Irrigation of summer cottages and gardens requires a lot of water, but there are not always natural reservoirs nearby. If you take it all together, you can build a common pond by building a dam.
Necessary
- - Clay;
- - Ground;
- - Peat;
- - Dernina.
Instructions
Step 1
First you need to choose a place for the pond. On a map or on the ground, determine a place that will have a large capacity and a large catchment area. The catchment area is a territory from which storm and melt water flows down; the larger it is, the more water will flow into the pond. It is good if a large capacity is achieved with a depth with a small mirror and a small size of the dam.
Step 2
The bottom and banks of the pond should consist of soil that is waterproof or impermeable to water - clay, loam. The banks should not be too shallow, as many small places are formed that are overgrown with grass - the water deteriorates, the pond becomes shallow. Banks that are too steep will quickly erode. It is very good if springs at the bottom of the pond or above it, which will replenish the reservoir with fresh water.
Step 3
Start making a dam in the narrowest place of a stream, ravine or ravine - this way you will have to do less earthwork. So that they do not erode the dam, there should be no springs in the immediate vicinity of it.
First, dig a ditch at the location of the dam and fill it with well-tamped clay - this is the dam lock. Then a clay wall is made, which is buried in the bottom and walls of the ravine - this is the dam screen, and the part buried in the bottom is called a tooth.
Step 4
Use loamy or sandy loam soil for the construction of the dam, with a clay content of 30-40%. You can determine the suitability of the soil in this way - take a glass and fill it with soil to half, stir well, after 2-3 hours the dregs will settle and the sand will settle to the bottom. Measure the sand layer and the clay layer, if the sand layer is 30 mm and the clay layer is 20 mm, this means that there is approximately 40% clay in the soil.
Step 5
The crest of the dam must be one meter above the highest assumed water level. The width of the dam is calculated on the basis of whether it will be pedestrian or carriageway. The width of the pedestrian dam with a height of 4 meters will be approximately 3 meters. The steepness of the slopes depends on the type of soil - with a high clay content, they are steeper.
The dam should not be built in frost and rain. Watch out for tree roots getting into the ground, when they rot, holes are formed through which water will leave. Reinforce the surface of the dam with a sod with densely grown small grass. Instead of turf, it is better to take peat from the side of the pond - it is a strong rotting cover.
