Barrel Pond
How-To

My folks were doing all kinds of house additions and mentioned something to me while visiting, if I had any ideas to spruce up the back patio,... I figured this was my chance to experiment with a small barrel pond! I've had every animal you could imagine, but had yet to try my hand at a barrel pond and maintaining a healthy outdoor ecosystem with a pond, if I could do huge salt water tanks.. this I could do! Even though in the "dog days" of Summer here in South Texas, I knew I could combat the heat if this all would turn out as envisioned!

After 2 months of researching across the internet looking over every possible Koi and water garden site I set to work on the location of the small pond. The location was to be in the corner of the back patio where a pre-existing evergreen took a turn for the worse and died, leaving an unattractive 2x2 exposed dirt patch only a 4 year old could love.

I set to work smashing out the double reinforced 4" thick pebblestone slab.

GOOD GOD! as the hours ticked by, hands blistered up, beer supply ran low, and sweat commenced, I was starting to think was this worth it ? Yet alas, over a two day period I had my border.  Next, was the step that you truly never get the REAL FEEL for when you read about it on the websites. YOU KNOW WHAT I SPEAK OF! Those unfortunates, that don't have the back-hoe (no! not the ex-girlfriend) or large equipment to excavate with minimal effort. I could not imagine digging by hand some of the ponds others have tackled, just this little hole made me whine like a spoiled brat! Here in south Texas the soil ranges from caliche to nothing more than a mine field of hidden chunks of limestone. Oh where art thou small backhoe! Could you imagine me on that? Turning it the wrong way, smashing the corner of the house out,.... overcompensate the other way.. BAM! there goes the neighbors fence... and finally probably making it tip and fall to it's side, incapacitating the beast like a drunk turtle...hmmmmmmmmm

Ohh yeah!! back to the pond... .so after the hole was dug with a 1 1/2' shelf.... dropping to a standard 3', it was time to protect the liner!  First issue to address was the JAGGED broken lip I had broken out of the slab. I could have simple made a sleeve of carpet to put along the lip around the perimeter, but I went a little further and mixed some concrete and made a nice smooth, durable, and more refined lip.

Next, I put down my carpet

(more than plenty at my disposal, as the folks were ripping up all carpet downstairs for tile)

Alright, next step.... heaving the 45 mil liner to it's new home... hmmmmmmmm... incomplete...

ahhhhhhhh there we go!~ looks a little better with the wet stuff.

Next was to work on the half Jack Daniels barrel I had purchased at a local garden shop for 15 bucks. My idea was to rout the tubing from the pump up through the bottom so that it would spill out the top and cascade to water's surface. I used no liner in this barrel, the staves were cured almost to the top, so there was no leaks. It's important to keep your barrel full of water, your enemy is the leaking effects of dried out, separating staves. Now the interior of the barrel did have liquor resin and was flame burned (I believe has something to do with taste of alcohol) .. I just washed out as well as I could. Cure your barrel a inch or two at a time until you have it to the top. A little bit every couple hours.

Pic below shows my inventory of materials -- really simple... pvc pipe and joiners, some pvc cement and my tubing .. nothing to it.

Well what about the SPOUT ?!?! I have seen some water barrels where a simple HALF CRESCENT shape is cut right off the very top of the lip, allowing the water to spill out. (noticed too much of a drip with that)

I opted to search around for something that would look eye appealing, guide the water away from dripping down the side of the barrel, and be functional. I ended up finding a cheap metal ORNAMENTAL pitcher at MICHAEL'S hobby store. I cut out the PITCHER part with tin snips, marking my basic curvature point on the barrel, and took a ROPE SAW (basically a wire with simple loop handles on either end)

This tool available at ANY hardware store allow you to cut things where SPACE AND ANGLE would not allow other saws. (In this I could easily cut vertical on the lip of the barrel, but the HORIZONTAL cut to remove the new cut out ?!?!? ROPE SAW TIME!

I fit the new spout in the cut out, laid a generous bead of silicone glue down, secured with a couple wood screws and then came back one last time with more silicon adhesive around the underside and sides of the spout where it comes in contact with the barrel.

[In this pic you can see the spout a little better]

Also in the barrel I incorporated a little physical and chemical filtration with a simple filter made to fit with a Tupperware container as the chamber. Works like a charm (This part is optional)

Once the barrel was ready to go .. I took a trip to the local stone distributors here and picked up about 200lbs+ of Big Bear flagstone. I liked the earth toned look, and thought it would compliment the rustic, weathered look of the barrel.  I added in my gravel (over elevated egg crate), hooked up the pump, hooked in a power head for increased aerobic bacteria growth, laid all the stone... and added some exterior plants .... have started the basic chemical water conditioning.. and will soon will be adding some small goldfish and water plants ............

Things I have learned on this project :

DEEP THOUGHTS by Carlos Flannery.....

1.) Take your time. I spent an entire month on weekend trips to the folks to finish this small 130g. pond. Don't despair, it will all come together in time.

2.) Beer cans make for lousy dirt scoopers.

3.) Those dam wrinkles in the liner are there to FRUSTRATE the **** out of you! Don't fight it... in the end the plant cover will hide most of folds, water pressure and gravel will take care of the rest.

4.) Preliner of some sort is essential! ~ Don't let a jagged rock or root poke and ruin your WATER DREAM.

5.) If deciding the amount of liner you will need for your project baffles you worse than your taxes, and you have a small project like myself... try putting down an old sheet, and fitting it like a liner, get your width and length from that.

6.) And finally- Kudos to all the BIG WATER gardeners out there... thanks for all the great web sites and info!

(THE JUST COMPLETED FIRST PICTURE OF THE BARREL POND)

(AND THE AFTER 4 MONTHS GROWN IN PICTURE)

~Carlos Flannery