Water garden excavation | How to excavate garden pond: Gardening

Helping You Become a More Successful Gardener

You’ve been dreaming of having a water garden long enough. You’ve planned, budgeted, designed and picked your liner. Now the real work begins: digging!

Mark the dimensions of your flexible-liner pond or stream from your garden plan, including its overall depth and the placement and size of marginal shelves. For rigid liners, turn your liner upside down and trace the outline of it onto the soil, marking the interior shelves as well. Use a length of hose, some flour or spray paint to mark the outline…then dig in!

Pond Excavation

Pond Excavation - Step 1

Outline the shape of your future pond or stream on the ground. Place symmetrical rigid liners upside down to mark their shape; place irregular shaped liners upright and outline using stakes. Follow your plan’s design dimensions for flexible liners.

Pond Excavation - Step 2

Use stakes and a line level to establish a level reference line above the excavation. Excavate the entire site to the shallowest shelf, mark again, then dig deeper sections where necessary.

Pond Excavation - Step 3

Use a straightedge and carpenter’s level to check that the edges, shelves and bottom of the excavation are perfectly level.

Pond Excavation - Step 4

Line the base, sides and shelves of the hole with landscape root-barrier fabric.

Pond Excavation - Step 5

Backfill the excavation with a 4-inch layer of builder’s sand. Rake smooth, tamp, level to the reference string, and check that correct depth has been met at every point. Add or remove sand as needed. You’re now ready to install your liner.

Warnings

Before you start installing your garden pond, check with your town or village for electrical wiring codes, property line information and depth-of-pond safety requirements so you can build your pond within the letter of the law.

Tips

A solid, smooth base is a necessity when installing a water feature. Remove all roots or sharp rocks that might puncture the liner. Remember, water is heavy and will compact the base, so make sure the soil, aggregate and sand are tamped firmly before proceeding to install the liner.
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Tools

A sharp shovel or spade will ease the excavation of your water feature. You’ll also want a dry, straight piece of lumber long enough to span the breadth of any two points within the excavated area to use as a straightedge. It will balance a carpenter’s level as you dig, grade and shape the excavated area. A heavy-duty tarp is a useful aid for receiving and hauling off removed turfgrass and topsoil.
A tamping tool has a flat and heavy metal plate with a tall handle attached to its center-point fixtures. It’s used to compact soil and aggregate for construction. (For large jobs, tamping machines with vibrating soleplates are a time-saving alternative.)

Next Steps

Building a Simple Water Garden (With a Preformed Liner)
Garden ponds offer a whole new layer of color, texture and sound to the landscape. Building an aquatic garden on your own may sound intimidating, but it’s not as difficult as you might think. Learn the steps to take when installing a simple water garden with a preformed liner.
Installing a Flexible Liner
You’ve worked hard on digging the hole for your water garden – the good news is that installing the flexible pond liner is much easier! Here are the simple steps to properly installing it.
Streams of Thought (and How to Line Them)
Streams and watercourses create stunning focal points that add extra beauty and sound to the water garden. Whether starting from scratch or expanding an existing feature, learn the points to ponder when adding a stream to your site, including the proper way to line a watercourse.

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