Designed and build your own water garden Koi pond. I visited Japan a number of times and always admired their Koi and water gardens. Our Koi pond design has three ponds, the top pond has water hyacinths that float on the water and filters it, the water is very clear. Water falls from the top pond and aerates the water in the middle pond. The main pond is about 2000 gallons of water where the Koi and water lilies thrive.

It is very soothing and relaxing to sit beside the pond listening as the water tumbles down a small water fall. The dragon flies are darting in and around shrubs and plants, crickets are chirping, bees are buzzing and humming birds are flittering around. I can sit for hours in a lounge chair listening and watching this while the Koi swim lazily around in the pond.

The water lilies have large pink and red blossoms and the water is crystal clear. I have about 6 water lily plants in there and they cover almost all the pond in the summer time. They die off in the fall back to their roots and re-grow in the spring as the days get longer and warmer.

We have about 40 Koi in the pond, it is hard to get an correct number as they never stop moving. I buy small Koi that are 2 to 3 inches long. They grow to over 10 inches.

Egrets are the most frequent visitors to our pond. They will fly onto our roof or the neighbors roof then drop down onto our patio and wade into our pond. If we see the egret, we will let our dog chase them off. He hasn’t jumped into the pond since he was a pup.

We have had raccoons play in the pond and sit on the water lily containers. I watched a mother and 3 baby racoons play and try to catch the Koi.

I laid out the pond design for our do it yourself Koi pond, with stakes and string. I laid down 3″ PVC pipes to pump water from the lower pond to the top pond. I treated the block wall with asphalt paste as I piled dirt against this wall. I stacked 4 railroad ties two layers high in an L shape to make the front edge of the upper pond and to make the waterfall.

I then made a 1/4 circle ridge from the ends of the ties to make a small middle pond where water would roll over the full 1/4 circle edge into the bottom pond. I dug the lower pond about 18″ deep putting most of the dirt into the retaining walls of the upper two ponds. I covered all the ponds with a PVC liner that I cut and glued to fit.

I bought and installed an above ground 1/5 horse power pump with a 2″ inlet and outlet. This was the right amount of water flow over the waterfall. Some times I would have to re-priming the pump when the inlet pipe sucked air.

I found a submersible pump that is 1/3 horse power and was OK to use in a fish water garden pond. You need to check the fine print as some pumps cannot be used in a fish pond. I found this out the hard way when after about 6 months my pump failed and I tried to get a replacement pump.

I have rebuilt our pond about 3 times but we have had good luck with this design and the raccoons and egrets like it too. We’ve had this pond design for over 15 years.

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