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Hey I'm Eric Triplet the Pond Digger.
Today I have a really fun project I wanna share with you.
My son and I are gonna install a frog pond.
It's a really fun weekend project that you can tackle for very little money.
I only have a few hundred bucks in materials.
It's gonna take us just a couple of short hours to get this thing done.
And we're gonna walk you through some of the steps to make your
frog pond installation a whole lot easier.
Let's get started.
Before we dig into the project, I just wanna cover our materials list real quick, so
you can begin taking notes.
We're just gonna do a small frog pond, about 7 foot by 9 foot,
so I have about an 8 by 12 piece of liner and underlayment sitting over here.
I have a few bags of gravel,
that we're gonna cover the bottom of the pound with to help protect it from the sun,
the UV doesn't wanna get to the liner and then it will make it look nice and natural.
I have about a ton and a half to two tons of, of granite boulders that we'll use, in and
amongst the pond and make it look like a little natural waterway.
Found this really cool piece of driftwood, that we'll use in,
we'll kind of maybe put it in there some way.
And it's a nice material, it's a fallen log.
And the frogs that come to our backyard, here they're tree frogs.
So it's a nice material for them to land on.
Do their croaking, attract a mate.
And then do their thing down in the water, and, and leave some tadpoles for us to,
to culture.
I don't have any fancy tools.
All I have is some shovels and a pick and a rake.
And that's all we're gonna need to get this thing done.
I lied, I actually have a level back here too, we're gonna level the bottom and
make everything look nice and even.
So the next thing we're gonna do, is we're gonna lay out the,
the pond's design, and then we're gonna start digging.
To begin the layout, I have the edge of the pond I want,
I dont want to be farther than this, so I'm gonna put a little.
Spray can right there.
Spray painting.
And then your foot is roughly 12 inches with a, with a boot on.
So there's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.
So it's roughly nine feet.
I'm not looking for something exact right here.
I want the back of the pond, so I know I'm gonna stay within that realm.
If I'm gonna do a kidney, I want the back of the pond to be somewhere in this range, so
I'll make that the back edge.
Now, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
So, there's the square of which I can do things.
So oftentimes, I'll come through, I'll spray this back end,
nice curve at the back like a kidney bean.
I don't wanna do a complete oval, so what I'll do is, I'll bring this side out.
And then I'll come in like the inner curve of the kidney bean.
[SOUND] And then I'll spray it out like that.
So that's a nice looking, kidney bean.
[SOUND] Before
we put the shovel in the ground I wanna be clear on a couple things.
Since this is a frog pond, what is it that they require?
They require warm water, they require still, stagnant water, and
that's what this is gonna be.
We are gonna keep aquatic plants in here, and some, some mosquito fish in here, so.
When I say stagnant, you think that it's gonna be smelly and gross and
green, that's not the case,
we're gonna make it a beautiful ecosystem, because we're gonna help it get all balanced.
So we're gonna dig the pond down 12 inches, so when the sun hits it,
the water warms up quickly, we don't want anything running in here,
we don't want any pumps otherwise the tadpoles could get damaged and injured.
So we're gonna begin digging right now,
we'll explain some more of those details along the way.
[SOUND] >> Let's talk for
a moment about why we're building a frog pond.
Frog populations are endangered because of declining habitat and disease.
By building a frog pond, you can do your part, to help save these amazing amphibians.
The pond is only twelve inches deep to encourage the warm water,
for the fast development of the tadpoles.
Aquatic plants, will provide filtration to keep the water crystal clear.
[SOUND] I like to come through with a tamper
on the bottom of our excavation [SOUND] If there's any rocks sticking up or protruding,
it's a good time to get them just flattened down, before we put the underlayment down.
The underlayment will usually take care of it just fine, but
it's a nice little added touch.
It makes a nice smooth area for us, so we're gonna go ahead and
put the underlayment down, and then throw the liner on next.
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