(Compiled by Jamie Beyer, Water Garden Consultant)

1. Where will the pond be located?  Need to consider view, sunlight, trees.  Make a drawing to scale, then lay out the outline of the pond in the yard with a garden hose or something similar.  Look at it for a few days.  Watch how the sun hits it at different times of the day and look at it from different locations in the yard and house.

 2.   What is the style or design of your present landscaping.  Formal or Informal:

 3. Do you want water plants and/or fish?  The answer to this question affects many of the other considerations.

 4. Is some sort of city permit needed?

5. What are the safety issues?

• Will children have access to the pond?
• Is fencing necessary?
• Liability insurance?
• Are there any potential hazards that should be avoided?  Free ranging dogs, high raccoon population?

 7. How convenient is electricity?

 8. Are there any underground utilities in the area of digging?  Water, telephone, electric, gas lines, sewer or septic field.  Call IOWA ONE-CALL (1-800-292-99) to locate many of these utilities.  For homeowner-installed utilities (for example, septic fields or electric service in the landscape that was installed by an electrician that you hired) you will need to hire someone to locate these.

 9. What is the source for a water supply and how close?

10. Where will the water drain when the pond is emptied or overflowed?

11. Will water from heavy rains, sprinkler systems or run-off from lawns contaminate the pond?  Edge of the pond should be a minimum of 2" to 4" above grade depending on grade of y9our landscape.  Contrary to what you may think, do not build in a low spot unless you make provisions to divert any runoff during heavy rains.  Your yard can become a river during a 5- to 10-inch rain.  Fish, liner, and plants can be washed out.  Organic mater of all sorts is washed in.  Bog gardens will work fine in low spots.

12. What types of filters will be used?  Need to take into account the number and types of fish in the pond and how much of your ponds surface is covered by lily leaves.

13. How shallow is the water table?  This usually is not a problem in Iowa.

14. How deep do you want your water garden?

•  Consider height of chest waders or hip waders.
•  Need a minimum depth of 18 to 24" to overwinter hardy water lilies in the pond.  In northern Iowa, you need to be 24" deep and southern Iowa, 18" are okay.

15. General design considerations:

•  What type of edging?  Design may incorporate ways to keep grass clippings and other yard debris out of the water.  For example, if wood chips are used close to the edge of the pond, choose the heavier types, since they are less likely to blow into the water.
•  Consider width of in-pond ledges.  A minimum of a 12" width should be used and, if space allows, 18 to 24 inches are better.

16. Construction Considerations:

•  Do all your planning before you begin to dig.  Once the soil structure is disturbed by digging it is difficult to recreate the stability of that soil.  If settling occurs under edgings, waterfalls and streams, big problems result.
•  In areas where soil has been brought in to bring the grade up, it will need to be compacted.  If this cannot be done satisfactorily, then a concrete footing will need to be poured.

17.  Waterfall design considerations:

•  For each 100 gallons/hr pumped down a waterfall, there should be a flow 1" deep and 2" wide (approximately).
•  Consider neighbors' attitude to the sound of a planned waterfall.  A gentle waterfall most everybody would welcome but a tall, large volume waterfall, may be considered noise.  May consider the option of adding a timer on this type of waterfall to shut off at night.  This also saves electricity.  However, your biological filter and the aeration of a pond may be negatively affected by turning off the water pump.  Timers are useful on water features that are not associated with a water garden.
•  Build a large enough water retention pocket for the waterfall stonework to be built within.  Without this step, leaks are probable.  This pocket is located under the waterfalls and acts as a "bib" which returns water to the pond.