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Pond is dug deep enough.
Now here's where building and gardening purists will become apoplectic, but I do not like wasting money and throughout this thread I will show Tibbies just how to achieve the same aesthetically pleasing and 'solid' results with this garden 'make-over' by using junk and cutting corners as buying expensive new building materials - stone, pond liners etc - at a fraction of the cost.
I have been successfully doing this for a very long time and my 'easy' low cost way actually works.
Anyway; here's my lining the soon-to-be pond with old carpet underlay, empty builder's plastic sacks and an old rug:
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And a piece of 200g 'Visqueen' damp Proof Membrane which is many times cheaper than a purpose bought pond liner and performs equally as well:
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I 'line' the sides of the pond with old paving slabs and even a couple of large floor tiles. Incline them slightly so that it is easier to cover them in 'gobbo' as further below:
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Next, using a mortar mix of 1 part cement to 4 parts building sand, I cover them. Using the hands (rubber gloved of course) and 'patting the 'gobbo' into position is easiest in my experience.):
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Kirk Tip: Be sure to back-fill with gobbo any gaps behind the pavers or tiles as this increases the strength of the finished 'stone' walling.
I've skipped a little here as I don't want to bore you all to death, but having finished covering the pavers and tiles of the pond 'walls', I have placed clinker block and brick debris to form the 'walls' of what will be the top 'Holding Pond' and down what will be the 'Spillway' and 'Waterfalls', then lined it all with pieces of Visqueen which is well overlapped.
I also placed clinker block to form the lower edges of the waterfall and covered them in gobbo as with the pond walls. I have 'shaped', 'textured', and coloured one huge 'boulder' to illustrate what the finished project will look like - though I could not resist putting a 'Tibbie' face on the boulder. Can you see it?
Don't worry about the actual 'technique' of making these gobbo-covered clinker block/bricks actually look like rock, we will cover this in detail later.
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The Acer tree which I have placed in the picture is one of several which I potted about 10 years ago and is another example of how the purists B.S us all into paying through the nose for things which aren't necessary. Though strictly not a 'Bonsai' because I have not trained it etc it is a fully formed Acer which will not grow any bigger and which complements ponds and rockeries etc. More importantly it has not cost me a fraction of what a comparable sized bonsai would cost me. More of how to grow one later.
More to come.