It used to be that building a water garden was too difficult and expensive for the average homeowner. This is because concrete — expensive and difficult to install — was the main material used in construction. Most people had little choice but to call professionals for planning and installation, which made it a very expensive undertaking.

But now you can install a backyard pond using practical and comparatively inexpensive materials such as PVC and fiberglass. This brings the cost down dramatically and also makes installation much easier. You no longer have to make forms or mix concrete; all you have to do is dig out the hole and place the pre-made liner.

How much space is required for a small water garden?

In my opinion, there’s ALWAYS space for a pond. Perhaps as a water gardening enthusiast, I’m a little biased! But really, there are lots of examples of beautiful ponds that take up very little space.

Even the tiniest yards have room for some sort of water garden. I’ve known people who have raised goldfish and a single dwarf water lily in a ceramic pot on a balcony.

Where can I put a small water garden?

It depends what you want your pond to achieve for you. If it is just to be a reflecting pond, or a waterfall – and you don’t intend to grow flowering aquatic plants – then you can put your pond just about anywhere.

But if your goal is to grow flowering plants such as water lilies, you need to consider the amount of light that your pond gets. You see, most water lilies and other flowering pond plants require at least six hours of full sun per day to bloom. So you will need to place your pond in a place that gets that much sun during the growing season.

How deep does a home water garden need to be?

Like so many other issues in designing a water garden, it depends on what you want to achieve. If all you want is a simple reflecting pool, you’ll need only a few inches of water. But if you want to include plants and fish in your pond, I would recommend at least 18 inches of water for best results. This is because a shallow pond is more likely to freeze in winter, which could kill living organisms such as plants and fish.

As a general rule, to overwinter plants and fish in cold climates you need to have at least part of the pond to a depth of three feet so that the plants and fish have an unfrozen place to go.

What else should be considered when designing a small water garden?

You also need to consider the topography of the site when planning your small water garden. Don’t put it in the lowest part of your yard, because all the run-off of rainwater will collect there. Then your pond could overflow and you could have a flood in that part of your yard. It’s also important to ensure that wherever you put your pond, make sure that it has adequate drainage.

If you’re wanting a waterfall effect, it makes sense to site your pond in a place that has a steep slope. You can always create a slope by building up rocks and soil, but it’s a lot easier and less expensive if you start out with a natural slope.

Before starting any backyard project, be sure to check with your municipality concerning zoning laws and fencing codes. you might be surprised to learn that many cities and towns make no distinction between a water garden and a swimming pool. Therefore, security fencing may be required. Better safe than sorry.

Concluding thoughts…

A small water garden can be as simple as a barrel or ceramic pot. I’m sure that you will enjoy the variety of plant, bird, butterfuly and other animal life that is attracted to any water feature, no matter how small it is.

The first thing you need to do when building a home water garden is planning. Decide what you want out of your home water garden and what your budget will be.

This might be the hardest part of your project, because it can be hard to visualize what your home water garden will eventually look like. Also, you might not know just what you can and cannot do.

First Things First

Give yourself a consultation. Grab a notebook, a tape measure, and a camera, and go to work. Ask yourself these questions:

• What do I want to accomplish from my home water garden?
• What is my budget?
• Where will I be enjoying the home water garden from?
• Do I want to do the work myself, or hire someone?
• What future problems could I have by building the home water garden here?
• How can I make my water garden environmentally friendly?

What do you want your home water garden to accomplish?

Do you want a formal or informal style? Do you want to grow certain types of water garden plants?
Do you want a large number of fish, or a large amount of water falling from great heights, or both?
Do you want to attract wildlife, or keep them away from your fish and plants? Do you like the sound of running water as in a stream or cascading waterfall, or do you prefer a quiet pond?

What is your budget?

Set a budget for yourself. If you end up spending more for your home water garden feature than originally anticipated you could create unnecessary stress for yourself. When you set a firm budget, a lot of the decision making is almost out of your hands. For example, you can’t buy a $3000 filtration system if your total budget is only $10,000.

According to Brandon Vannest, who builds home water gardens for a living and is the author of How To Build Your Own Natural Waterfall, the biggest complaint that he gets from past clients is that they wish they had decided to make their home water garden bigger. So keep that in mind as you do your planning.

But as long as you follow some basic principles of good water feature design from the outset, you can always enlarge your home water garden in the future.

Where will you enjoy your home water garden the most?

The most common mistake people make in planning their home water garden is that they stick it back in the corner of the yard, just because they can’t think of a better place to put it.

You should be thinking of where you spend the most time in your house and in your yard. If you spend most of your time in the kitchen, and there are windows to your yard, direct the most exciting pieces of your home water garden toward those windows.

If you spend a lot of time in your garden, you should incorporate part of the water feature within that garden. Your home water garden is going to be one of the favorite spots for you and your family so why not integrate it into where you already spend most of your time?

Do you want to do the work yourself?

Building a home water garden is an ambitious undertaking, so you might want to get estimates from professional home water garden installers. But if you want to do the work yourself, there’s lots of home water garden books and videos available to help you.

Whichever way you decide to go, the first thing you’ll want to do is to take pictures of your yard and make notes on them. It never fails that as soon as you leave the area where you’ll be building your home water garden, the space seems to either grow in size or shrink. Make notes on the pictures as to how big the area is and where things are to be placed.

Now that you have the basics, you need to come up with a design. This is the fun part of building your home water garden: nothing is out of bounds. If you can imagine it – you can probably build it. Use the pictures on this site, or those in the free ebook How To Build Your Own Natural Waterfall.

At this point you don’t know much about rock placement, design ideas or implementation tricks, so don’t get too technical. Especially if you will be using natural stones, you can’t predict what they will look like together until they are set in place.

What future problems could you have?

You need to look at the terrain to answer this question. Consider these questions:

• Is there a natural slope that would make a pond difficult to build?
• If so, could you use this natural slope for a stream or waterfall?
• Is there a runoff problem from neighboring properties that could dump unwanted water into your pond?
• Are there any utilities or easements that would make construction impossible?
• Is there good access to bring in the materials to the site?
• Is there ground water directly under where the liner will be placed?

While most of these problems can be overcome with additional grading and or retaining walls, they will add to your budget, so it’s wise to select the best location for your home water garden from the start.

And don’t forget about home water garden safety. While you may think you are simply adding some landscaping, your local government may see it differently.

Depending on where you live, there will be different regulations regarding the installation of home water garden features. You may even be required to put a fence or other safety measure around your home water garden. So be sure to check with your local officials when planning your home water garden.