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You want a pond in your garden. You want fish and water lilies and a waterfall; you want to relax next to your pond after work and sip your tea.

You have seen many kinds of garden ponds while shopping around. You may have had a landscape architect or water-garden designer come to your house and give you an estimate that blew you away when you saw the price. So you have decided to build your own backyard garden pond. It can’t be that hard. And it isn’t. But there are a few things to think about before you go buy a shovel.

Designing your pond
When you are designing your pond, you must consider your lifestyle. Is it formal and you like catered, sit-down dinner parties for 16 in the garden? If so, you'll probably want a formal pond; a rectangle, circle or oval to fit in your formal garden. In this case, usually the pond is built from concrete, gunnite, masonry or tile. The formal pond usually holds a fountain or a piece of statuary. It may have fish, but probably not. It can be a reflecting pond or pool with a three-tier concrete or wrought-iron fountain in the center. You would care for a pond like this just as you care for your swimming pool, with chlorine to keep the water clean and clear.

If you like to have your friends over for outdoor barbecues and the thought of a sit-down dinner party for more than your own family is anathema to you, you will probably like a more informal pond.

Ponds that are informal, with rocks or boulders placed around the pond, are the ones you will love. A roaring waterfall or trickling stream might be the moving-water feature rather than a formal fountain.