DIY Network

Installing a Water Garden: Leveling the Shelves From "Waterscapes" episode DWAT-102

	A plant shelf within the pond helps support the cultivation of a variety of aquatic plants.
	The coping shelf will hold the rocks and boulders that will form the edging around the pond and will serve as a water-stop once the pond is completed and filled.

In this segment of DIY's Waterscapes workshop, host Heidi Robinson and Rick Bartel level the coping and plant shelves and do some final shaping of the pond interior. The coping shelf has been dug around the perimeter of the pond, removing about 3 to 4 inches of soil all the way around.

Materials needed for laying out the water garden:

Shovels
Pick axe
2" flexible PVC pipe
Pond skimmer
Pond waterfall tank
Long carpenter's level
Line level and string
Wheel barrow

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Leveling the Shelves

The coping shelf will serve as a place to hold the rocks and boulders that will form the edging around the pond. The waterproof liner for the pond will extend up over the coping shelf and will serve as a water-stop once the pond is completed and filled. Since the location for our pond is on a slight slope, it's important that the height of the coping shelf be adjusted so that it is level on both sides. This help maintain the proper water level at the rim on all sides of the pond, and will help avoid the finished pond from having an appearance like that of a bowl that has been "tilted" slightly.

• Rick uses a line level (figure A), stretching the line from the low end of the pond to the higher end (figure B). In this way he is able to tell how much soil must be removed from the high end to achieve a level surface.

  Figure A

  Figure B

  
  

  Figure C

• Using the line-level as a guide, Rick is able to determine that approximately 5 inches of soil must be removed from the surface of the coping shelf on the high end of the pond. According to Rick, even yard surfaces that appear level are usually not perfectly level, so some adjustment to the height of the coping shelf will typically be needed.

• Using a pick and shovels, Rick and Heidi break up the soil and remove the amount of dirt necessary to create a surface that matches the level of the lower end of the pond (figure C). The removed dirt is added to the soil berm that will later be used in landscaping behind the pond.
  
• Once the dirt has been removed, Rick uses a long level to check to make sure that the newly dug surface is flat and level with the adjacent surface (figure D). He repeats this process all the way around the pond perimeter (figure E).

  Figure D

  Figure E

  
  
• Once the coping shelf is finished and level, the shelf on the lower end of the pond has a depth of about three inches, while the depth on the higher end of the pond is about 9 inches at its deepest point (figure F). The difference in depth will be needed to achieve a level pond in this location, and can be concealed using rocks and plants.

• Rick then conducts a final check with the line level (figure G) to verify that the height of the shelf is level from side to side and from end to end.

  Figure F

  Figure G

  
  

RESOURCES :

The Water Garden Design Book
ISBN: 0764153730
Authors: Yvonne Rees, Peter May
Barrons Educational Series
(August 2001)
To order this book from Amazon, click here.

The Master Book of the Water Garden: The Ultimate Guide to the Design and Maintenance of the Water Garden
ISBN: 0821227963
Author: Philip Swindells
Publisher: Bulfinch
(April, 2002)
To order this book from Amazon, click here.