Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction A very green newbie

Hi there. My husband and I bought land in Vermont years ago and have recently built on it. Unfortunately, we are one of those couples that got 'taken' by the GC because we were building from afar. One of the 'dreams' for the property was to put in a pond. We really can't afford to pay someone to do it at this point, but I'd still like to do it. It won't happen this year but I'm hoping it may happen next year. We've got a really good spot where the land slopes down, levels out, and then slopes down again. Not sure how big of a pond it will be - I'm horrible with sizing right now and to be honest, I'm still stuck working here in Virginia to pay off some of the debt we've acquired so I don't really get to see the property to get a good gauge.

Ok - back to the pond. What are the first steps I should be taking? I know a permit isn't required and again - nothing will be done this year. I just want all my ducks in a row for next year. Will it be possible for someone who knows nothing to build a pond from scratch? I just don't want to pay someone if we don't have to and that would push the pond back to another few years from now at this point. Thanks very much.

First off welcome to the PBF! Building a pond is not like building a tree fort in the back yard! You could end up spending a lot of time and money doing it yourself and still not get it right... I am no expert by any means when it comes to building a pond, but if it were me the first 2 things I would do is.

1. You need to figure out how big of a pond you can have versus your watershed area to handle that pond.

2. You need to dig a hole to see if you can even sustain water at a certain level. If you don't have the right ground to build you will have a big money pit and that's it.

You may want to get someone out there to at least get you going in the right direction to see if you can even have a pond that will actually be a pond. Then if he says yes you can do it. At that point you could start to try and build on your own but once again it's no easy task if you don't know for sure what and how to do it?

Good Luck,
RC

And to add to what RC51 said, purchase the book on this site called "Perfect Pond... Want one?" (click on the Pond Boss Bass at the top of the page and go to the store) Excellent information that you'll want to consider before "diving in" .

This forum has the best of the best when it comes to all aspects of pond management (and maybe a bit fanatical but that's okay ) so spend lots of time here reading the archives, asking questions and soaking it all in!

Good luck and keep us posted!

Agree on the book. I've found a lot in it that I had never known enough to ask or look up on the web.