Ornamental Landscaping is very fun and wildlife viewing is even funner. For landscaping around the pond your imagination and budget can just roll along at whatever pace you want.

For wildlife viewing you will want to get an aeration system installed in your shallow water about 6 feet deep to keep open water all winter long along the edge for ducks, geese, deer, etc. You also may want to consider building a floating island/ dock of some sort to give em a safe place to rest during the summer. Wood duck boxes, goose nest, bird feeders, etc will really bring em in good too.

For fish I would stock fathead minnows and/or golden shiners right away ASAP to clean up the mosquitoes and insects larvae and also to provide a boost for the gamefish. This fall I would get 50 LMB, 50 CC, 250 Hybrid Bluegill, and 250 Bluegill. Any size you want to get is fine. I would recommend feeding the fish by hand one 50 lb bag of purina mills gamefish chow per month starting the first of May, and going all the way into October. If you dont want to feed the fish (you would be missing out on some seriously awesome wildlife viewing) you can stock the bluegills and hybrid bluegills this fall and wait until next summer to stock small yoy largemouth bass and fall to stock the catfish.

Your hybrid bluegill and channel catfish will be ready to eat at the end of 2011 and really ready to eat in 2012. I would harvest 25 catfish in 2012 and replace them in the fall. Plan on eating and stocking 25 catfish every year.

I would install an aerator centrally located in the deep and run it from April to October. You can run the shallow one all year long, but the deep one only during the warm season. You can run both lines from the same compressor- Vertex Air One Plus. Doing this from the very beginning of the pond will help the pond live alot longer and help your water quality tremendously.

For fish structures in your pond I would place gravel, rocks, riprap and boulders, and then would place just one big fishing reef somewhere. 3 mossback fish racks, or 5 porcupine attractors, or 3 honey hole trees, or a handful of cedar trees, hedge trees, or any trees you have laying around. Just one big structure is all I would do in your pond for your casual fishing situation.

You need to have a dock too. A pond without a dock is like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with the peanut butter.

Enjoy