The backyard of my apartment was in shambles. Rocks, glass, knives, etc plagued the moss and weeds sprawled across the ground. I decided it needed some improvement. “How about a pond?” I thought to myself. Looking at what I had to work with, I realized this would be no easy feat.

Instead of spraying weed killer on everything, I simply took a rototiller to it. The ground was uneven, so this process would help aid leveling things out for some sod placement. After an initial rototiller pass. Found that a metal pole was cemented into the ground, possibly an old clothes line? The metal was jagged corroded and just asking for someone to impale themselves on. The yard was previously full of moss, grass, cement, rocks, broken glass, and cutlery. My friend couldn’t believe the tool rental place called it a “baby ’tiller”. Lots of previous netting to keep the weeds away were in shambles and needed to be removed.

Found a large number of bricks and stepping stones around 8″ in the ground. I dug them out and will place them on top of the soil to make the path to the back gate more aesthetic. The hole was dug and the liner installed. I decided to use a plastic hard shelled liner instead of flexible liner you install and shape yourself:

Two level shell, possibly put some plants across the top?

I will be using an Emperor Aquatics Smart UV Sterilizer to keep the algae at bay. Water comes from the pump, through the bio filter, through the sterilizer, then back to the pond. After everything is leak tested it will be hidden behind the waterfall horizontally:

Had to get creative to adapt the 3/4″ threaded hole to the 1″ barb fitting with the limited supplies available at the local hardware store:

Nice little “three stage” water fall:

Some rocks found around the yard during rototilling:

Some more rocks found around excavation sites close to me:

More rocks found around excavation sites not so close to me:

I am hoping to have the whole pond surrounded with garden stones. I want to have stones level with the waterfall all the way up. I think it will give an interesting look.

I also want to have the air conditioning condenser moved 90 degrees and against the wall. I will need to get an external contractor for assistance since I am not knowledgeable with relocating these. Getting this up against the fence/wall will give some more room and a better view. Rusty old compressors aren’t pleasant to look at!
I still need to treat the water to get rid of the chlorine and add in some bacteria to start a colony in the bio filter. Some plants will come after that hopefully! I am also trying to level the yard to install some sod, dirt and mud isn’t very nice to look at.