Recycled Pond

Water features have become very popular and now you can find just about everything you need to build one at your local garden center. But for Jim Charles of West Bloomfield, Mich., a sparkling waterfall and picturesque pond were a creative solution to a construction problem—what to do with a pile of leftover concrete.

"Three years ago we tore up our concrete driveway," says Charles. "As we were tearing it up, such nice large chunks came up that looked like they belonged somewhere else other than the dump." So he recycled the concrete. The heavy chunks were hauled to the backyard and used to build the walls of the pond and basic structure of the waterfall.

A black waterproof liner was used to cover all the rough edges of the concrete and make the pond more watertight. A few decorative stones were added to the face of the waterfall for a variation in color.

This sparkling waterfall was also created from concrete chunks salvaged from the demolished driveway.

Charles has these tips for those who want to create a water feature.

• "If you have any creativity and knowledge of tools, a shovel, anything like that, you can do it," he says. "You don't need to be afraid that you can't do it. It's a lot of hard physical work, but if you ask the right questions, find the right people to work with, get the right help as you're going along the way, it can be done!"

• Make sure the pond is a good size for its space. The tendency is to build it too small, so create the water feature to fit the scale of the yard.

• If you want to add fish to your water feature, ask an expert which ones will thrive in your pond.

• After the pond is put together and it's time to add some plants around it, consult someone who knows plants if you aren't sure about what to grow. For this step, Charles turned to the nearest green thumb in the family, his sister-in-law Lora Wright. "We had many friends and family that were able to offer up some of the plants that you see here, like hosta and perennial grasses," says Wright. "Use plants that lend different textures. The only thing new that we planted was the coleus to give the landscape a bit more color and texture."

• To keep algae from growing in your pond, use aquatic plants to cover about 60 percent of the water's surface.

• If there's a problem with floating plants getting sucked toward the filter, here's a great tip for keeping them in place. "I fought water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) all summer long. I tried containing them with a fishing-line corral to get them in one spot, and it just didn't work. Then one night I was going through the garden shed, and I found this small circular grid used to help support taller plants. Basically I laid it in the water, tucked it under a rock and placed all the water hyacinths in there and, because all their roots extend downward, it seems to be working so far." By keeping the roots in place, the flowers won't get sucked towards the filter.

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