Pond Culture

A couple of years ago, I decided I wanted to build a pond in my backyard. I just wanted a small pond with a water feature, a plant or two, and a few fish. I really didn't want to dig a big hole in the yard, so I decided to build an above ground pond out of galvanized tin washtubs. My original concept was to have a large tub on the ground, with a smaller one above that so water could flow from one to the other. While shopping for the tubs, I found a really neat metal oil can, so I decided to run the hose through the spout of the can so that water would look like it was pouring out of the can into the top tub, which had a lip cut into it from which water flowed into the bottom tub. Now, I'm not an engineer, and I'm not really mechanical, so figuring out how to rig this setup wasn't really easy, but eventually I did it! I set the upper tub up on cinderblocks set behind the bottom tub and angled the top tub so that the water would flow downhill and into the bottom tub. The can part was trickier. I had to cut a hole in the bottom of the can so that I could run the hose up into the spout so that the water could flow out and into the top tub. I used a cinderblock as the base for the can and tilted the can so the water would flow out. I used zip ties and bricks to hold the can in place. Foliage around the pond covers the fastenings. The concept was to make something that looked sort of industrial, but that would blend in with the natural surroundings. In a future blog I will elaborate further on the materials and maintenance. Here's a photo of the finished product, before adding plants and fish.