Plastic ponds have the advantage of being lightweight but sturdy, and relatively easy to install for an almost instant water feature. You can choose a pre-formed pond, available in a range of shapes and sizes, or purchase rolls of PVC plastic or butyl rubber to form the lining yourself. Either way, the pond won't look natural until you dress up the plastic edges with some kind of cover.
Although they may take some time to become established and require more maintenance than other materials, plants provide texture, movement and, if they flower, color to the water garden's perimeter. For the plants to cover the naked plastic edges of the pond, they need to be planted close enough to the rim for their foliage to drape over the pond's edge, but far enough away to allow the plants room to grow. Mounding ornamental grasses may fill the bill. If your water garden has a fountain, these grasses echo the motion of the water, as the leaves rise up from the center of the plant and cascade downward. Lush, large ferns like leather fern (Acrostichum daneifolium) can also help hide the plastic rim of the pond.
Artfully arranged, rocks can form a distinctive border around the garden pond and hide the plastic edges at the same time. Pre-formed ponds generally have a plastic lip that should be slightly above the surrounding ground to prevent soil from washing into the pond when it rains. You can install a layer of sand just under this lip and outward a few inches. Then rocks of various colors, shapes and sizes may be placed together in rows to cover the edge. Some rocks should protrude over the rim for a natural appearance. It takes some experimentation to get the rocks to fit together naturally. You can use ordinary mortar as a paste to hold the rocks in place, if needed.
Bricks, Pavers, Flat Slate or Hewn Rock
The flat surfaces of brick, pavers, slate and cut rock slabs makes them easy to fit together to form a low border to cover the pond's edge. They may fit naturally on the soil or can be placed on a base of sand to keep the bottom layer level. Once the base layer is laid around the perimeter of the pond, you can lay the next course by starting the first brick, paver, slate or slab centered over the junction of two of the bottom edgers. The bottom course can be laid lengthwise, end to end, and the second course turned so that the narrow end faces the interior of the pond. The second course will then protrude further out towards the water.
The most natural-looking ponds have both rocks and plants around the edge, often with some sections that are plain rock, pavers, brick or other hard material, and some sections where the plants are the stars of the show. Pebbles, rocks or bricks may still be placed over the edge, but the plants should all but obscure these from view. Flexible polymer sheets with a rocklike veneer are a lightweight alternative to real rocks, bricks and other heavy, hard edging materials. These sheets easily conform to the shape of the pond's edge and held in place with soil or rocks on the shore and a few rocks inside the pond. Because this liner looks like a natural stone wall, it can be left plain or you can add pebbles or plants anywhere along the rim.
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