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I'd like to create a pond in a wet spot in my yard so that I can plant some beneficial water plants and possibly attract frogs and toads to help control pests. Is it possible to seal the pond so that it consistently and naturally holds water with out using a plastic pond liner or something like conrete? Ideally I'd like shore plants to be able to get their roots into the water.

q9f
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Daniel Bingham
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    Not sure permaculture's really the right tag for this... gardening? Not really... water management? – Daniel Bingham Jan 30 '13 at 23:56
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    I agree. If this is permaculture, then everything on this site probably is... – Earthliŋ Jan 31 '13 at 00:15
  • Do you have any flowing water flowing through your property? – Earthliŋ Jan 31 '13 at 00:30
  • Only when it rains. I'm one the side of a pretty steep hill with about a half acre. When it rains, the whole thing more or less turns into a slow flowing stream. – Daniel Bingham Jan 31 '13 at 16:53
  • In that case you'll have enough water to keep your pond from drying out, I'd say. Also look up "swales" as a way to keep the water on your property and put it to good use. – Earthliŋ Feb 01 '13 at 11:20
  • Oh, I'm planning on Swales. And raised hugelkulture beds. The whole 9 yards. The issue is that the rain is pretty seasonal (southern Indiana). And the soil is clay. Holes in the ground don't hold water that long with out some sort of sealing. – Daniel Bingham Feb 01 '13 at 18:02
  • Also, I'm hoping to create a Blueberry and Pine polyculture. I know from experience in the north east that both like water edges. I'm wondering if it's possible -- given the right cultivars -- to replicate that environment here in Indiana. It may not be, but we'll see. – Daniel Bingham Feb 04 '13 at 21:22

4 Answers4

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Sepp Holzer seals ponds without using liners. Check out this video [which has pretty bad audio].

Summary of the technique (I haven't tried this, but I would expect that the devil is in the details...):

  • dig out the pond
  • while water is in the pond, compact the bottom -- he talks about using an excavator or backhoe with a vibrating attachment
  • if the soil is rocky/gravelly, you need to remove extra soil to get rid of the rocks, then replace it with finer soil that will compact better
  • it may require multiple compactions
bstpierre
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Clay. Cheap, simple, abundant. Any soil with a clay content in excess of 40% makes a darn good water retention layer. One dump truck load of locally sourced high clay should be all you need.

See "Water Content‐Density Criteria for Compacted Soil Liners.” in the Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, Volume 116, Issue 12 (December 1990) by D. Daniel, ASCE. and C. Benson, ASCE.

OCDtech
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  • corrected the omition. Thanks, bstpiere. I looked up that document to find the number, then forgot to put it in. – OCDtech Feb 20 '13 at 22:36
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You can seal a pond by putting pigs in it. They'll compact the bottom so much that it stops leaking. It may take a few years though. See http://www.makeitmissoula.com/2012/07/paul-wheaton-can-pigs-build-ponds/

guest
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    Welcome to Sustainable Living! Very interesting article you link to, but why would it 'take a few years'? The article suggest that you can just let a few pigs loose in the pond and it will be sealed very quickly (perhaps in one or two days?). – THelper Feb 12 '14 at 07:52
  • I didn't get the sense that the article was talking about the process only taking two days. The author didn't mention a timeframe, but the two anecdotes quoted in the article mentioned 2 year and 3 year time frames. in any case, summarizing pertinent information from the article here would make this a better answer, links tend to disappear over time. – Johnny May 06 '15 at 18:48
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Geoff Lawson "The Prince of Permaculture" uses ducks and plants to feed the ducks-- the glee settles where the cracks are and builds up--- kind of like radiator stop leak..

user2218
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