To decorate the garden, designers offer innovative ideas and solutions, including decorative ponds. However, to create such an element of landscape design from scratch requires a large piece of land and a certain amount of finance. There is a more budgetary way to independently make a certain area of ​​the garden or cottage original is to create a decorative pond from an old bathtub.

Choosing a place for the pond

To equip a pond, it is recommended to choose a plot of a summer house or garden located in partial shade. Direct sunlight is not the best place, since they burn flowers and bushes growing nearby (light is reflected from the water and gives glare to the plants nearby). But this is not the only reason to avoid well-lit areas to create a reservoir.

Other reasons:

• blooming of water from a large number of fungi and microorganisms that love a warm environment;
• the settlement of animals (frogs, toads, insect larvae).

Important! Nand the summer period it is quite possible to settle in a mini-pond aquarium goldfish (Chinese crucian carp). A prerequisite - at the first cold snap to catch pets and place in the aquarium in the house.

Ideal location: shade or partial shade with good airflow and visibility, in any part of the garden. Most often, the creation of ponds is practiced in the most distant location, because near a makeshift pond you can place a bench, a table, sculptural compositions and create a cozy landscape corner. Given the size of the bath, it is not rational to place the pond as the main landscape object in the center of the garden, although if its territory is small it is permissible.

Cast-iron containers with dimensions of 2 × 2 m and a drain for water are a wonderful design material. On the basis of such a pool, the owner of the site can also construct a small fountain, a waterfall (a drain hole is useful for this).

Necessary materials and tools

To create a mini-pond with your own hands, you will need the following tools and materials:

• shovel;
• old cast-iron bathtub;
• measuring capacity;
• crushed stone, sand, stones;
• wooden stakes;
• twine;
• plastic pipes (diameter from 50 mm);
• rubber hose;
• concrete;
• construction glue;
• spatula for laying out the solution;
• containers for mixing glue;
• wheelbarrows for transporting land;
• buckets are garden.

The opinions of designers regarding whether it is possible to make a pond from an old acrylic bath, a faulty pool or a children's plastic bath differ. But most are inclined to believe that cast iron is still the optimal material for the composition.

The acrylic coating from the constant exposure to water will burst sooner or later, will begin to peel off, therefore such walls are primed and covered with a layer of tile glue, on top of which natural stone is laid. The cost of this design solution is quite high. A plastic baby bath will also require additional decorative elements, lining with stone or marble fragments from the outside. There are no bans on the use of both materials, the decision remains only with the owner and his imagination.

Step by step instructions for creating

What you need to do step by step to decorate the site with an improvised pond is described in the instructions:

1. The first and most important step: dig a hole wider by 20 cm than the original dimensions of the tank and 25 cm higher than its upper edge (for example, if the object is 2 m long and 60 cm wide, respectively, add 20 cm on each side and 25 cm in height).
2. Next, make an additional hole 40 cm deep, in which you need to put a sheet of tin or a stainless steel pan without a bottom. Lay large rubble and pebbles there (this is the future drain, through it the water will immediately go into the soil and will not fall back).
3. Pour the bottom of the pit evenly with a layer of sand 20 cm high, compact it, and only then carefully pull out the pan or sheet (at all these stages you will need a building level so that the future pond looks natural and is level with the rest of the ground in the garden).
4. After that, install a pond container in the pit, check the level, and gently wrap the edge of the tub with rubber twine to seal. Also around the edges you can lay out round river stones, sprinkle them with sand or fasten together with cement mortar.
5. Close the bottom drain of the bath with a stopper so that later it is possible to release water, and the side - to cement, since it is not necessary.

Planting

Flowers and shrubs are an integral part of the lake landscape. Thanks to plants, the whole natural composition looks natural and beautiful. Any flowers are suitable for landscaping, but the only nuance of their planting is that you need to arrange the plants so that the stems and leaves do not fall into the water and do not cause waterlogging. Possible plant options: iris, geranium, brunner, host, loosestrife, kaluzhnitsa, garden geranium.

Did you know? A luxurious option for decorating the garden is a bio pond with a water purification system. They were first built in China at the end of the last century, and since then this type of design solution for arranging a pond has been considered the most expensive and durable.

The landing process includes several rules:

• closer to the edge are low-growing flowers and bushes;
• Spreading plants are planted at a small distance, for example, fern;
• the edges are fenced with stones, boulders or a bamboo fence;
• flowers are selected so that they are adapted to one type of soil and prefer partial shade.

Decoration with stone and other materials

The decorative design of the site and the mini-pond is not limited to flowering plants and coniferous shrubs. Stones and sculptures will give the site a special charm and charm.

Possible types of decoration include:

• garden sculptures in the form of animals, gnomes, jugs, amphorae, etc .;
• medium sized river stones;
• giant boulders;
• stones with hieroglyphs;
• bamboo hedges;
• all kinds of decorative elements in the Japanese style and water flowers (water lilies).

Reservoir care

The basic rules for caring for a reservoir include such actions:

• monitor the purity of water (it is convenient if Chinese crucians live in the pond - they eat insect larvae that somehow appear in the pond);
• timely water the plants located around;
• clean the area of ​​debris and leaves, make sure that they do not fall into the mini-pool;
• It is very important to install a cleaning filter even on the smallest water tank (it will collect small debris in a special compartment, which should be cleaned once a month).

If you follow all the rules of caring for an artificial mini-lake, it will delight you throughout the summer season.

Cleaning

The procedure is performed by both a mechanical filter and cleaning plants. These include tillia, buttercup, hornwort, swamp, elodea, fontinalis and urut. In such plants, crucians (goldfish) feel comfortable. The mechanical method of purification fills the water with oxygen, and “living” filters create ideal conditions for the life of fish.

Did you know? Chinese red (gold) fish symbolize wisdom and wealth. They are bred to purify water from helminth larvae and even run into drinking bowls for horses so that they eat small parasites.

Winter preparations

For winter time, the pond is freed from the water through the lower discharge. This must be done before the first frost, so that the water comes off easier. The surface of the reservoir is covered with tarpaulin or roofing material, which is surrounded by stones or bricks on its sides so that it is not blown away by the wind. In the spring, the artificial pool is again filled with water.

Homemade artificial mini-pond is an unusual decoration of the garden, which, moreover, symbolizes purity and wealth. With proper care and regular cleaning, he will delight the owners of the garden throughout the warm season, until the end of autumn.