Pond in Centre of lawn - How to edge ?

Submitted by silky123 on Wed, 07/02/2007 - 1:47am.

Hi there, in the next few weeks I am going to commence incresaing the size and depth of pond in my garden.

Thanks for the previous advise you gave on my stream and vegatbale filters.

The problem I cannot quite resolve is how I edge my pond. I want it to look as natural as possible, and be as wildlife freindly as possible, and also easy to maintain.

I was thinking of some sort of ornamental grasses to edge it , so I can just mow upto them.

Also some sort of conifer that grows out horizontally to create some shade in the pond.

I'm not sure a gravel/pebble beach effect would work as weeds/grass would just grow in it.

Any ideas on how to edge a pond in the centre of a lawn gratefully received.

thanks
shaun sykes

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Pond in the centre of the lawn

Submitted by Peter May on Fri, 09/02/2007 - 8:58pm.

Depending on how you intend to increase your pond size, you will leave yourself various options open as to how you edge it.
We'll be covering this in detail in a few weeks time, but if we go to what we have covered so far this year ie the simple wildlife style/ conservation style pond as in the article "How to build a wildlife pond" (http://watergardenermagazine.com/node/613), you can see the potential for a beach effect there, which starts as a marginal area and spreads outwards from the pond. This can stretch as far as you like. The gravel or pebbles wont have much of a weed problem over the marginal parts.There will however be a problem with the marginals running riot in it.
If the gravel or pebbles stretches over the normal soil area then you could put a membrane down. If you did want to plant grasses through the membrane this can be very effective and will also help to keep them under control.
The pebbles are best mixed in size with some larger ones defintely towards the outside edge. In fact if you want to make a clean hard edge to the pond where the pebbles meet the lawn then the stones can be large enough and numerous enough to make a solid edge at the lawn. This also can be effective.

This style of pool is effective in a lawn that is more or less flat.
If there is a fall of more than a roughly 15cm or 6inches, it is probably wiser to put in some sort of skeletal framework. I used to do this with concrete blocks. This would give you the opportunity to put a hard clean edge right round the water. And if the pond comes out of the ground at one end, the outside can be faced with rock, brick or stone. Or if it goes into rising ground at the other end, the inside face of soil can be lined with walling or rock.

The plants would sit directly in the water in baskets and be much more under control(more about that soon).
If you keep the edge super simple then the sort of ornamental grasses (varieties of Carex and there is Cyperus too - but dont get tempted by species of Glyceria or Petasites especially the conservation style pond) that get sold in the marginal plant department can do a lot to create a natural looking feature that blends perfectly with the lawn. They are brilliant at keeping the water clear too!
Any sort of grasses look great next to a pond if you want to extend an area or border down to the edge.They add movement and colour right through some of the dullest months. The actual edging to the pond can be discretly disguised with a bark mulch or pebbles again. In parts where the lawn meets the pond, a hard edge enables you to know where exactly you can mow up to.

If you have a brick edge on top of your blockwork skeleton and you have a flexible liner, it can come up behind the brickwork thus allowing you to have the water level right up to almost the top of the bricks.

If the pond is liable to attract people as much as wildlife, then a bit of paving around the edge may be useful.


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