Artificial reservoirs in suburban areas are equipped quite often. In most cases, these are small decorative ponds inhabited by fish and lined with beautiful marsh plants. Also, sometimes swimming artificial reservoirs are equipped in dachas and in the courtyards of residential buildings.
How to make a project
Creating an artificial reservoir in a suburban area is difficult, but very exciting. The owner of a private house who decides to dig a pond, first of all, should decide on its location. A decorative artificial pond can be arranged almost anywhere in the yard or garden. It is important to try to make the pond fit into the landscape design of the site as harmoniously as possible.
Swimming artificial reservoirs are located in a place well lit by the sun. In the shade, the water in such a bathing pond, even on the hottest day, is likely to remain too cold. If you place a pond under the trees, there will be much more garbage in it.
When drafting an artificial reservoir, the owner of a suburban area,of course, you need to decide on its size and shape. The easiest way is to dig a rectangular or round pond on the site. But in most cases, the owners of suburban areas still equip ponds of complex shape. Reservoirs of this type look as natural as possible in the yard or in the garden. Such reservoirs are called designer.
Cleaning Methods
Reservoirs in the landscape design of suburban areas play a very important role. Even a swimming pond in the yard should look attractive. Changing the water in such a reservoir too often will most likely be difficult for site owners.
In most cases, the pond is filled only once a year - in the spring. Because of this, the water in the country "lake" can stagnate, bloom and silt. To prevent this from happening, the owner of the allotment will have, among other things, to take care of cleaning the pond. The easiest way to prevent flowering in an artificial pond is in two ways:
- by periodically adding special chemicals to the pond;
- by arranging the bioplato.
The first cleaning method can be used mainly for decorative pond only. And even then it will be suitable only when it is not supposed to contain fish or plant any plants in the reservoir.
In most cases, the owners of suburban areas even at the stage of digging a pond provide for it and a bioplateau. This is the name given to a small part of an artificial reservoir, which is shallow water and planted with special plants that contribute to the development of usefulmicroorganisms. It is believed that in order for the bioplateau to work effectively, it must occupy at least 15% of the area of the reservoir itself.
Large garden ponds rarely silt up. Basically, owners of small reservoirs of this type face such a problem. But to equip a bioplateau, just in case, should also be done when digging a pond of considerable area.
What tools and materials will be required
To create an artificial reservoir in a suburban area with your own hands, you will need to prepare:
- waterproof geotextile;
- shovel and garden wheelbarrow;
- concrete mixer;
- natural stones of different sizes;
- marsh plant seedlings.
To equip a swimming pond, you will also need washed river or artificial sand.
How to make an artificial reservoir: earthworks
Before you start digging a pit for a pond, you need to mark its boundaries. The easiest way to do this is to use pegs and some bright cord.
The depth of the ponds - both decorative and swimming - usually have no more than 1.5-2 meters. The main thing is not to reach the ground vein when digging a pit. Otherwise, the water in the pond subsequently, even with the use of a waterproofing agent, may be too cold for swimming, and for fish or plants.
Earthworks are carried out during the arrangement of an artificial reservoir in the usual way. That is, take outsoil with a bayonet shovel and put it in a pile next to the border of the future pond. Then they collect the earth with a shovel and take it out on a wheelbarrow outside the boundaries of the site.
To make the bottom of the pond flatter in the future, it is best to start earthworks from its center. Next, you need to move to the edges, gradually reducing the depth.
Creating an artificial reservoir on the site: arrangement of the bottom and walls
After the pit is dug, its bottom and walls should be carefully leveled. Also, the roots of plants and stones must be completely removed from the pit. At the next stage, the pit should be covered with geotextiles with an overlap on the edges of at least 20–30 cm. Subsequently, the waterproofing agent will not let rain or flood muddy water from nearby soil layers into the pond.
At the next stage, the geotextiles in the pit are covered with a layer of sand. Further, colored pebbles are laid on the bottom and walls of the decorative pond and beautiful stones are placed on it in a chaotic manner. In the same way, geotextiles are also masked on the sides of the reservoir.
How to strengthen the foundation pit
If a swimming pond is excavated on the site, the work on arranging its bottom and walls after filling with sand will have to be continued with concreting. A mortar for this purpose should be prepared using moisture-resistant Portland cement, sifted sand and crushed granite.
Fill the bottom and walls of the swimming pool with a layer of at least 5 cm. In this case, the cement substrate must be reinforced.
After the concretewill gain sufficient strength (not earlier than in two weeks), the arrangement of the bottom and walls of the swimming pond can be continued. In most cases, the cement layer in such reservoirs is covered with river washed or artificial sand.
Arrangement of the bioplato
Next to the main pit, when digging a pond, one more depth of about 15 cm should be provided. The bottom of the sump is subsequently also laid with geotextiles and covered with sand or pebbles. In order for the bioplateau to work as efficiently as possible in the future, marsh plants such as:
- broad-leaved cattail;
- black sedge;
- marsh iris;
- looker;
- air;
- marigold;
- derbeinik;
- marsh calla.
Pond Design Rules
Creating an artificial reservoir in a suburban area is, of course, a creative matter. Decorating a pond in a garden or yard should be done correctly.
Decorate artificial reservoirs usually in accordance with the style of the suburban area itself. For example, it is believed that large stones must be present in the design of a pond in a Japanese garden. When choosing this method of decoration, the shores are often planted with undersized shrubs.
An artificial reservoir in the French style must have a clear shape. In addition, almost always it is a fairly large garden pond. The shores of such reservoirs are usually emphasized with tiles made of natural or artificial stone.
Chinese-style pond can be distinguished from any other by its lush vegetation. Such artificial reservoirs usually have a very complex natural shape.
It is very fashionable today to decorate ponds, decorated in any style, with lighting. At the same time, in order to make the pond more spectacular, the lamps can be placed not only on the shore, but also under water. In the evening, this design of the site looks just great.
Which plants to choose for decoration
Of course, in order for an artificial pond to look as impressive as possible, you should choose the right plants for decorating it. To decorate a beautiful pond in the country, you can use, for example:
- bulrush;
- pontederia;
- headless;
- three-leaf watch.
Such plants are placed on the banks of the pond. In the pond itself, you can plant:
- water lilies;
- water hyacinth;
- pistiyu;
- hornwort;
- fern azolla.
It is better to plant aquatic plants not directly in pebbles, but in pots. In this case, in the future it will be much easier to control their reproduction, as well as remove them indoors for the winter. In the cold season, garden plants intended for planting in a pond are usually kept at home in aquariums.
How to care
A properly designed pond can become a real decoration of a suburban area. An artificial reservoir will not cause any problems to the owners of a private house in the future only if it is properlycaring for him.
Very often, the owners of suburban areas are faced with such a nuisance as the flowering of water in the pond. To prevent this from happening, the site owner should:
- timely clean the pond from foliage and debris;
- don't let the aquatic plants grow too big.
Weeding the swamp flora on an artificial reservoir is just a matter of hands. Cleaning the pond from foliage and debris is most often done using a net.
Using chemicals
Silting of the bottom and walls often becomes a very big problem for pond owners. It is unlikely that you will be able to get rid of green plaque in a pond manually. In this case, even if there are beautiful plants in the pond, you will have to use chemicals.
The owners of suburban areas usually fight silt in artificial reservoirs with the help of flocculants. Fish from the pond, if any, must, of course, be removed before using such products. They may die from contact with aggressive chemicals.
Ponds are usually filled with borehole water. In areas in different areas, it may have a different composition. In some cases, it may contain too much iron. A feature of such water is that too little oxygen is dissolved in it. And this, in turn, has a bad effect on the condition of pond fish. To improve the situation, an aerator or a fountain should be installed in the reservoir.
