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Home Garden

How to make an affordable garden pond

Enhance your garden and lift your spirits!
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If you ask most landscape designers, they’ll say the missing design element from most backyards is water – and not for watering the plants with! In fact, a well-placed water feature can turn any garden into a really special space. This week, Charlie’s creating an inexpensive pond for a forgotten corner of a backyard. And it’s much simpler to do than you might think.

WATCH: How To Make An Affordable Garden Pond With Charlie

The soft sound of mellow, moving water creates a calm that can be hard to find during our hectic lives. A small reflection bowl in your garden can be the go-to place when you need time out, and where you can be mesmerised as the gentle ripples twist and turn the reflection of the shrubbery above. So spellbinding and peaceful!

garden pond
Reflection bowls don’t have fish, plants or fountains. Their aim is to create a scenic reflection and to fit into formal or natural garden styles.

How to make a reflection bowl

Gather your supplies

You’ll also need

For you to note

Put your reflection bowl close to a power supply.

Here’s how

Step 1

Paint inside of garden bowl with pond sealer. Allow sealer to dry.

Step 2

Step 2
Step 2

Clear out rubble and rubbish where you want to put your reflection bowl.

Step 3

Step 3
Step 3

Put paver securely in place and make sure it is level.

Step 4

Step 4
Step 4

Run lead of pond pump through bowl drainage hole and settle pump on base of bowl.

Step 5

Step 5
Step 5

Knead aqua putty, then press around pump lead to seal hole so when the water is added later it doesn’t leak.

Step 6

Step 6
Step 6

Place bowl on top of paver, making sure it is level.

Step 7

Step 7
Step 7

Wash pebbles in a bucket of water.

Step 8

Step 8
Step 8

Line bowl with pebbles until they match height of pump.

Step 9

Step 9
Step 9

Plant ferns around bowl. Water well, then cover the soil with mulch.

Step 10

Fill your reflection bowl with water to about 30mm below rim, then turn on the pump.

The final results.
The final results.

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Better Homes and Gardens

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