Digging a pond at home, hit groundwater

[tadpole]

Originally Posted by STL Ponds and Waterfalls

Note to self...Never take a pond job in Canada. lol!

No problemo!.........if you are adept with a jackhammer and maybe a working knowledge of using high explosives in quarrying.

[Darryl G]

Originally Posted by DragonflyGardening

So, some further developments...turns out there is a giant rock about 2.5 feet down and the water was sitting on that rock. I'm hoping that as I dig wider I will find an edge to the rock and will be able to build a little drainage ditch beside the rock.

Interesting stuff, I find it fun.

Sounds like you have a perched water table...probably seasonal. Before you go digging your tail off, use a digging bar to probe around and see how big it is. If it's big enough to perch the water table, chances are you aren't digging it out or diverting the water around it...more likely it's ledge with a signfican't area to it. Could also be a clay or other relatively impermeable layer underlying it and there happens to be a rock there too.

[DragonflyGardening]

Oh I'm certainly in rock country - right on the edge of the canadian shield, which, if you aren't familiar, is basically a rock the size of...google google... 8, 000,000 square km. So I'm not too shocked by any of this. My idea of finding the edge is just wishful thinking really.

I guess I'm still feeling like I can basically put my pond smack dab on top of a rock. I may be wrong about that...

[Niagara Falls]

Hey Dragonfly, I know exactly the problem you are experiencing. It's a moving water table created by the granite you are sitting on. The front of my house in the summer has no water table at 5' until the fall and then it is at about 2' until the next summer. There is absolutely nothing you can do about this except move your pond above the water table that is there now, or build up the ground level to compensate for this.

As to the thickness of winter ice....no more than 8" where I am and also in Ottawa.

Good luck on your project, and don't let anything stop you from building what is the most soothing thing in nature......a waterfall and fish in a pond.

[DragonflyGardening]

Thanks Niagra, good info.

Been doing some reconsidering and looking to work with where my budget is right now ($0) and am toying with doing something small - at least to start with. I may want to expand in the future and that's fine, I have no issues with rebuilding. Will post updates as I go.