I had my first pond when I was about 5 years old. We lived on a farm and there was an old farm pond about 2oo yards in back of our barn. I found I could "play" behind the barn out of sight from the house and then sneak back to the pond. I went back there as often as I could. I only got caught once, got yelled at and told not to go there. So I got better at sneaking. I totally could have died back there...but the risk was well worth it imo. It taught me so much and got me interested in learning. People today are starting to consider the possibility that we're over protecting our kids. Park where kids can use tools, build fires, do what kids do. But to the question... Here is my Kinder Pond. I built this for the neighborhood kids because they were always want to see my ponds in my backyard and to play in them. I've seen kids drink water out of it. Yeah, sure could make them sick. So could the cat poo they picked up and ate. So could licking their shoes. So could... To make this durable and reasonably safe I did the following. Made it shallow. Just 3" for most and 10" in the center. That also made it a great bird bath which was unexpected and really great for bird watching. Kids like watching birds too. Added a wide stream. Kids love to build dams so I didn't want a stream that was right to the edge of it's banks. If they were going to dam it and overflow the banks I wanted to make sure they had to work at it. I added a small waterfall. The sound of water is attractive to kids and other wildlife. It has to be strong enough to stand on. I used EPDM liner and concrete over that. Bare line and kids I don't think would be good. They would pull it up to see what its was or what was under it. So no visible liner. I mortared all rocks in place. Being shallow means not a lot of water which is a problem. I sure didn't want the pump visible in the pond. You think raccoons are inquisitive, kids have them beat. So I buried a 55 gal plastic drum about 5' away from the pond/stream. A pipe went from the 10" deepest spot in the pond to the drum using a bulkhead fitting on the drum (Uniseals are great). Pump went into the drum set on some bricks so it wasn't right on the bottom. Power cord went thru conduit to GFI outlet with a locked steel cover. A hose from the pump went underground to the stream top. No visible pipes. I built a very heavy cover for the drum and screwed thru that into the side of the drum. The drum is the dangerous part so that had to be secure. I made the top out of plastic decking so it weighed about 40 lbs which by itself is difficult for kids to lift. The drum was set low so the top as a bit below grade making removal more difficult. I also added an auto fill to the drum. A float valve that got its water from a sprinkler valve on a timer set for 2 minutes per day. If the float valve failed, and they do, the most water that would be wasted was 2 minutes worth per day. In the pond the 10" low point was formed into a rectangle. I made a skimmer basket type deal with PVC pipe and shade cloth that fit into the formed concrete rectangle. That stopped leaves, sticks, rocks from getting into the pipe going to the drum. It ran 24/7, never was green and it never had a string algae problem. Maybe I was just lucky, maybe that most of the water spent so much time in the totally dark drum helped. I didn't ever see mosquito larvae in this pond. Don't know why. Another option which I've seen kid enjoy are bogs. Pond or stream that maybe at lease 12" deep and filled with pea gravel. Water level can vary from just below the surface to as deep as you like above the gravel. Like a wet sand box. Kids can build streams, dig, do whatever they want. You can run a hose, or several hose on the surface so the kids can move them, build water falls, or whatever. I'd keep the hoses near the center and short enough so they could be move to outside the bog.

Gotcha, thanks for the explanations! I'm thinking I may have a few species trees on my property now. It's actually a very sad thing. We have several trees and plants that I truly love but are in horrible places. It's like whoever planted them back in the 70's new absolutely nothing about trees-- the placement is so bad, it makes me wish we didn't have them at all. If we have them cut down one day, not only will it cost us thousands of dollars but I can't imagine being able to plant anything else anywhere near where they are now-- the roots systems must be incredible. Frustrating, and sad. See that huge conifer on the bottom right? We have two of them, one on each corner of our yard, and you have a hard time seeing cars there sometimes-- the bottom branches have had to be cut a few times (when previous owners were here). Plus the snow has weighed so heavily on some of the branches that they've snapped right off, making big gaping holes right in the middles of the trees. The JM is a beautiful dark dark red color-- to me anyway-- but it's huge and directly in front of our front door! Oh and that's an insanely large silver maple sticking up behind the JM... it's in our backyard and only about 15' away from our house.

Weddingdance, Welcome to Jefferson. We moved here about 19 years ago when we built our house (3 acres of ground); however, my youth was spent growing up in Knoxville. We have been naturalizing our lower two acres back into woodland (long, slow process), but less upkeep and supports a lot of nature. Our upper acre has been landscaped to take native wildlife into consideration, but evolves as plants mature. I agree with Peggy about Surrybrooke Farm. I am amazed with what Nancy has done with this property, especially since it is her family's home too. Nancy did some flowerbed layout for me off of my patio not too long after we moved in. I see by your dates, you are just now moving in. Once you are settled in, please feel free to e-mail me through this site if you would like to hook up. It is always good to meet a fellow gardener. By the way, I hope you were "warned" about the bunny problem in Jefferson, they are cute, but not when they destroy all you have planted. Lately I have been mostly visiting "That Home Site" in the Gardenweb since we are in the process of upgrading/renovating our kitchen.

Love the photos!!! bigjack, I love Deep Creek! Do you live there? ronf, that is such a precious shot! minrose, how could one not smile when seeing that? thanks!