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Ponds in the UK

how to do the edge!

21 years ago

Hi all

I've been lurking here for quite a while now, and it's fascinating.

I'm planning on enlarging a pond which is half in lawn and half in a border. Currently, there are wobbly stones all round, which means you can't mow round it easily, and risk taking a dip when feeding the fish!!

My question is this - how do you do the edge without using stones? I'm thinking of running the liner under the edge of the lawn (or rather, laying turfs back over the edge of the liner) and seem to remember Alan Titchmarsh demonstrating laying turfs upside down round a pond and planting into the resulting muddy wodge.

Will either (or both) of these things work? I do so want it to look natural!

Linda

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Comments (4)

Sean_McKinney
21 years ago
I have done the turf over the liner thing,
{{gwi:2116801}}
the flap was trimmed to between 4 and 6 inches wide and 1" square holes where cut through it every 9" or so, for the turf to root through. The result is nice.
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However if you run the pond full, as it should be, then because of wicking you end up with wet knees and constantly having to top the pond up. So I have changed to basically having the liner go over the top of, and down the back of, a thin and vertical board. The turf butts up against the outer liner and is level with or slightly above the upper edge of the board and the liner is trapped. Ideally you want something like 1/8" sheet acrylic or plastic for the board but I couldnt find any cheaply so made mine by splitting square section down spout.
If you do a web search for "plastic angle iron" you may find a detailed post about it on the board http://www.fishkeeping.co.uk
LindaLancaster
Original Author
21 years ago
Thanks Shaun, that's exactly what I needed!

Maybe one could use that metal or plastic Lawn edging for the board, bit pricy, but it would make nice curves.

If the pond was in a dip, instead of a bit raised like yours, would the wicking problem (which I hadn't considered, but seems so obvious now) be so severe?

I'll print off your reply and follow up on the plastic angle iron (!) and thanks again for your very prompt response.

Linda
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LindaLancaster
Original Author
21 years ago
I'm so sorry, it's Sean, not Shaun. :)
Sean_McKinney
21 years ago
In a dip is a bad idea, you will get all the run off going into the pond, if you look closely you should be able to see that some of the sides of the above pond are built up as a levee, I would suggest you do the same. At times you may end up with a moat around the pond but it saves having to dispose of the soil, deepens the pond for free and helps avoid liner ballooning issues. If you pond is in a dip yes, I suspect wicking would still be problem.
I tried cheap lawn edging amd it wasnt suitable.

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