YOU CAN BUILD A CONCRETE POND IN YOUR BACK YARD (AND HAVE AGREAT TIME DOING IT)!

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We had ordered 10 yards of concrete but—luckily for us—the mix truck held only five. We promptly canceled the second load and—in its place—ordered more sand, gravel, and cement. (We still had one more corner to finish.) All of us vowed that if we ever built another pond, we'd plan on mixing every bit of the concrete ourselves.

FINISHING TOUCHES

A late lunch was served while everyone waited for the delivery of the extra sand, gravel, and cement. Meanwhile, some of us took to breaking up old ceramic pots (donated by some potter friends) and placing the fragments (sharp ends down) in the still-wet walkway to form some really attractive mosaics.

Also—while we were waiting for the extra supplies—some of us made a border of river rocks along the edge of the walkway. First, we built up a base of wet concrete . . . then we set wet (for better concrete adhesion) stones down into this raised foundation, smoothed the mix around the rocks with hand trowels, and (after an hour or so) washed the stones with a plastic dishscrubber to remove any concrete residue.

Next, after lunch (and the arrival of new materials), we finished up the corners of the pond using our own superior handmixed concrete. Care was taken to form a nice, smooth spillway at the lowest point on the pond's rim.

After that, to seal the surface of our "concrete crater", we made up a 1:6 cement/water paste, then either [1] brushed the paste on and troweled it smooth, [2] poured it down the sides of the pond and then brushed it out, or [3] threw the goop on hurriedly (which was definitely a mistake, since the force of the paste hitting the still-damp concrete tended to produce a rough and rocky finish). Periodically, someone would very gently hose down any area that seemed to be drying out too quickly.

Finally—as the sun peeped through the treetops for the last time—the last few rocks were placed around the pond's rim, black plastic was spread over the pit's

40' X 40' surface, and tired workers left for their homes.

The next morning, we spread large canvas tarps over the pond to keep it from drying too quickly over its three-day curing period. And several days after that, the canvas (and plastic) came off and we started filling the pond with water pumped from a nearby creek.

POND MAINTENANCE

Our pond tends to gather leaves easily, and so needs to be skimmed quite often . . . but, except for that, the 15,000-gallon reservoir has needed very little maintenance. We plan to drain and clean it this coming spring.

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