tips please on placing and setting up a fibre glass pond?
I would also like a little stream running in to it. so i would like advice on filling round the sides,with a garden, also i would like a fountain in the pond, so i need advice on pumps and filters,also to mention that i would like the pond to be raised .also how to prevent blanket weed from the begining.
Raising the pond puts it at higher risk of freezing as the ground acts as insulation for the water.
The pumps and filters you need will depend upon the volume of water that the pond holds. You need to go to a reputable pond company for advice on this. I would avoid garden centres as they don't tend to know what they are talking about.
To keep the green out of the pond avoid putting it in direct sunlight. It also needs to be well stocked with plants to keep the pond balance in check. You should also avoid placing the pond under plants that shed, i.e, trees.
There are chemicals to treat blanket weed, but make sure you check all new plants for traces of blanket weed.
If planting around the pond ensure that the plants are not toxic to fish - a pond book or website could advise on these. Also try to avoid trailing plants that will trail into the pond. Also be aware of what size they will grow to as their roots could press against the pond and crack it.
Hope this is some help.
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 Garden Pond waterfall fibreglass Garden pond waterfall 30  US $98.00
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 Fibreglass pond waterfall 30 Garden pond waterfall US $79.02
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Even though you may not think it, we are now coming out of winter and thoughts must surely soon turn to spring, summer and all the good things that brings. In particular now is the time when many gardeners start thinking of building a pond. However, while the process of designing the shape, finding a liner and digging it out may seem a little intimidating, you can still have a good design for a fraction of the effort by using a preformed fibreglass pond liner.
Preformed pond liners, manufactured from moulded fibreglass, can be bought from any garden centre or aquatics retailer you might find. They have several distinct advantages over flexible liners. First, they are stronger and are less likely to suffer a tear. Second you can get to see the design and shape of the pond before you buy and third, they require less effort and can be installed more simply than by using a flexible option.
They are perhaps best used when building raised pond. For this you excavate a small base for the pond onto which you should place the liner. You can build up the edge with bricks or stones or indeed anything that comes to hand. For the top, disguise the liner edge with bricks or slabs. You could also opt for some basic pond side planting. This can look wonderful and give even the most artificial of raised ponds a pleasant natural look.
They can also be used for sunken ponds. Place the liner upside down and mark out an area. Excavate a hole an inch deeper than the overall depth of your liner. Place the liner in the hole and back fill the edges so that it fits the overall shape. Throughout the operation check with a spirit level that the pond is still firmly even. Finding out it's on a slant when it's all finished can be pure torture. Finally fill the pond with water. It should be left for about a week to settle at which point you can apply the edging of your choice. If done correctly the effect can be surprisingly natural, especially with the range of geometric shapes now available on the market.
However, a preformed fibreglass pond does have drawbacks. Although it might be more rigid than flexible liners, it is not always as strong. In fact some cheap preformed units offered by garden centres can be entirely inadequate for the task. If they do break then you really do have a problem. It's not as easy as plugging a leak in a flexible liner. When it's preformed you can find yourself having to buy an entire new liner and that means starting again from scratch.
Another problem is that you are tying yourself into a single design and when you get down to the nitty gritty a liner can look a lot smaller in the ground than it appears in the shop. However, you can get around this by having a specialist design the shape for you. Fibreglass is a marvellous material and can be made to fit just about any design. It takes a little extra cash but for some the lure of getting the right design is worth the expense.
Dom Donaldson is a gardening expert.
Find out more about Fibreglass DVD Duplication and the services offered from 10th Stuart Pease Ltd.
My new garden pond
