Details of my garden.

First of all, thanks for all the work to make your site the best. I really appreciate being able to see and to print out so much great information on every aspect of ponds.
A couple of years ago, with the help of the guy who does my mowing and handiman jobs, I built a 6'x9' Koi and Goldfish pond.
It is excavated into the ground a little over 2' with a 1' deep shelf around the edge for plants. (And yes, it's never big enough). It has a base of carpet scraps (Dalton is the alleged Carpet Capital of the world and it is easy to come by) with butyl liner over it. I'm using two pumps which are filtered (with filters too small, of course) and which also circulate water through a frog and a turtle water spouts. I also run a long air stone for additional oxygen. I have both koi and goldfish, lots of frogs, and plants, plants, plants (water hyacinth, water lettuce, parrotfeather, vallisneria (?), arum, heartleaf, water lilies, water iris, cattails, duckweed, and a couple of other native water plants).
The pond is like a plant factory! I'm currently planning a waterfall and pond in another location and wanted to have a small tea house and bridge. Yes, I love your site! I don't know much about truly proper filtration (various bays, UV, etc.), so that is something I need to pursue.

I constructed a cover for my pond that I could walk around in and could remove for the summer. I heated it with a small ceramic heater, ventilated it with a small fan with an attic fan thermostat added in line blowing through a set of clothes dryer vents, lighted it with plant fluorescents in protective plastic tubes in regular shop light (two 48" tube) fixtures and incandescent floods. I needed for it to be temporary and seasonal, so everything had to be portable and/or possible to take down. I'll gladly provide more info about my adaptations of the plans if anyone is interested.
Thanks to your site, I've already seen some possible pitfalls with my waterfall project--hope I can overcome them. Thanks for opening up your site to non-members who love fishkeeping, especially koi.
Sara, Dalton - USA

Dear Sara,
All of our members have ponds designed mainly for showing off their koi and for this reason we have deep ponds without any plants. We do, however, realise that the majority of pond-keepers out there have pond with other fish besides koi and that they like to have plants in their ponds.
Other members of the family then complain that it does not really fit into the rest of the garden, but with bog gardens alongside, vegetable filters, and waterfalls the situation is improved.
Thanks for sending details of your pond and perhaps more people who look at this website will be prompted to write something. Have you any photos?
Eric.