Hi Pat, Your mom is one lucky lady! There are some very experienced ponders on here that have forgotten more than I will ever know. But I will share some of the things I've picked up from them and from my own small garden. First and foremost, you might think small is great, but then you get hooked and it must grow. So in your mind's eye and your plan, leave room for future growth. This is our small pond in the very beginning. Not much larger than the kit you are looking at. We could not use a premade because of the oak roots, sewer pipe and other house utilities we had to work around. A few months later the pond grew to this. Here it is now, and this winter we will be adding on the other side of the sidewalk. Most water lilies will need more room than you will have. Look specifically for hardy lilies classed as suitable for very small containers/ponds. Or, try water poppy. Pictured is hardy lily, Yellow Pygmy "Nymphaea "Yellow Pygmy". Hardy from zone 4-11. Plant Size: Small. Bred by Latour Maliac 1879, flower is a soft yellow, 2"-3" across. Has a spread of 1.5�-3�, marliac root system. Leaves are slightly mottled Will grow in 6" to 1.5� of water. Best to grow in 10" of water. You can use a 1 to 2 gallon container to grow this one. Great miniature for a small pond or patio container. Extremely good bloomer flower. This is one of the oldest hybrids known in the water lily world. Full sun" If you build it, they will come. You will have wildlife. Plan a no spray/chemical zone. Expect frogs, dragonflies, snakes, etc .... etc. Fish are fun, in addition to eating mosquito larvae, they are a hoot to watch. Plan a spot right beside the pond for a spot for your mom to sit and watch the pond. And a place to sit a glass. I love to sit out in the morning with my coffee and watch the life around the pond. Feeder goldfish and feeder rosy red minnows are good choices for small ponds. They will reproduce, so not many fish. And once the pond is established the fish don't need to be feed. I have struggled keeping floating and oxygenator plants growing inside my small pond. The fish and the tadpoles decimate them. That said, if they can be contained in a floating corral type of thing they would do better. See the floating plant ring post in this forum for some ideas. I usually get my oxygenators at Petsmart in the fish dept. Also, mondo grass and society garlic work really well. What I evolved to is a 'bog garden' that is right beside and connected to my pond. I pump to a pot that serves as a filter out to the bog that then flows back into the pond. Presto beautiful spot for plants. I started off thinking I would not need any filtration for such a small pond. If however, you want to see your fish, you will need filtration. And you will likely want it to be something easily maintained. Something else that I kind of wish we had done was to install a float valve connected to a rain barrel to automatically keep the pond topped off. Oh, and we found this very realistic fake rock that we use to cover our electrical source, which is really just an heavy duty exterior extension cord ran in PVC pipe under the path. http://www.homedepot.com/Outdoors/h_d1/N-25ecodZ5yc1vZbx82/R-100631149/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=rock&storeId=10051 I like talking to myself, so I've kept some written notes on the progress of our pond. You can find it at the link below. I predict your mom will love her pond, and if you plan spots for plants but leave them out, puttering around the water garden could be a lot of fun and good exercise for her. ~dianne Here is a link that might be useful: Our small pond

Hi Computerklutz, Where are you in the metroplex? I am from Arlington (Dalworthington Gardens, actually) but our family moved to Raleigh, NC, 7 years ago. My parents and sister are still there; I'm going to see them next week! Yes, you have had LOTS of rain for Texas! We put a pond in this spring (actually, we had our landscaper build it for us) and we have enjoyed it so much! I would go at least 24" deep, maybe even 30" as it will make it harder for the herons to get your fish. Also, try to dig it out with straight, steep sides - this also makes fishing a bit more difficult for predators. Our current pond is 21" deep; I had asked for 36" repeatedly and am still unsure how we ended up with this. We have a Savio skimmer/pump/waterfall setup which is easy to maintain but creates LOTS of current in our 7'X11' pond which is not so great for the plants. I think you will be very happy with goldfish and plants. I am surprised that I am enjoying the water gardening end of this as much as the fish! I've especially loved watching the hardy and tropical lilies grow and bloom. We have goldfish and koi and I love my Sarassa comets and shubunkin goldfish as much as the koi (and they are much less destructive with the plants). We are going to add a second, larger, deeper connected pond to our existing pond to separate our koi from the watergarden, hopefully this winter, and are going to upgrade our filtration at the same time. Someone with more knowledge than me should address filtration/pump suggestions with you. I would suggest investing in the very best liner material that you can afford - you don't want leaks or to have to redo this later! Also, I would suggest including a waterfall feature as it is so soothing and I think your husband will enjoy it. I hope you are building your pond close to your home where he can see the pond from the porch/patio and/or inside the house. I hope he gets to feeling better very soon. This is such a sweet thing you are doing for him!

Loss about 3 to 5 inch of water every day, seems like the leak from bottom of the liner, any good method to detect the leak spot, thanks.

I'm putting in a small (approx. 56"x56"x3', approx. <500 gal.) pond. At present, the plan is for dry stack, surface bonded cement (quikwall) walls, lined with EPDM, and capped with limestone blocks. The pond is intended to house comets, mosquito fish, and (maybe!) 1 koi, along with some plants. Water will be recirculated through an old firehose nozzle (1.5") placed above an adjacent retaining wall and pouring into the pond. Plumbing to the nozzle will be 1.5" flex PVC, running 25' to a pressurized filter (tentatively TetraPond 2500), and thence to a Sequence 750 external pump. I plan on fitting the pump with a filter basket. The pump will be installed approx. 10 feet from the pond and on a level approx. midway between the surface and bottom of the pond. I'm shooting for around 1000gph. What I'm trying to figure is how I should plumb the intake for the pump. I've considered a bottom drain, but two questions are holding me back, 1) I simply don't have room for a settling tank of any size, so I'd have to plumb the bottom drain directly to the filter basket/pump combo and I've read dire warnings about emulsifying debris/waste, and 2) is the 2" intake on a Sequence Pump a limiting factor (i.e., would taking a 3" pipe down to 2" create problems like clogging?), and 3) with a small fish load, is a bottom drain really neccessary? I'd appreciate any advice from more experienced ponders. Thanks!