A pond you can enjoy for a long time is a pond with a good design. Designing your own pond does not have to be difficult. By thinking carefully in advance about important points of interest such as different plant zones, you will enjoy your pond for a long time. A solid pond design prevents you from having to correct mistakes afterwards and ensures a beautiful end result without much maintenance.

Advice for pond design

Of course, the very best thing about designing your own pond is that you can decide exactly how it will look. To get it right, we give you practical advice so that you can come up with a good plan. Setting up a pond is not easy when, for example, no zones have been created. Because a pond without zones, consisting of a square hole of, say, 1.50 m deep, can contain little to no plants.

The location of the pond

The first logical step is location. Where do you want your pond? Choose a spot in the sun, but not under trees. Falling leaves pollute the pond, so you'll spend a lot of time scooping out leaf litter, especially in the fall. About six hours of sunshine a day is desirable for the aquatic plants to grow well. Also, check in advance if there are any pipes or cables running in the ground to prevent them from getting in the way. In addition, when choosing the location of the pond, make sure that there is always a viewing side. By this we mean that you can look into the pond from the terrace or from the house. If you have a marsh area, keep it low and place flowering plants nicely at the edge of a terrace.

What kind of pond do you want?

So many people, so many desires. Decide what kind of pond you want to design. In a sleek garden, a mirror pond looks nice, but if you have a garden where you let nature take its course more, a natural pond is probably a fitting addition. This has a pond edge that is overgrown and naturally transitions from garden to pond. In the marsh zone, you put suitable plants that do an excellent job in this transitional area. However, a natural pond is more suitable for larger gardens, as it is only feasible with an area of 25^m2. Do you have a city garden? Then a (small) pond without a wetland is the most likely option. You can also make this one in the shape you want when designing your pond. Finally, for an excavated pond, we recommend a minimum volume of about 2000 liters of water. This gives you enough room to give plants and animals a chance while keeping algae at bay.

Create your own pond design

The next step is to make a plan of the garden showing your pond, plus the desired dimensions to scale. In addition, also make a cross-section of the pond, showing the different zones in which aquatic plants can grow. Simon's tip: For clarity, use colors for the different zones. Pay close attention to the depth at which plants can or should grow. Do you buy your plants in our webshop? The labels show the colors of the different zones (and thus depths) so that you can immediately place the plants in the right place in the pond. For a modest pond, assume two to three zones. The larger your pond, the more zones, with a maximum of six. Make your pond at least -80 to -100 cm deep but don't make the planting zones too narrow, so there is enough room to place the plants.

pond liner of pvc or rubber

The beauty of pond liner is that you can make the pond the way you want it. There are different types of liner, of various thicknesses and quality. You have the choice of PVC liner or rubber liner. PVC liner is cheaper, but has a limited lifespan. It lasts five to 10 years. Rubber liner is more durable because it lasts at least thirty years, but it is also a lot more expensive. An advantage of rubber liner is that it is stretchy and easier to work with due to its greater pliability.

Have you completed these steps? Great, then you can continue with our step-by-step plan for building and decorating your pond.