The next step is to dig the hole for your garden pond
You might be tempted to just grab a shovel and start digging, however, there is a much easier
way to help you determine the size & shape of your pond. Simply take a length of rope, string, chain, old
hose, (or whatever else you may have laying around the house), lay it on the ground in your desired shape,
then dig out the soil inside of this border. Although the shape is up to you, something with curved lines
(such as a kidney shape) seems most natural and easy on the eyes.
Don’t just dig a hole into the ground - get done twice as fast from ½ of the effort! When I put my first pond in
my garden, I dug the hole and carted the soil off in a wheelbarrow to use in a different part of the garden. It
wasn’t until my second pond, that I got the brilliant idea (from my wonderful husband) to lay the soil up along the
outer wall of the hole as we were digging. This method allows your pond edge to grow higher as you dig deeper. You
simply pile the soil up as you dig, then rake it off into a nice even ledge after you’re finished digging.
Lay a long board with a level on top of it across the edges of your pond to make sure that the edges of your
pond are level. If it’s off a bit, simply move the soil around until you get a nice even edge. If you don’t level
the pond now, when you fill it up with water, it will fill up unevenly & you’ll have a larger gap with the
liner showing at one end - and we don’t want that!
Very Important: Remember to remove any sharp objects like stones or roots from the inside of the pond!
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