due to it wearing out or getting holes poked in it by my kids playing around. It was $30 or so for a monstrous roll I still haven't used completely. Why not drain down the pond, muck it out, layer the pond with the cheap liner and see what happens? Full disclosure - I go to the local pet store and buy 25-cent goldfish. The sales people are usually good about letting me select a combination of different markings so my gene pool is diverse. I started with four and had it quickly grow to 40-ish fish. For a while I fed them but found out one winter I didn't have to - I was hospitalized and too infirm to care for them and they survived on the nutrients in the pond. Trees grew over the pond in time and they would muck up the bottom and clog my submersible pumps. Eventually, the shade countered the algae growth and I didn't need to replace the pumps. A small number of plants in pots that were weighted to stay submerge provided a small amount of cover. A shrub rooted near the pond and branches dangled to the ponds surface. I trimmed them but left the shrub for shade/protection. The problems were not health of the water or the fish or the plants. The problems were related to leaves filling the pond and "filling it in" substantially each fall. Until Tulsa changed the chemicals in its water supply. The 110+ degree temps and leaks in the thin-ish liner required fillings 2-3 times a week. I forgot for a week and it got really low. The water I added overwhelmed the existing water, and the chemicals wiped out the remaining dozen fish. The plants didn't seem to mind but I now have a muck-covered liner (several layers of it, actually, as I'd just add the new one on top of the other, figuring the old ones would provide some protection from roots poking through). Is that a practical solution? Buy some cheap CHEAP liner. Connect them to cover the bottom of the pond. Drain and muck out the pond, drop the liner and let it fill in. === Or...fill in a big chunk of it and create a new "wall" out of liner with rocks, backfilling with rock, soil, sand, whatever. Plant plants that don't mind wet feet and let them live in a bed next to a much more manageable pond.

thx brandon ... my point.. was ... if i had one [dont ever say that to your wife .. lol] ... is that when i look at the words... i see sandy LOAM ... basically ... and in my world.. warped as it is.. loam is the lifeblood of a good soil .... its basically the compost we are supposed to add.. to fortify our soils .... the link is a very simple definition of loam ... and i do understand it is a term of art for the soil scientist .... and below is a pic of a septic field dig 15 feet form the south of my property ... sorry.. i just dont SEE ... key word there ... humus .... [nor clay in my yard] ..... humus in my mind.. being the stuff that retains water in sand.. and offers some nutrients ... anyway ... it is interesting.. that one of the remarks is toward the everyones soils 'farmland capabilities' ... and i am enjoying comparing such.. to each of you that i know well enough to know your trials and tribulations .... in regard to trees/conifers... the real key is drainage .. and boy do i have that ... my soil probably defines why pines and quercus grow like weeds here .... ken ps: lets see.. member for near on 10 years ... thats 3650 days ... i guess i am am averaging under 2 posts a day ... lol .... i better get my act together and do more .... or!!! i should have posted each pic in an individual reply ... the GW system.. and i could have had 4 or 5 for this ... lol ... not the lack of any evidence of deep reaching roots ... though its hard to see in the pic.. the hole is about 2 or 3 feet from the trunk ... OMG.. look at the green giants back there in 2005 ... back behind the green pail ... one on each side.. 20 feet up the hill or so ... lol ... looking north here is the same row in 2009 ... looking east Here is a link that might be useful: i might have to go buy some chickpeas ... for some reason i am craving hummus

Interesting: This is the most level portion of my property (exactly 1/2 or three acres) near the road and my home sets back off of the road and up on a small bluff. From the road it slopes about 150 feet to the lowest point...quite an elevation change. And while that slopes, I have rolling hills running perpendicular to the sloping hills. In other words my property is wavy and sloping and surrounded by hills - very similar to a football stadium where the bleachers are the sides of my property and people doing "the wave" lol ;-) Flat (kind of, lol) Mercer County, Illinois 675B�"Greenbush silt loam, 2 to 5 percent slopes Map Unit Setting Elevation: 360 to 1,020 feet Mean annual precipitation: 32 to 40 inches Mean annual air temperature: 47 to 54 degrees F Frost-free period: 150 to 180 days Map Unit Composition Greenbush and similar soils: 95 percent Description of Greenbush Setting Landform: Ground moraines, till plains Landform position (two-dimensional): Summit, shoulder, footslope Landform position (three-dimensional): Interfluve Down-slope shape: Convex Across-slope shape: Convex Parent material: Loess Properties and qualities Slope: 2 to 5 percent Depth to restrictive feature: More than 80 inches Drainage class: Well drained Capacity of the most limiting layer to transmit water (Ksat): Moderately high to high (0.60 to 2.00 in/hr) Depth to water table: About 48 to 72 inches Frequency of flooding: None Frequency of ponding: None Available water capacity: High (about 11.5 inches) Interpretive groups Farmland classification: All areas are prime farmland Land capability (nonirrigated): 2e Hydrologic Soil Group: B Typical profile 0 to 6 inches: Silt loam 6 to 17 inches: Silt loam 17 to 75 inches: Silty clay loam 75 to 80 inches: Silt loam ------- then: Mercer County, Illinois 8D2�"Hickory silt loam, 10 to 18 percent slopes, eroded Map Unit Setting Elevation: 350 to 1,200 feet Mean annual precipitation: 32 to 40 inches Mean annual air temperature: 48 to 54 degrees F Frost-free period: 150 to 180 days Map Unit Composition Hickory and similar soils: 90 percent Description of Hickory Setting Landform: Ground moraines Landform position (two-dimensional): Backslope Down-slope shape: Linear Across-slope shape: Linear Parent material: Loamy till Properties and qualities Slope: 10 to 18 percent Depth to restrictive feature: More than 80 inches Drainage class: Well drained Capacity of the most limiting layer to transmit water (Ksat): Moderately high to high (0.60 to 2.00 in/hr) Depth to water table: More than 80 inches Frequency of flooding: None Frequency of ponding: None Calcium carbonate, maximum content: 25 percent Available water capacity: High (about 10.2 inches) Interpretive groups Farmland classification: Farmland of statewide importance Land capability (nonirrigated): 3e Hydrologic Soil Group: B Typical profile 0 to 6 inches: Silt loam 6 to 51 inches: Clay loam 51 to 60 inches: Loam Elevation: 360 to 1,020 feet Mean annual precipitation: 32 to 40 inches Mean annual air temperature: 47 to 54 degrees F Frost-free period: 150 to 180 days Map Unit Composition Greenbush and similar soils: 95 percent Description of Greenbush Setting Landform: Ground moraines, till plains Landform position (two-dimensional): Summit, shoulder, footslope Landform position (three-dimensional): Interfluve Down-slope shape: Convex Across-slope shape: Convex Parent material: Loess Properties and qualities Slope: 2 to 5 percent Depth to restrictive feature: More than 80 inches Drainage class: Well drained Capacity of the most limiting layer to transmit water (Ksat): Moderately high to high (0.60 to 2.00 in/hr) Depth to water table: About 48 to 72 inches Frequency of flooding: None Frequency of ponding: None Available water capacity: High (about 11.5 inches) Interpretive groups Farmland classification: All areas are prime farmland Land capability (nonirrigated): 2e Hydrologic Soil Group: B Typical profile 0 to 6 inches: Silt loam 6 to 17 inches: Silt loam 17 to 75 inches: Silty clay loam 75 to 80 inches: Silt loam Good for Hickories (score!) and... there are a lot of Walnut groves planted in my neck of the woods. People from Chicago have been buying up the land and planting these Walnut groves. Cheers, thanks! Dax

Beautiful and not a single weed! I envy your space! We had the storms roll through here in Western Michigan. I'll be surveying the damage in another hour or so. Gesila