How I Built My Koi Pond

Just about anyone can build a garden pond, but it is not a small project. After reviewing dozens of pond designs, talking to a lot of pond owners, reading several pond books and talking to a few professional pond installers, I decided to build a pond that was half above ground and half below ground. This delivered the benefits of having an above ground koi pond (you can get very close to the fish, it creates a nice bench to sit on, and the pond stands out in the garden a bit better) and the benefits of a below ground koi pond: deeper water allows for more volume so the temperate doesn't fluctuate too much, it also makes for stronger koi).

Because we live in a high desert area, it simply wasn't responsible to build too big a koi pond. Being that koi ponds are supposed to be at least 2000 gallons, I finally settled on a design that was around 1800 gallons. The pond is 8.5 feet square on the inside, 4.5 feet deep at the center, and 2.5 feet around the edges.

Here's a series of photopgraphs - with comments - that shows every step of building the pond, from siting the pond and digging the hole to adding the plants and fish.

DIGGING THE HOLE & BEFORE

BUILDING THE WALLS OF THE POND

SETTING THE LINER AND FINISHING THE OUTSIDE

ADDING THE UNDERGRAVEL FILTER, ARRANGING THE PLANT BASKETS

FILLING AND PLANTING THE POND