Lee Calladine's video: Don t make these mistakes

Mistakes everyone makes on there first pond. Hi it's Lee from the Japanese Water Gardens in this video I am going to be talking about some common mistakes that people make when they build their first pond. Building a garden pond is hard work and can cost a substantial sum of money. So before you get started watch this video and hopefully you can avoid a few common mistakes. Location of the pond. There is usually a space at the bottom of every garden thick with weeds, you store your rusty wheelbarrow there and nothing much is going on. This would undoubtedly make a great place to build your new pond. Well actually no it's probably the last place you should choose. Your pond will need a supply water, electricity and drainage for maintenance. These are almost always easier to provide closer to the property. Being able to enjoy your pond year round from the comfort of your home is a good thing. An area that provides some shade and protection from the elements is great but don't build it under overhanging trees, that will drop leaves come autumn and block your view of the pond. What type of pond do you want? Do some research and understand the differences between Koi ponds and ornamental garden ponds before you decide. A traditional garden pond is not the same as a Koi pond. It is important to make a distinction between ornamental garden ponds and ponds for Koi. Garden ponds are built shallow with shelves for planting. They can be stocked with goldfish and a few small Koi but if your main interest is Koi then your pond design should be fundamentally different. The pond needs to be deeper and have a large efficient filtration system preferably running from a bottom drain. Filter to small or not suitable for the pond. This is the one mistake I can truly understand people making. Filtration systems for ponds are many and varied. There is an almost endless selection of systems available. Each manufacturer will tell you how great there systems are and how many 1,000s of gallons can filter but the size of pond has little to do with what filter you should choose and more down to stocking density and personal expectations. Take any claims about how much water these products can filter with a POUND of salt. Its easy to see why many people are confused and make poor choices. My advice is simple, buy the biggest filter you can afford and fit in the available space. Filters are never too big, only too small. Pond just to small. For some strange inexplicable reason ponds shrink in size when filled with water. At least they appear to. What you first thought was going to be your huge dream pond rapidly fills up with fish and you are left with no room to introduce any new colourful Koi. Don’t get me wrong I am not saying everyone needs to build a pond to cruise around on in the QE2. But its amazing how many people end up making there ponds bigger after a few years. More work more effort, more expense. Planning. This is possibly the most important thing that you need to do before you start building a pond. But most people never spend the time to make even the most simple of plans before they grab a spade dash out into the garden and start digging. They have no idea how they are going to build the pond, waterproof it or filter it. But they are are in a rush to get the project underway. Before long you will realize that you have made errors that are hard to reverse and severely limit your project potential. A simple plan should include a quick sketch or drawing of the pond and filter layout. If you can do something to scale great. A comprehensive list of materials so you can price up what your pond is going to cost and avoid a big shock when you get into the shop and realize the liner you need is going to cost hundreds more than you had anticipated. And most important of all think everything through properly, you can easily tear up your plan and start again. Fail to plan plan to fail. What mistakes did you make building your pond. Please leave some comments below. Thanks for taking the time to watch this video. If you would like to see more be sure to subscribe, click the bell thing and give the video a thumbs up. It's bye for now from Lee at the Japanesew Water Gardens.