Hello Pond experts. I am putting my hand out for some help. I am trying to do my due dilenge and figure out exactly what/how i need to do everything to revive a pond that used to be on my property.
I recently purchased my new home with 4.2 acres of land. When the home was being constructed there was a small pond at the base of the hill in the back of my house, and all of my neighbors hills all flow down to where the lil pond used to be. The seller/builder of the house broke the damn of this pond and now there is nothing there. There is a spring house for both me and my neighbor and i believe the water from these springs meet to form a small creek that meets at where the lil pond used to be. and flows even more downhill to a very small "lake" further down the way.
Anyway. I want to bring the pond back. I want to make it larger. My back yard as it sits is unusuble because its just high grass and marshland now, no or slow drainage. I can't cut the grass because its too went and i get stuck. I have always dreamed of having a pond in my back yard and it sjust seems like the perfect place for one.
All of my neighbors are on board. the one with the other spring house even was hoping we could make it large enough to extend into both our properties.
See my attached photo of the land. its at the base of like four sides of hills.
I live in PA, not sure what red tape i need to go about, i have a friend with his own excavating business that is on board.
I called the local township when i was looking at the place and asked them if i could put a pond back where it once existed and the woman said if it was there already thats fine.
Welcome to the forum! That looks like a nice piece of property.
Bear with me here for a bit. First, I'd go to the Pond Boss resources section and order the book "Perfect Pond, Want One?".
re: neighbors sharing a pond:
I'd say not to do it. Even if you get along very well with the neighbors, and your pond goals are exactly alike, what happens if they sell and the new owners are completely opposite? Fish don't know property lines.
Why was the dam broken? Did it not hold water like it should? Will the soil hold water (is there enough clay)? Does your excavating friend know how to build a pond (that holds water)?
There's an art to building a good pond; there are lots of dirt moving guys out there, few pond building experts.
The biggest advice that I have is to plan, plan, plan before breaking ground. It'll be a huge waste of $$ if all the dirt is moved, pond built and it doesn't hold as much water as you wanted.
Where will the excess dirt go?
You're one step ahead of me, I renovated my pond then found this site. If I had found this place first, I would have done a lot of things differently, and it probably would have saved me 50% of my pond building costs. I would have had a better pond to boot.
I just placed the order for the book. I don't know how i found this site but i'm very glad that i did.
Yeah the property is a gorgeous rolling hill piece of land, but a wet muddy mess at the base of my yard etc. Pretty much unusable as it currently is. And like so many of us, my dream is to have a pond.
The reason the dam was broke was because the builder of the house (also the builder of all surrounding houses) he thought that the house wasn't selling because of the crappy little pond in the back, so he got a permit from the DEP and broke the dam.
My excavater buddy said he believes that is is all clay down there judging by the make up of the rest of the property and the placement of my sandmound etc. all on the front of my house. I don't know if he has built a pond before or not? but either way, he will be a more affordable option on the digging side of it. I would not be surprised if he has however. Gotta ask him.
I don't wanna break ground till the spring, so that is why i plan on studying and planning all winter long so that i can be ready to roll once the warm weather hits.
My inital thought of the dirt is it can go to level some of my other areas out, and the location of the pond is at the base of about 4-5 hills, that is what the arrows on the picture are representing, the steep of surrounding hills, so maybe i could just push the dirt to build the pond deeper along the sides without digging down to much?
I agree with the neighbor point, and frankly it probably won't matter, i don't think i'm gonna get the pond all the way over to his property to matter. But good point.
