Cecil, how did you dig those ponds there? What excavator did you use?
I have clay too its just a pain to put it on the sides and compact it with out the right equipement.
Your pond there is almost exactly what i had planned.
What you see is not compacted if you're referring to packing soil around the pond to make it deeper. It's dug, and it was dug in a day with a huge track hoe excavator. I believe the excavator did drive a small bulldozer up and down the banks though. However on the end you can't see (outside of left side of photo) there is somewhat of a dike where the ground slopes downward and the dike had to be built to keep the banks level. After about 10 years I still get a little seepage under that dike as the excavator later admitted to me not only did he not dig a core trench, but he packed the clay over sod. Fortunately the seepage is small and seems to be getting less and less over time.
Clay soil can be compacted, but it needs to be the right balance between wet and dry. Too wet and it sticks severely to the excavator shovel and too dry and it won't compact well.
It also needs to be compacted in approximately 6 inch layers just like any other soil. Am I right Otto?
I've never measured the percent of clay in my soil but there are areas in the bottom of this pond where it's like potters clay. But then one can find small sand lenses in some places.
If I had level ground and the right soil I would not bother building up the edges etc. to make it deeper. I would just dig deeper. There is no need to create problems you can prevent.
BTW that pipe you see is not the well inlet pipe. It's an outlet pipe from another pond in case i choose to use it. It's capped for now.
