If the algae bloom is continuing you might want to try some additional temporary filtration. There are lots of discussions you can find with a search. Here is one example from one of them. Posted by pat_c 5/ N W OHIO (My Page) on Mon, May 19, 08 at 17:48 Here's an old trick Horton taught me years ago. Take a clean tall kitchen trash can. Cut a series of holes in the side at the bottom. Do this on only one side of the trash can. Get a box of poly batt at walmart. Unwind it and stuff it in the bottom of the trash can and set the trash can at the edge of the pond with the side with the holes facing toward the pond. Then run a hose from your pond to the top of the trash can. The water will fill the can and run down thru the batt and filter. Then it will run out the holes in the can back into the pond. Run this for 2-3 days and I promise the pond will clear. You will have to clean the Batt evry so often but it will trap all that suspended algae. I only had to do this once and my pond cleared and stayed clear. I do agree with the others that rocks on the bottom only invite trouble. They look good for a week and then spoil the pond beacuse they WILL get covered with algae. Then, you can't see them anyway so what's the point? The only other product I ever had good luck with is ALgaefix. But Once I used the Horton method, I no longer had to use that! Good luck, we have all been where you are." I suspect more poly quilt batting is sold to ponders than to quilters.LOL! Don't get the bags of stuffing, the rolls of material work better than the stuffing and is worth the extra money. The stuffing material can cause more problems if the short fibers work their way loose and wind up in the pump impeller. Sandy

goylesgirl, Check out the link I included. With some plywood forms and creativity, it is doable. I would pick up a good source (book) on pond construction and look up as much as you can find on pond building into a slope. One caution though: Plan / draw into your pond some sort of drainage at the bottom. I can see a possibility of too much water at the bottom when it rains in your neighborhood (drinking coffee in shin deep water). Here's my pond. LP Here is a link that might be useful: Making Rock features with cement.

Debbie, it could easily be a formal tropical water garden with its rectangular look. It would require a pump and some simple filtering, but that could be made to look formal. Many water plants have that tropical look, like taros (colocasias), and tropical water lilies are so beautiful. Submersible pumps don't cost much, and your first job could be to pump almost all the muddy water out and refill with fresh. Leave just enough water in for the fish. Then set up a skippy filter in a large fake old-fashioned looking flower pot and put it in. Then go all out with the tropical plants! These pics from the Singapore botanical garden. :) Mary

I've gotten a lot of great advice...thank you. I'm still struggling with the shape of the bed. Symmetrical I can do, but curves throw me off a bit because the informality. I do feel it necessary to adjoin it one way or another with my front hedge of boxwood, but I don't know that I necessarily want another rectangular planting bed around the tree. Then I feel like I'd be inclined to replicate that on the other side of my lawn. I also don't want to do a complete circle..I think of crop circles..and I don't want the tree out in limbo in my landscaping. It wouldn't work. So, I'm leaning towards a curved planting bed that adjoins my row of hosta along my front hedge of boxwood. As you are facing my house, in this order - A large maple tree on the city way on the left hand side of the house, city sidewalk, bed of pachysandra at base of retaining wall on each side of my straight centered walkway that runs to my front door, hedge of boxwood at top of retaining wall, straight row hostas behind my boxwood hedge, rectangular lawn, and another row of same hostas in front of my foundation plantings. ....And then a tree in there somewhere on the right hand side of my lawn. I like order, so this bed completely throws me off. LOL To keep a sense of formality, someone suggested planting the hostas in drifts...a layer affect of the same color of hosta, but different sizes with the largest towards the center, and that appeals to me since there's an order to it. However, since the planting bed will be assymetrical, I am struggling with placement since there won't be equal distances from one end to the other, and there is no real front or back...I have to visualize from different angles..neighbors driveway, facing my house, etc.,...I will have to play around with it, just having difficulty visualizing it. ..And I agree wholeheartedly, a gardeners work is never finished. I'm changing things around every year, but I enjoy every minute of it.