[Odin]

The land lord for the land I am using tried to put a duck pond in to one of the fields. Now this was no half hearted attempt, a contractor was brought in with a mini digger and spent a good four days. The dimensions are 12 yard diameter, 8 foot deep and has an island . The area was a confluence of victorian earth drains from a mill up in the next area of land, now converted to flats. So there is a good supply of water, unfortunately the water runs straight out again.   
The clay lining the bottom is a membrane that ruptures as soon as any weight of water forms, it finds the existing exit drains and runs into my tatty field that water logs at the bottom. 
The pond / hole is now 2 years on and despite finding small holes, treading the clay in, encouraging reeds to grow, use of old blankets , it all fails miserably.    The project has basically been left to sort it self out. Its a shame because there are a lot of frogs & toads about, but he would like ducks on there. I've got other requirements.
So, the question of the day is ;- BAM  What fixes are there to line this pond without going to great expense ?
    

[robert waddell]

this is one of the problems of just selecting an area and digging a big hole          there are more minuses than pluses        the ducks will eventually colonize the pond if it is sustainable to them (my own pond was inhabited with a duck family this year )
your field was it waterlogged before the pond was created    or has it just happened since also the converted mill will make a difference to the volume of water flowing eventually to your field
there is no cheap fix either do the job right or forget about it

[Odin]

There are springs everywhere around here, even during droughts. Water logging occurs because the old earth drains are either blocked or collapsed. There is a pipe through the next field of 18 inch diameter, its old but has collapsed with under the weight of cattle. that water flows through the dry stone wall into out fields. Got water coming in every direction and we are on a south facing slope, but can we hold the water ? Nope ? ?

[cooper956]

main ansser is the pond want made very well it aint just a dig a hole and its there we had a big pond made by one of my mums exs held water for about 6 months then it went into a reedy mess untill i dreged it with my digger a few years back and it then held water the only  reson i can come up with is i smeared if you like when i dreged it so i must have sealed it with the clay that i had dug down to. failing that its liner time  or put a good drain in and fill it in sounds like its part the ponds fault you feild wet and part that the drains are past there best i have a few feild like that myself slowly geting round with the digger though 

[Odin]

I aint got a digger , but I keep watching McConnels on E'bay,  but then its another machine to buy, maintain and operate. I think I"m going to start getting old carpets and drop them in with a shovel full of earth thrown on top. Keep finding a few reeds and encourage them to grow. There is a proper drain built in to the pond that will set the water level if it can fill. Its an inverted pipe that will give the pond a depth of 2 foot. That feeds into a land drain that functions correctly.

[cooper956]

old carpet never going to sort it has it a clay base? do you have clay round you. mconal isent realy very good for the job iv just got a old  360 but you can hire one or get someone who knows how to work it in. maybe some pics would help a bit

[Odin]

It does have a clay base, like a membrane that collapses as soon as there is a decent weight of water. The water finds the weakest point and pushes through into an old land drain. The owner is not prepared to spend any more money on it. I am prepared to spend the odd hour here and there on it. Really I need to refresh my question because I have stuck lumps of clay here and there into holes and try encouraging things to grow. So my refreshed question is ;- What kind of earth do pond like plants require to encourage them to grow. ?
I am sure they need more than clay. Old carpet in patches has had an effect with a reed plant sat on top. My method is to keep plonking something here and there in the base till it takes hold. There is water in the bottom but not a lot. Will work on a photo.