But that was enough to bring the entire garden to life. I added a little makeshift waterfall and a couple of aquatic plants. In fact, it was simple preformed pond that I buried in the ground, probably not more than 500 gallons. My own first pond was not nearly so grand. Related: Tips For Attracting Dragonflies To Your Garden That pond was clearly the heart of the garden and it was just beautiful. Frogs sunbathed and snoozed on the floating leaves. Water lily stems held their flowers high above the surface, leaning their pink and white petals toward the sun. Squirrels would lean over the edge, taking sips of water with their little red tongues. Dragonflies dipped down to drink and then zotted off into the garden. Dozens of fat fish frolicked in the waterfall. After seeing a massive in-ground pond on a rural garden tour, I was hooked (that’s it in the photo above).

I built my first backyard pond about twenty years ago.

If you are new to this, this advice for starting a new pond will save you a lot of headaches. Now they are considered an essential part of most backyard gardens. It’s hard to believe that garden ponds were fairly rare not so long ago.

Berm dredging ponds