Some people build ponds to have a water feature, some for a water garden, and others for a fish pond. Me, I have a pond for my turtles, though they have to share it with some goldfish.  My first pond was built at my old house and ended up, once a tiny veggie filter and stream were added, at 450 gallons. My new pond, at my new house, is about 1500 gallons. Of course, it isn't finished yet. Ponds are never finished. Last summer I add a Skippy filter and planted a sweet potato vine in the waterfall filter -- a vine that is threatening to take over the world. I also added a solar-powered aerator that helped clear the water and sparked a growth surge in my pond plants. I'm not sure what I'll do next, but I've thought of adding a small above-ground pond to use as a hatchling nursery. Below are pictures of the pond as it was being built in 2004, a picture taken in the pond's second summer, and one last picture taken in September 2006, as was the picture above.
I started with the turtles in a wading pool while I laid out the main pond and the waterfall pool with tarps, walking around them for a week to make sure I was happy with the location.	Next came the digging. I was very glad my brother Hop David and friend Mike Mekelburg volunteered (yes, actually volunteered) to do the hard work of digging in rocky soil.
Next was adding the liner and water. It took most of the day to fill. The waterfall filter is at the back.	Then came the fun of piling rocks around the edge and mounding them around the waterfall filter.
An awning was added to provide some shade for the pond to keep down algae. It helps a little but there isn't a lot you can do during an Arizona summer unless you use a lot of chemicals.	Adding a dog to the backyard didn't do the landscaping any good. Now there are three dogs and I'm trying to do more with bushes than ground cover.  Bruno and Betsy, are rescues. as is Chuy, the newest canine. I also have cats, only one of whom gets out to enjoy the pond.
Here's the pond in the summer of 2005. You can see the turtles basking on the rocks. Plants are just starting to grow around the pond and I haven't had much luck in getting pond plants to grow either in the pond or the waterfall filter.	And here, from a slightly different angle, is the pond in September 2006. The rock waterfall is still there -- covered with sweet potato vine. The big dark green mass at top left is water hyacinth in a Skippy filter. And there's a turtle at lower left on the log.

Basking turtles and hungry fish in November 2006.

As for how it looks today... visit my webcam page.
I haven't started a sweet potato vine yet, but the water hyacinth and parrots feather are growing fast.

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