Building a habitat for wildlife around your garden pond ads a great deal of interest to your property. To the members of the natural world around you, you're considered a hero. Out here on the west coast, fresh water that is clean is something of a scarce commodity. It's more of a miracle to wildlife. The moment you fill your garden pond with water, the natural world will begin flocking to your property – no pun intended. Insects will be the first to show, particularly the colorful kind like dragonflies.

Birds have an innate ability to locate water, especially if they have a good vantage point high in the air. This means they'll quickly spot your garden pond and will be swooping down in no time. Locating your little pond is short work for birds that spend their days hunting for small sources of food and water in the Sierra forests. Birds of all breeds love water, and by building habitat ponds, you provide them with plants to nest around, water to drink and insects to feast on.

If your goal for developing a garden pond is to attract wildlife and other birds then you need to consider the size and contours. If you have Koi in your garden pond, then tadpoles that spawn in the shallows of the water are considered food. You can't expect natural cycles and the food chain to stop just because it's your pond. This means constructing your garden pond so that your habitats are protected from one another. Unless of course you want nature to run its course naturally – no pun intended. Well maybe a little. If that's the case, then by all means mix and mingle species.

If you are developing a garden pond habitat specifically for birds, your pond will feature contours with wide shallows and easy slopes for the birds to easily enter the water and bathe, eat and drink. Take the time to survey your yard for the ideal location where birds seem to congregate. Providing them a bathing spot where they already gather is like opening up a chocolate egg to find more chocolate inside. It's a double bonus and they'll love it. Keep your garden pond away from heavy plant cover and bushes though. While the décor might be pleasant to look at, it's an easy place for other predators (like neighborhood cats) to hide and spring an attack on your birds.

You may want to try to control the bug population, as you notice that having a garden pond means insects. A pest-free garden is not a bird habitat. Putting down pesticides and insect poison is a quick way to kill off local birds and poison your own water supply. If you stock fish in your garden pond, you might as well dump poison directly into the water if you try to chemically control the pest population.

The best natural habitat ponds are the ones that are left to grow naturally. Save for maintaining a good Ph balance in the water, you should let nature takes it course. It won't take long for mother nature and all her little creatures to move into your back yard garden pond and call it home.

When you decide to stock fish in a garden pond you currently have, or you're planning on installing a garden pond specifically for the purpose of raising fish, there are numerous things to take into account and careful planning is required. The last thing you want to happen after investing in a dozen or more fish is to have them suddenly die on you. There's a fair amount of maintenance involved and several factors must be taken into account depending on how you go about building a pond and what fish you choose. The type of fish can decide how clean your water must be, and some breeds require more oxygen and open water than others. Some fish, like Kio, require customer environments.

Flashy and colorful fish are often the first choice for homeowners who are building a garden pond because they want to raise attractive fish that provide additional aesthetic value to their beautiful design. These types of fish are a little difficult to find if you're looking for a variety, particularly the ones that will survive in outdoor ponds. You begin to find trouble however with natural predators when you bring flashy fish into the mix. You can expect visits from birds of prey, neighborhood cats, raccoons and other animals that wouldn't mind partaking of the buffet you so kindly opened.

If you intend on stocking your garden pond with flashy fish like Koi, you'll need to make sure that you have deep enough water and enough plant cover for the fish to hide. They'll need this cover to survive if you can't provide other protection from predators.

Expect to invest in a quality filtration system to keep your water free and clear of harmful micro-organisms and organic waste. A good filtration system coupled with aeration is the best way to maintain properly oxygenated water with a healthy Ph level, providing your fish with an optimal living environment. All filtration systems have to be checked frequently however, so make sure you perform scheduled maintenance on your garden pond and keep tabs on the health of your fish.

Mechanical aeration certainly helps, but in order to give your fish the most natural environment that mimics their home, you need to include submerged plant life to help clean and oxygenate the water. This plant life also provides home, shade and cover for many breeds of fish. Aquatic plant life can also reduce the stress on fish that comes from being out in the open with nowhere to hide. The oxygen factor is the largest issue, as these submerged plants will help keep the water (especially the deepest areas) oxygen rich to ensure your fish will thrive. This isn't something that is easily added, so it's best to plan ahead and incorporate aquatic plants when you install the garden pond.

The best oxygenator plants for the west coast ponds are Hornwort, Anacharis, and Dwarf Sagittera. Any one of these will get you started on the right path taking excellent care of your new fish.

We all would love to have a home on the water's edge, whether it’s a lake, pond or ocean. Not everyone can live that dream though, since there's only so much shoreline to go around. For many of us, we settle on a nicer alternative that keeps the chill wind from blowing across those large waters into our homes. We bring the water feature to us.

By adding a water feature on your property, you have the free will and freedom to design it to fit your needs. Waterfront homes don't have this luxury, so you're already coming out on top. While the customization is endless, it boils down to what you want. Garden ponds, waterfalls or streams.

While waterfalls seem to be one of the more popular options, especially pondless waterfalls, there is a certain limitation as to what you can do with them. You can't deny the popularity however, and people are installing them from small to large. Streams are being designed to cascade into multiple ponds over rocks. This creates a wonderful sight from afar when you look upon a beautiful stream that splits into multiple waterfalls.

While waterfalls that simply flow between multi-level ponds are nice, a stream will really flesh out the bulk of your property. By running a stream between two ponds at either ends of your property, you create a dynamic water feature that carries with it the feeling of nature - that it was meant to be there and fits your home in every way.

With just a little strategic placement of rocks and plant life, you can make your stream look as natural as ever. Transform your yard into a watery wonder, and build a masterful lagoon around your patio, fed by a natural waterfalls attached to the stream that courses through your yard. With a few palms, some imported lava rock and the right tinted stonework you can have a great little Hawaiian hotspot in your back yard – completely secluded from the outside world.

You can adjust the intensity of the streams on your property as well. A babbling brook, a roaring torrent, it's all up to you and the way it is engineered. They can be as wide or as narrow as you like and as intricately weaving as your heart desires. If you have the ability to heavily decorate along your stream with trees and undergrowth, you can create the perfect restful spot to sit on a rock, dunk your feet in the cool rippling water and shut out the rest of the world.

The water feature you create will only be limited by a few things. The first of course is your imagination. Don't be afraid to get extreme when designing your water scape. This is something that is going to last a long time, and you should get what you want the first time. Don't second guess yourself. If you want it, have it drawn up and see what a rendering of it would look like. Secondly, the installer: Make sure you carefully review the contractor to ensure that they have the talents required to deliver your desired streams and waterfalls. Once you have that locked in, it's only a matter of time before you have a vacation spot within reach every day.

Depending on the design of your home, you may have an outdoor living space that you want to enhance with water features, but you're just not the "fountain" type. Large commercial fountains are pleasant, but more than just a little cliché. They also take up a lot of what I call "mid-height" room. While they wouldn't take up any more space than an indoor garden pond, they clutter up the "mid-height" level of the room and can dominate your field of vision and obstruct your line of sight with visitors. There are ways to incorporate water features and small waterfalls into your outdoor living space with creative use of paver stones. The best part about this, is that it would naturally match the flooring of your patio designs.

A seat wall made from pavers can easily be turned into many waterfalls designs. The simple procedure involves installing a slim copper sleeve into the wall to create a channel that allows the water to cycle and circulate back into the paving stone garden pond. If you're feeling industrious, you can even backlight these seat walls and indoor garden pond areas with fiber optics to create a beautiful and very relaxing environment at night.

Ponds in your outdoor living space can be at floor level and can also be raised a fair distance above the patio surface. It's just a matter of making a creative way to get up and look at your garden pond. A large circular pond with water trickling down thin channels the length of the outside of the pillar into the pond that surrounds it is a nice touch, and just one example. Pleasant indeed, and certainly very chic.

These ponds are often built with preformed polymer tubs, as outdoor ponds are dug into the earth and lined with a heavy duty liner. One of the best ways to ensure your pond lasts and is easy to maintain would be to create a basin crafted from with gunite, the same material used in swimming pools. This ensures you can also get the custom shape you need.

These small and petite garden ponds can house small fish and a few pleasant, deep-water plants fit for cleaner water. While you don't want to choke off a sitting area like this with too many plants, they certainly add a relaxing ambiance when you want to sit on the edge and soak you feet after a long day. Small garden ponds like this are fantastic for a courtyard, a walkway leading to a garage or right up against your home along the exterior walls.

If you want to mix the concepts between waterfalls and fountain, you can weave the copper pipe plumbing through your stonework to feed jets of water out at various angles, creating decorative arcs of water. With strategic placement of shut off valves, you can change the style of your fountain with just a few twists. Controlling the flow also makes for a touch of serenity when you need it most. Imagine the calm silence of your outdoor patio, with no sound around you save for the gentle trickle of water around you.
Ah… and it's such an easy install – now all you have to do is find a good garden pond contractor.

There's something marvelous about looking into the still waters of a beautiful lake. With no wind, and a surface untouched by current, it's like looking into a mirror. Still water, whether it's deep or shallow, creates some of the most dazzling reflections of the world we already see around us. To get the most out of this effect in your garden pond, you need clear, clean water. There's nothing that says you have to always have still water for a pretty reflection though. Consider the affect waterfalls have. They lend a certain ethereal quality to the reflection in your garden pond that mimics the dynamic trails created by natural, aquatic life in the water.

If you built a gazing pond in the middle of an expansive piece of property with no decorations around it, you'd only be mirroring the sky above. While a blue sky with clouds of white fluff is a beautiful scene, there's so much more to be had. It pays to add something more, and since many people don't have massive expanses of land there's a good chance you'll be reflecting the image of your neighbor's ugly roofline or a child's swing set.

Some careful planning is required in order to minimize or eliminate these somewhat undesirable props from standing out in the tranquil reflection of your ponds. If you have privacy hedges that can block out adjacent homes like a massive living wall, then count yourself lucky. If not, there are other creative ways to protect the reflection of your garden pond, such as a large outdoor oriental folding screen. With a proper design that matches the ambiance you're looking to create, you may find that it matches so well it can become a permanent piece of your gazing pond layout.

If you want to boost the appeal of your ponds reflection, consider the placement of things like ornate sheds, gazebos, vines across latticework, an outdoor fireplace, etc. Tall plants take some time to grow, but as they reach toward the heavens and mature they will deliver a wonderful touch of class surrounding your waterscape – almost a feeling of security as you look both up and down.

The plants you place around the edge of the garden pond should be selected to echo the nearest edge of the reflected sky. These plants provide the nicest reflection border when they've had time to grow and cascade into the water, flowing over the rocks and grassy edge of your garden pond. Floating plants should be considered as well, since they add both soft and stark contrast and will add to the reflection. Colorful floating plants can give the feeling of suspended artwork in the middle of a soft reflection in your garden pond.

Study your yard from the perspective of what will show up in the reflection of your garden pond. It's something to consider when planning and building out the space. Look at photos of other ponds to see how the dynamic landscape around them reflects in the water. By spending time studying other projects, you'll be equipped with better design ideas on how to build yourself the perfect gazing pond.