Secrets to Building Natural Ponds the Right Way (New Method)

Secrets for building a natural pond without pumps, filters and chemicals. Find out how you can build a simple pond that requires almost no maintenance and no electricity costs. Build the pond the right so that there are no algae problems.

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Secrets to Building Natural Ponds the Right Way (New Method)
Secrets for building a natural pond without pumps, filters and chemicals. Find out how you can build a simple pond that requires almost no maintenance and no electricity costs. Build the pond the right so that there are no algae problems.

My lined natural pond has been n place for over 10 years. I do nothing to it, and use no pumps, filters or electricity. I don't even remove the leaves that fall in. The plants do all the work for me and keep the water very clear and algae free.

In this video I give some secrets that will allow you to have the same kind of pond. It is not difficult and anyone can do it.

List of Credits:

Music:

Photo Credits:

[pluckyfella]

You'd be pleased to know, Robert, that we've bought and applied your book Building Natural Ponds, and already have two frogs (that we affectionately call Freddy and Fiona lol) in our new pond. In August this year, we bought a Bermuda plastic pondbase with two variable-depth shelves for £23 from Amazon, roughly 3 feet long, and 2 feet deep and wide, irregular-shaped, with overflow duct, with Soft Rushes (Typha effusus) on a shelf of stones to help dragonflies if they come, and with some Hornworts to aerate the pond naturally (Ceratophyllum demersum).

You make valuable points such as that the submersed water-plants are essential for releasing oxygen into the WATER rather than into the air as do water-plants with above-surface parts releasing oxygen into the air rather than into the water where we want it; and that of keeping the nutrient levels relatively low, with just enough to feed the water-plants, but not enough to feed algae. We have no problem with algae as of late, just a little bit on the sides so far. Right next to the pond, though you don't mention this per se, we've built a hibernaculum for the frogs to overwinter and keep warm, besides helping the slowworms, so we are doing our part in conservation, that one could try, so to enjoy nature for themselves. Thank you. Your book is very good.

Just out of curiosity, sir, how do you view Crop Rotation? Do you mention Crop Rotation in your two Garden Myths books or gardenmyths dot com website articles or GardenFundamentals YouTube videos? If you do, please be so kind to direct my attention to it by a book page reference or link, and I will glean from it any valuable wisdom. The soil microbiologist Dr Elaine Ingham perhaps wisely suggests that, with the right soil biology with bacteria and fungi and a healthy soil food web, Crop Rotation should be unnecessary. With an abundance of the good bacteria and good fungi, they should be keeping the pathogenic kinds to a minimum or non-existent and not supposedly building up pathogens ergo diseases like Clubroot or White Rot with time, right? (is that last point a myth too? lol). This is our second year of getting very good crops, strictly no-dig to not disturb the fungal network. I am wondering: IS CROP ROTATION INDEED UNNECESSARY? We personally don't bother with this pain and can't be bothered with all that hard work lol. I hope that that is the case if done right. Is Crop Rotation also a myth? What is your experience there?

Not boasting here but we are doing very well with a beautiful allotment and garden of healthy Medium Loam soil alive with ground/rove beetles, lacewings, ladybugs, and loads of earthworms per square foot, never using tap-water, working with nature, applying good compost and manure, and your articles have been most helpful in that regard. And of course, with our removable pond; it's very satisfying to see a nice little pond with your help. All good fun, quite therapeutic too. Agape. Andrew (from England).

[johnleebass]

Checked this out before adding H20 to my new (simple) pond.. just to make sure I was OK without a dang pump! Thanks!

[Edward-rgmh]

Thank you for this video. I've run into the same problem you, i.e. every contractor I spoke with says I need pumps and filters. I have an existing lava rockwall structure 44'x20'x2' high. I've been using as a vegetable garden. I plan to dig it down deeper to maybe 4' and add liner and floating water plants. In Hawaii I get constant rain, so between water plants and rain, it should stay good quality. Also because it's above ground rockwall, no runoff from rain drainage. I want to raise talapia. Thanks again for this video

[WinnieFinesse]

Thankyou for this video, my mam has had a natural pond I made years ago and It in incredibly healthy but she's now like an upgrade and this seems great. I suppose as long as there are enough plants and not too much poor or dead matter, a good balance, just all be good!

[guiltygearcore]

Thank you for this beautiful video sir. Im planning to make a natural pond in my backyard.

[qfaira]

I have koi fish that are too big for their tank and living a unhappy and healthy life. During this quarintine, my family is all making a pond in our backyard for them.

[cyunglam]

Thanks for your videos! It becomes one of my favorite channel! I have a wetland at out backyard. Can we make a pond out of it?

[shadeaquaticbreeder]

I am a part of the group on fb! Lol. And amazingly my tanks/ponds that I set up as more sustainable ecosystems there is hardly any algae

[CMail]

My wife and I are so fascinated by your technique and we definitely don't want to deal with the filters and all. Just wondering if you deal with mosquito breeding issues since it's standing water and we live in Canada so I guess 4ft deep for the bottom self should be good enough? Thanks

[abhikmaiti]

I have maintained natural ponds since 5 years now. The trick is: lily, lotus, aquatic plants and NO FISH (Minimum fosh load).

[---njse]

Can I use your idea in the pot with natural underground sourcess of water?

[dellaflint]

I have been working on my back yard pond for the last year. It has no liner. I put a few guppies in there that lived through the summer to control mosquitoes> I took some out (4 ten gallon tanks worth ;-) before it got cold (the ones left in the pond just died :( I have to add water often during the heat (sure I have some seep out but less then the grass that was originally there). I use umbrella's stand around my pound so in the summer I have a nice place to sit and shade the surface and in winter I can remove then. I am planning to build a creek so I will eventually use a pump but for know all natural- no liner. In the heat of the summer I did use a air stone to make sure there was an enough O2 for the guppies.

[JS-jhcy]

What about linking two small ponds together, I have a tight wet spot next to my fence that has an old filled in well in the way and pump house, I will put a small wooden trough between them to save the winter rains

[morganvemu]

What about fresh water shrimp to eat the algae?

[language-stuff]

In a natural, clay-lined pond with no liner, do the plants still extract enough nutrients from the water to prevent algae if they are growing in the clay in the water?

[pabloirigoyen]

I asume that in order to keep the amount of nutrience in the water, letting rain water that run thru soil come into the pond is not a good idea, right? If so, is there any way arround this possible issue? I think it would be great to try and collect that rain water in my pond, but wonder about adding to much nutrience

[knyghtryder]

By far the biggest contributor to high nutrients in a pond is runoff from fertilized lawns. The best way to prevent that is to have a thick ring of wild tall grasses, like prairie grasses for a northern climate to bamboo for a tropical climate, something growing that will consume nutrients and grow tall before they enter the system,

[bufordfox]

There's a large Creek at the end of my street I just built rocks around and area and dug it out

[ooZuoo]

Your pond is super beautiful.

I would like to know :

If I buy the book, will I learn how to build a pond in which people can swim, and that uses no liner (either concrete or bentonite clay or something else... but the owner does not want a liner). It's in full sun for 10+ hours a day for at least 8 months of the year. Zone 8b.
The pond/pool will be 50m2.

[mthpowerwash]

I want this, I will add a liner and there is a local place where I can buy river rock and have them truck water. But I don’t want 6k in infrastructure like i lee getting told