permaculture

["Kevin Topek" <ktopek@houston.rr.com>]

Dear Anne,

If you must line your pond, cover the liner with dirt to create an anaerobic
bottom sediment for the health of the pond. You do this by excavating the
pond 6" deeper than you require, line it, then backfill 6" of the bottom
dirt. This hides the liner, minimizes punctures and helps the ecosystem in
general. I do not recommend carpet.

Gambusia fish east mosquito larvae after they have matured a few days. The
fish are easy to obtain from other ponds. Dragonfly nymphs also eat
mosquitoes.
Easily available water plants are: parrotfeather, pickrelweed, mallows,
duckweed, sedges, horsetail and a whole host of other weeds. These all
establish well.
Shade is necessary, so plant the edges. I am letting my parrotfeather take
over to shade my pond in full sun until the bananas come out and help with
shading. It has worked well for the winter and I will remove 75% of the
water weed cover in a few weeks as shade leaves emerge.

I like a pond at least 40" deep in one spot, preferably more! I stair-step
the sides so a toddler or person can climb out if they fall in. I make a
deep area, trashcan size, not necessarily in the middle, to stay warm in the
winter and cool in the summer. Do not make a steep edge, it will inhibit
amphibian crossings.

Make sure the pond drains the yard, or you waste water. It may need
occasional refilling from a water source. Ponds have wild ecosystem swings
in the early stages, so be prepared. You may lose some species until it
establishes a healthy ecosystem.

I prefer ponds that feed into and from the water table, that means no liner.
If you dig deeply, you may find clay. Mind you, I'm on all gumbo clay and
the first water table is shallow, 12' or less. I have had marvelous success
with many unlined ponds, including sandy ones,  for clients here on the
Texas Gulf Coast. If your unlined pond fails, you can always dig deeper and
line it. My pond has increased the number of species in my urban yard by
about 70, or two orders of magnitude.

Have fun with this!

Kevin Topek



----- Original Message -----
From: "Toby Hemenway" <hemenway@jeffnet.org>
To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 2004 1:28 PM
Subject: [permaculture] Pond question


> This is from a friend of mine who's been trying to ubscribe to this
> list but has been having trouble; she asked me to post it. Please cc
> her in any reply. --Toby
>
>


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Hello, my name is Anne Erlandson.

I'm a newbie permaculturist (just discovered Pc last fall and took a
PDC last Dec) and am trying to do a Pc makeover on my Seattle,
Wa yard. I've got most of it figured out, but I'm kinda stuck on the
pond. I've got space for a 10'x10' (wavy edged) pond and want to
design it to host fish, frogs (and other amphibians if appropriate) and
ducks. My soil is practically pure sand (medial moraine) so I'm going
to have to put down a pond liner (probably with old carpet underneath
for longevity). I'd like to design the pond so that it is as self
regulating as possible so that I don't have to bother with filtration,
aeration etc if possible and so that radical pond cleanout is kept to a
minimum. For the summer (dry) months, I'm probably going to attempt to
keep the water levels up with greywater that has been filtered through
a constructed wetland .

So my questions are:

Can I do this!? All of the pond books that I've found at my library
are for the ornamental gardener type and the designs all mandate that
you keep the water clean and keep the poop out. But, there must be
another way! :)

What type of fish? I've heard that fish eat mosquito eggs so we've
gotta have them, but what kind would be happy in my small pond. What
will they eat? I don't really want to have to feed them fish food.

What kinds of plants? What plants will do all the filtering, aerating,
fish feeding, etc so that I don't have to?

Is shade mandatory? My yard is currently pretty exposed, though I'm
working on it with my nascent food forest.

How deep? For the fish, for the amphibians etc.

Am I overlooking anything?

Thanks!

Anne



"We do not inherit the Earth from our parents;
we borrow the Earth from our children." - Anon





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