article: Tips and Ideas _Concrete for the Water Garden

Tips and Ideas – Concrete for the Water Garden

Your water garden is meant to last a lifetime, and using concrete to make your water garden you are going to find that you will need a little help in understanding what types of materials to use and form not only where you are going to hold the water, but edges of the pond as well.

Some people will choose not to have a lip (sticking up from out of the ground) to hold the water in the pond but if you are located on a hill or a grade you might want to have a lip of some type on your water garden to make it appear more even, though it is not needed.

One important tip you should remember when you are getting ready to get started on your project, be sure to place and install all drains and wiring needed for detailing your pond before pouring the concrete. Any pipes, wiring or drains will be virtually impossible to install correctly after your concrete has been poured.

Your water pond lasting power does have different needs depending on how large you are going to be making your pond to be. For a small pond, concrete that is four to six inches deep will be sufficient. For a large pond you will need concrete that is somewhere about eight to ten inches deep. The colder the area that you live in, the deeper your concrete should be for fighting frost and freezing and the cracking of your water garden.

If you are constructing your concrete water garden when the temperatures are a bit cooler or wet, use calcium chloride in the concrete mixture to speed the setting of your concrete.

In the hottest temperatures, you also will need to fight how fast your concrete sets. Adding a set retarding agent will slow how fast your concrete sets so you can work with it properly in the hot weather.

If you want to make your water garden something really special, consider adding a color to your concrete. This is one way to ensure that no one has a pond like yours, that you like what your pond looks like, and you can make your concrete fits your design and water garden fantasies!