If you use your farm pond for anything more than raising koi or handling stormwater, you need to test the water at least once a year.

Nuisance plants and animals can ruin the water quality, kill off fish and chosen plants, and damage a pond liner with sharp claws.

Even if your pond is located entirely on private property with no visibility or advertising, you are responsible for any injuries or damage caused by the feature.

Not only does a pond with exposed raw soil stand out unpleasantly from the rest of the landscape, but it’s also prone to erosion and leaks without a protective layer of vegetation.

For small landscaping ponds of just a few hundred gallons, spreading pond lining material by hand is a simple process. 

Using heavy machinery to excavate the pond or shape the embankment dam goes relatively quickly, but it requires plenty of care and attention. 

Almost all ponds, except for raised excavated designs on flat surfaces with high levees, intake some amount of runoff water.

Before you can set a budget for your pond liner and heavy machinery costs, you’ll need to know the approximate size of the pond.

Once you’re prepared for the permit process and you’ve picked a site for your pond, you can move on to designing its size, shape, layout, and special features. 

When you can’t rely on the soil itself to hold water, you have three main options for lining your farm pond.