Rather than placing a container on top of the soil where it's susceptible to temperature fluctuations, just put a container in the ground where the ground keeps it insulated. The mini pond also looks great at the entrance to a home, edge of a path or off your deck or when surrounded by plants in your garden.

What you need:

Shovel Plastic Container Gravel Flag Stones Marginal Plants Floating Plants

Plant Options:

Dwarf Papyrus Water Fringe Hardy Water Cannas Duckweed Water Lily Water Hyacinth

Directions:

Using the container you have chosen (whiskey barrel liner or any heavy duty plastic liner or even a livestock watering trough) as a guide, dig a hole slightly larger and deeper than the container, so that the rim is even with the ground. Sit a level along the top of the container to make sure pond will be level, then backfill around edges with dirt. Use dirt removed from hole to start another garden somewhere else in your yard! Wash gravel before putting in pond - make sure you have enough gravel to cover the bottom of your container with three inches deep. Wash dirt off roots of your Cannas, Papyrus or Water Lily and plant directly in gravel. Yes they will grow in gravel, I have had pond for over ten years and none of them have dirt in them, they are full of plants growing and multiplying each year all planted in gravel. I use a layer of pea gravel and then cover with a little bit larger stone but that is just my preference.

Fill pond with water, place flat stones around edge of pond to give it a more natural look and hide the edges of your pond. You can then wait 48 hours for chlorine to naturally disperse or I buy a chlorine remover to take chlorine out of water and add a few fish, some snails and my floating plants and sit back and enjoy my new pond!

Also if you would like the sound of water in your garden add a pump (which I bury in the gravel) and fountain for even more pleasure.

To winter over if your pond is at least 2 feet deep fish can stay in throughout the winter, just remove any floating plants and cut back other plants so debris is not allowed to decay in water and all will come back in the spring! If a little more shallow bring fish in for winter and plants will do fine left in the water.

One last tip - there is no need to feed your fish, they will survive on the bugs landing on the water and by helping you keeps roots trimmed on plants by eating them just like in nature. But if you like you can feed them a small amount each day and they will learn to recognize you when you come up to the pond. Just remember once the temperature drops below 55 degrees their system begins to go into hibernation and if you continue to feed them it will kill them.