Before excavating the hole for the pond liner of your outdoor water fountain, have a certified electrician install a GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter) outlet near where the artificial pond will be, if you don't already have one. Since the cord length of the pump I selected was 6', I determined a location for my water fountain that would be within 6' of the outlet. An ideal location in your landscaping for a water fountain is near a patio. While relaxing on the patio, you'll be treated to the soothing sounds of the water fountain.
Your first landscaping task is to remove any weeds from the area you've selected for your outdoor water fountain, and make sure it's level. Then you will dig out the hole, into which the preformed plastic pond liner will be placed. To get an accurate measurement for the hole's dimensions, simply flip the preformed pond liner upside down and trace around it. The pond liner that I used is just a small, cheap, rigid liner, 7" deep with a diameter of 2'.
A water feature using a pond liner of this size will be just large enough to make a statement in your landscaping -- if you make it the focal point of a small niche on your landscape. Just use a "big fish in a small pond" approach (pardon the pun). That is, make sure your water fountain is situated in an area of your landscape where it won't be upstaged by larger elements. When you choose plants to grow around your water fountain, make sure their height at maturity is short, relative to the water fountain statuary. Draw the eye to the artificial pond by having a stone path lead up to it, by accenting it with a bright color, or by any one of a number of similar landscape design tricks.
Make the depth of your hole about what the depth of the pond liner is. Try to make the diameter of the hole match that of the preformed plastic pond liner as closely as possible, for a good tight fit. If, however, you find you've made the hole too wide, use sand to fill in the gap.
Sand will also be used at the bottom of the hole, since a sand floor will be malleable enough to allow you to play with the height of the pond liner. Put about an inch of sand in, so that the top rim of the preformed pond liner will stand about an inch above ground level -- reducing the amount of dirt that will keep falling into your artificial pond. You'll be pushing the sand around to get the level of the pond liner just right.
Next, place the preformed plastic pond liner into the hole. Check for levelness by placing a carpenter's level across it (see photo above) -- both front to back and left to right. Depending on the readings you get from the carpenter's level, it is at this point that you'll have to remove the pond liner from the hole and adjust its sandy floor accordingly.
On Page 3 we continue with the project, turning our attention to the water fountain's statuary....
