A garden pond made from natural stones is easy to build and often cheaper than a prefabricated plastic pool. Created as a rustic raised bed, it fits in particularly well with the look of small plots of land and can be planted very close to nature, even with tall plants.
How to build a garden pond with stones?
A natural stone pond is built by layering stones without cement, with wide stones in the lowest layer providing stability. After reaching the desired height, the wall is lined with a PVC film and filled with water. The design offers natural niches for planting.
Outer walls made of natural stone are a popular and particularly visually impressive design solution for ponds with shallow water depths, which are sometimes even designed like raised beds. The advantage, especially for small gardens with unfavorable soil: There is no need to dig a large pit; a shaft depth of 20 to 30 cm is often enough.
Construction of the natural stone pond
If the widest possible stones are used in the lowest load-bearing layer, the entire building will have the necessary stability, so that the height from the ground to the top edge can be around 50 cm. Therefore, you don't need any cement to build it, as the stones are just layered on top of each other. There should be three to a maximum of six layers; if necessary, each one can be solidified with a little sand in the spaces between the stone slabs.
Line stone wall with foil
After the desired height has been reached, the stone edges on the inside are softened by padding particularly protruding areas with earth in order to avoid later damage caused by cracks in the foil. For the following interior lining, for a pond size of 400 by 600 by 60 cm, you will need a 31.18 m2 PVC film (€365.00 on Amazon) (544 by 736 cm) with a thickness of one millimeter.
For reasons of stability, a protective fleece (thickness: 1mm, material thickness: 300 g/m2) should be laid out on the pond floor. The initially protruding edge of the film was estimated at 60 cm/side.
Film requirements for other pond sizes
- 300 by 200 by 50 cm: 10, 25 m2 (442 by 352 cm);
- 600 by 600 by 50 cm: 44.67 m2 (731 by 7.31 cm);
- 1,000 ma 600 by 60 cm: 69.59 m2 (1,130 by 736 cm);
Fill natural stone pond with water
The pool is first submerged in water to such an extent that the foil lies taut on the ground and the pond is a quarter full. Any leaks on the underside would now be visible. If everything is tight, cut the foil back to the side to an overhang of 30 cm, roll it inwards and place a finishing layer of stones on top.
Tip
If the stones are cleverly stacked on top of each other, there are also sufficiently large niches in the interior for later planting, which therefore looks particularly natural.
