Raised pools or backyard ponds: the inspiration to water out of the ground in your garden.

Water features raised out of the ground need extra consideration when it comes to strength of infra-structure, but basically the rules to getting it right are pretty much the same as any water garden. These will follow in subsequent articles.

It occurred to us that if you were following the step by step guides to putting in your own pond, if you were building one that was out of the ground then you might think there was one or two gaps in the step-by-steps as far as putting in raised ponds. The differences are hidden and start at the very beginning and this needs to be addressed.

SEEKING INSPIRATION

If you are new to the step-by-steps and still at the 'seeking inspiration stage' you might ask why you might want to consider a raised pool for a water garden. Here are a number of very good reasons below.

Advantages of raised ponds and water feaures:

There is very little digging involved. For gardens with a high bedrock or high water table this is essential. Sloping gardens often have this problem where it is often quite possible to dig in the water garden to a certain extent, but it may be practical to have part of the pool raised out of the ground. If the ground slopes away from the house, it makes the water surface more visible from the house. To dig means excess spoil, great mounds of earth that have to be disposed of.

Formal gardens lend themselves to raised water features. Patios and parterrres need a focal point and a dramatic water feature performs the perfect role. Being raised it can also function as a cool or interesting place to sit. Being raised they make an architectural statement to the garden design,reflecting the style or period of the garden or house design.

Raised pools are safer for children and invalid people. Also they are more accessible and the surface is easier to see. Koi keepers like raised pool for this reason. Also the mechanics of filtration etc can be more easily be hidden away behind.

Disadvatages:

Labour intensive if stonework is involved. But always more expensive.

Any raised walls need to have a good footing or foundation that is the depth equivalent of one quarter to one third of the height of the wall. They should also extend two or three times the width of the wall. If you build a concrete block skeleton then this extra width serves to provide a footing for the facing stone inside and out. If the feature is large then building skill and practices must be employed for safety's sake as one young couple, who had the contents of a pond arrive through their dining room French windows, will testify, and in fact did testify in court.

The gallery of inspiration below will reinforce many of the pros and cons. All of the examples are possible, starting with the most practical and ending with designer's fantasies towards the end.

Alan Sargent's Silver Reflection Garden at the Chelsea Flower Show	Architectural Heritage at the Chelea Flower show sell formal fountains with raised pools complete.	Centenary Garden by Rupert Golby, Chelsea 1997: This was the most expensive garden ever at Chelsea at the time at something like £675,000, but it has long since been over taken.	Geoff Whiten's Goldfish Garden, Chelsea 2003	Treble Landscapes: a rasied front edge to a huge pool. The blockwork for this wall was laid flat and reinfoorced with ties.	Sundays by Cherry Burton at Hampton Court 2000. A wooden framework sandwiches the pond liner.
Roger Platt at Chelsea 2002, uses an old water tank for a simple and effective raised water feature.	Ssh-Its our Garden by Green by Design at Hampton Court: a garden for disabled children safe for play.	Porter Homes near Bradley Stoke, Bristol: The liner is sandwiched within the brickwork.	Paul Toms for Chenies Golden Pond at Hampton Court 2001: Water trough style pond	Wishing well at Hampton Court 2006.: ...and wishing well ponds need to be raise too.	A fibre glass pond with biological filtration and planting trough.: This features in the following 'Quick Fire' step-by-step
What we Want Garden by Henley Salt for Hampton Court 2002: A raised pool can blend into the simple, robust and informal but modern look.	Out of the Woods by Andrew Yates - Tatton Park: Not all raised pools need to be formal. Rustic and natural materials have their place in the right setting.	J Salt and R Bullock with the Queen Victoria Burns Hospital Garden at Hampton Court: Sometimes you need a raised pool to be able to create a waterfall into the next level of the water garden.	Madison Cox for Yves St Laurent at the 1997 Chelsea Flower Show: It not what you do, its the way that you do it! Raised pool with fountain in a courtyard, and exotic plants? Its been done before...but not like this.	Fiona Lawrence's Sensuality at the Chelsea Flower show 2003(?): Weeping wall into a raised pool had echoes of the minimalism that was rife at the time.	Tom Stuart-Smaith in one of his minimalist style gardens at Chelsea 2003: The more simple the design, with clear precise lines, the more the construction needs to be immaculate.
Cleve West at Chelsea 2004(?): The raised pond is elevated and diminished to a very giant vase. Once more Cleve West shows us how to 'think outside the box'.	Millenium Revolution by Charlottel Ashburner, Hampton Court 2000.: Using different materials in a traditional context can produce something that looks unique.	Claire Whitehouse, the Really Rubbish Garden, Chelsea 04 or 05: Recycled materials like CD plastic and water bottles were used to make this pond. Full marks!	More simplicity.. A raised pool lifts and otherwise inconsequential waterfeature above the distractions.	Freya Lawson's 'Heavenly' garden for Chelsea in 2006: Here we see the function of a small raised pool as a pedestal for a remarkable sculpture.	Hampton Court 2006: The current trend for overflowing pools and what they call "infinity pool" required some sort of raised pool.

Christopher Bradley-Hole in his Garden From the Desert at Chelsea in 2003.

As you can see there are innumerable ways of dealing with the concept of a raised pond. Perhaps the easiest is Christoper Bradley-Hole's rusty iron black water reflective pool. This would be simply be prefabricated out of sheets of steel and placed in position. Funnily enough that is the hardest bit. To make something like this look good without the preset rules of say the formal garden layout to guide you, requires a lot of courage and confidence to get it right and know that it will stay right.