Many homeowners dream of one day owning a home with a gorgeous garden pond, adulated by the praises of the flowers and beautiful weeds growing around the raised pond. What if you don’t have to wait till you buy a home that comes with its own pond?
What if you simply use one of our many raised pond ideas to build yourself a water-based sanctuary that makes you proud and invites you to admire it every chance you get?
Continue reading to learn more about the best raised-pond ideas for your next pond.
We can’t wait to tell you all about our raised ponds ideas!
What Is a Raised Pond?
Just as it is impossible to build a house without knowing what a house is, it is quite difficult to build the raised garden pond of your dreams without knowing what a raised pond is.
In simple terms, a raised pond is a pond that is built in a way that it is raised above the ground level. Raised ponds have become increasingly popular due to the growing concerns for child safety and the adoption of trendy new designs.
For people who want an effective and beautiful combination of fish and plants in their pond area, a raised pond is a great way to achieve a cohesive ecosystem.
It is common to see homeowners opt to build their koi pond as a raised koi pond, as it is much easier to build and maintain.
Reasons You Should Consider a Raised Pond
If you are still on the fence about whether or not you need to consider any of our raised pond ideas, here are four of the top reasons to build a raised garden pond.
Raised Ponds Help With Child Safety
The CDC estimates that over the past two decades, from 1999 to 2019, drowning deaths are the second leading cause of unintentional injury deaths for children aged 0-17 years and the leading cause among those aged 1-4.
Building a raised pond reduces the tendency for a child to accidentally fall into your garden pond.
A raised garden or koi pond also makes it easy to attach meshes and other structures that make it difficult for a child to fall into it.
Raised Ponds Are Typically Easier to Build
The best part about building a raised pond in your garden or backyard is that there are so many DIY pond kits available to try out. Raised ponds allow you to quickly try out several ideas without breaking the bank or your floor, making them cheaper and easier to build.
If you want a pond that requires minimal effort to build and disassemble when you no longer need it, then a raised garden pond is the way to go.
Raised Ponds Allow Easier Maintenance
Maintenance is critical to the longevity of any type of stagnant water body, and raised ponds are no exception. However, many of the raised pond ideas discussed in this article are easy to maintain and clean.
Since raised ponds are easier to clean and maintain, this means you spend less money on cleaning the pond and can spend more time admiring your beautiful raised pond.
Raised ponds are built to have a naturally elevated water level, a feature that makes it easy to drain raised garden ponds for maintenance. The waste that accumulates at the bottom of your pond can easily be removed using a cheap siphon.
The raised water level in a raised pond facilitates the removal of pond plants with ease.
Raised Ponds Allow for Designs that are Harder to Execute with Typical Garden Ponds
Regular ponds do not tolerate wooden construction in any way due to the ubiquitous presence of moisture throughout the cross-section of the pond.
Raised ponds, on the other hand, can be built using various materials, including timber. This is because the pond is above ground.
This advantage that raised ponds all have makes it easy to build wooden koi ponds using timber and other creative construction materials.
Koi ponds, for instance, are built to help collect excess water and pool. Koi ponds help prevent water from damaging the foundation or other structures around a home.
Many homeowners are now adopting raised koi ponds as effective alternatives to traditional koi ponds as it is cheaper and easier to build.
Amazing Raised Pond Ideas You Should Try Out
There are so many raised ponds ideas you can try that we can’t cover every single one of them. However, we have picked ten of the best raised pond styles guaranteed to make your backyard or garden pop!
The kind of raised garden pond you decide on will depend on factors such as the size, shape, and available location, as well as your personal preference.
You can choose a pre-designed and manufactured raised pond kit for your pond or build your raised garden pond from scratch using wood or brick and a welded pond liner structure.
Here are some of the best raised garden pond ideas to consider building in your home:
Natural Stone Raised Pond
This is perhaps one of the most common ways of building a raised garden pond. You can build a beautiful and scenic raised koi pond using big natural stones (similar to the type used in the construction of a building’s foundation).
The common thing to do is use landscaping stone pavers or full-fledged stones to construct the borders of the raised pond.
This type of raised pond is sturdy and long-lasting and might be more capital-intensive than some of the other raised ponds ideas on our list.
This natural stone raised pond provides a rustic scene that brings you into nature while reminding you of the separation between you and the water.
Timber Raised Pond with Accent Lighting
While some people might prefer the permanent and presence-heavy nature of the natural stone raised pond, then a timber raised pond with accent lighting might be your thing.
Many people want a pond in their garden, but very few people are willing to go the extra mile to spend so much money and energy in their quest to build a pond. Luckily, these people can build with a much cheaper and more stylish material— timber!
Timber is the perfect material for building small raised ponds in the center of your garden with minimal effort. This type of raised pond is built using wide decking boards and can feature accent lighting and if you are feeling adventurous, a waterfall too!
Transitioning Raised Pond with Layers
Many homeowners assume that just because a pond is above ground means it cannot have some extra layers to it. They are absolutely wrong!
To add a sense of dimensionality and adventure to your raised garden pond, you can build a series of above-ground ponds on top of one another, all arranged like a stepping stone (pun intended) to the next pond.
This kind of pond is usually built using large natural stones and surrounded with vegetation to give it character and a naturally thriving ecosystem.
This transitioning raised pond with layers provides your home with a center of attraction that a lot of visitors will enjoy staring at for a very long time.
Double-Skinned Raised Pond
The double-skinned raised pond combines a pond and a mini-farm. The double-skinned raised pond is designed to have an inner chamber that holds water and an outer layer that holds plants and surrounds the inner layer like a wall.
There are two ways to go about the double-skinned raised pond. You can choose to have a large pond area in the middle of your garden and surround it with a thin layer of plant bed wall.
Or, you can choose a large bed wall for plants with a small pond area in the middle. The choice is yours.
This kind of raised pond is typically built using timber. However, you can try out other materials like natural stone, brick, and many others. The goal is to ensure the final product is a double-skinned raised pond.
Raised Koi Pond with Plant Bed
Koi ponds are perhaps the most popular kinds of ponds installed by homeowners in their gardens, lawn, or balcony. Koi ponds are popular because apart from their obvious aesthetic function, they also have practical uses.
Koi ponds are used to breed the widely loved koi fish, which many believe bring good luck, prosperity, and so much more.
Apart from the traditional beliefs attached to koi fish, koi ponds are used to prevent excess water from pooling around a home’s foundation.
Therefore, having a raised koi pond with a plant bed surrounding it is a good way to maximize the use of space and foster an active ecosystem.
A raised koi pond is built like a double-skinned raised pond, with the pond in the middle and a plant bed surrounding it like an enclosed wall. The major difference between the doubled-skinned raised pond and the raised koi pond is that the koi pond can be used to breed pond fish.
The raised koi pond is the perfect blend of form and function.
Long Rectangular Modern Raised Pond
The name of this pond is self-explanatory. This raised pond consists of a hollow, rectangular pond structure that contains water. This kind of pond can be built using a slightly raised platform to ensure that it maintains a modern look.
This kind of raised pond is built mostly for aesthetic reasons. The tranquility that such a structure provides is second to none. You can use materials like slab bricks, small natural gravels, and tiles to build this kind of pond.
This kind of pond is raised only slightly off the ground and may not offer the safety that other raised ponds offer.
Raised Pond with Fountain or Waterfall
This raised pond idea is quite simple. To build this pond with water features, all you have to do is pick any raised pond suggested in this article and add a fountain mechanism. This kind of raised pond ensures you have properly oxygenated water and a water circulation system.
Pond fountains help aerate the pond and feed the fish with much-needed oxygen. There are several kinds of fountain designs that you can choose from.
The possibilities are endless.
Rooftop Raised Pond
Last but not least is the rooftop raised pond. This raised pond is for people that seek to do things that are out of the ordinary. Why build a pond on land in your garden when you can take the party upstairs to your rooftop?
A rooftop raised pond may require more planning depending on the rooftop you have, the space, and the material you want to build the pond with.
We suggest you consult with pond constructors or aquatic life professionals to help you flesh out your ideas for your pond. Our team of experts can help you determine the right pond water features for your raised pond.
Conclusion
Crafting a space around your home to erect or submerge a pond is one of the best decisions a homeowner can make. Apart from the aesthetic appeal that ponds offer, they can also increase the resale value of your home.
Raised garden ponds are popular among homeowners because they allow for a level of flexibility and creativity with pond construction that regular pond styles don’t allow.
The ideas presented in this article serve as a guide for anyone wanting a raised pond in their home who doesn’t know where to start. You can decide to pick one of the raised ponds ideas discussed or get creative and come up with a new design entirely.
Have fun building your next oasis with our small pond ideas!
