Fish Pond

[ae708]

Guys.. I have about a half acre in back of my house where a nice fish pond would fit nicely. However my wife thinks that a pond is a waste of time and would look ugly. Do I go along with a "garden" spot or toss her out and dig the pond anyway? Catfish, bream.... flowers, plants...... this is a choice???

 

[mellowyellow]

Re: Fish Pond

try this art; "if you don't like it dear, we <br />can always fill it back in."

 

[JB]

Re: Fish Pond

What sort of soil do you have there, AE? Flowing water?<br /><br />A half acre pond ("tank" in Texas) needs flowing rain or spring water and soil that seals pretty well if it is going to support a fish population.<br /><br />Suitable sites can be very hard to find. Of the three tanks on The Hideout only one, about 2 acres and draining a watershed of about 200 acres, supports fish. The other two, about half acre and about 1/4 acre both go dry in a dry season and are only good for watering stock and wildlife.<br /><br />Have the SC Dept. of Agriculture survey the site for suitability. If they say it is suitable, then you could make a choice.<br /><br />Good luck.

 

[KaGee]

Re: Fish Pond

Just tell her your gonna make her a "water garden".... snick!

 

[deputydawg]

Re: Fish Pond

I was going to say too, 1/2 acre won't make a very good fish pond. The water will probably seap away pretty fast, and you will need a steady flow of fresh water coming in. <br />Do the garden with a small fish pond in the middle.

 

[mellowyellow]

Re: Fish Pond

seapage will depend on the water table. round<br />here, you only gotta go down about 15-20' to<br />hit water. the small farm ponds never dry out.

 

[neumanns]

Re: Fish Pond

Perhaps you could pick up some landscape books and show her just how nice waterscapes can be. I am eventually gonna add one here but the wife is in a bigger hurry than I as it is me who gets to do the work...Digging, setting lanscape rocks etc. But when I do it it will be done right so I am in no hurry. I also want to do it in conjunction with a sunroom addition so I can enjoy it from indoors as well as out.

 

[deputydawg]

Re: Fish Pond

Where I grew up in the country we had 8 acres of land around the house. There was a creek running along the side and the back of the property. The man that built the house back in the 40's tied to make a fish farm there. Sometime in the 50's he dug 3 ponds down the hill from the house in the woods. There were natural springs all over the place, so he didn't have to dig very deep. It wasn't too many years and it silted in so bad that the pond was only a foot deep and the mud at the bottom was 3 or 4 feet deep. The other 2 ponds silted in and were just wet marshes. The only thing the remaining pond was good for was bullheads and ice skating.

 

[ae708]

Re: Fish Pond

Yeah.. I guess it would be better to go to the lake house and just catch them there. Let HER do the work on the garden while I take the boat to the lake house.

 

[Bass Man Bruce]

Re: Fish Pond

Art it looks like you've already made the right decision. Why grow fish when you can go catch them. btw I have a garden pond and they are a lot of work to build and a ton of work to maintain. Absolutely beautifull though. I throw a few blue gills in it each spring and letem grow all summer. mines 2 feet deep and about 14' x 5'. Soils dont,t matter if you use a liner that way you can control the siltation, water loss and vegetation (grown in pots). Feed the blue gills left over bait and batter them in the fall

 

[tomatolord]

Re: Fish Pond

I vote for the pond! <br /><br />If you need a liner get something called permalon NOT EPD, alot less cheaper and easier to use.<br /><br />A fountain, water lillies, you can put impatiens in the bank, our impatiens in the pond are over 3 feet tall!<br /><br />Lots of wildlife will come, espeically birds.<br /><br />there are wonderfull water lillies that can be grown.<br /><br />Depth is the key to fish, shallow ponds stress them out