Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Pond soon will be done, what to do first?

My pond should be done but the middle of next week and I am not sure of what I should do first or second or third for that matter. I would like to do grass right up to the edge of the pond but am worried about erosion. If I do rock should I put a weed barrier down first. Also when should I put in an aeration unit. this is for a 1/4 acre pond 8-10 ft. deep. Mostly swimming.

Fish structure and dock pilings if you are going to have a fixed dock. Regretably, I didn't get my structure complete before mine filled. I used 12" diameter telephone poles for my dock pilings, would have been near impossible after full pool. Definately lay a weed barrier. Weeds will still grow in the sediment that washes down on top of the barrier but they easily pull due to the roots inability to anchor deep. It has been almost a year now since full pool in my pond. The aeration system will be installed this month. Might want to think about trenching the air lines below water line while accessable. Start planting grass immediately. Take lots of pictures for future reference.

Is it wise to simply plant grass right down to the edge?

Looking back on my pond project and considering the time of year, I would build the dock now. Even at a 1/4 acre a dock would be handy for swimming, sunbathing and fish feeding. I would plan to plant grass seed in about two weeks. Mid August is an ideal time for seeding in Ohio. Prepare the seed bed, spread seed and starter fertilzer as recommended and use plenty of straw, 100 bales/acre. Water daily if there is no rain by any means necessary. Watering will be key to a good stand. A parial stand with partial erosion will be difficult to correct later. I recently built a new house and tried out several turf seed blends from name brand to no name. The best performing was an athletic turf blend from the local grainery. When the pond was built we pushed a few inches of topsoil down a couple of feet below full pool level and seeded it. When the pond finally stabilized, grass grew several inches lower than the overflow pipe. A year later when the pond was very low in August we put down Geotextile fabric and had #2 limestone placed. The erosion line where the grass stopped growing made a good guide for the operator. If you do decide to go ahead and place the rip rap now, you may consider cutting down the soil a few inches making a ledge so the stone can be placed lower than the turfgrass mowing height. This will cut down on trimming. When choosing a width of the rip rap band keep in mind your slope and how much your water may fluxuate. For example, if your pond has 5/1 sloped bank and the water level drops 2', 10' of bare bank will be exposed. Here are a couple of links that might be handy.

http://www.pondboss.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=20;t=003246

http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=20;t=004290;p=1