Stock Tank Pond Dreaming (no fish, though)

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Late Winter, heading towards Spring is the "what if" season for a gardener like me.  And...by a gardener "like me", I mean a total amateur who doesn't always think things through and has half-baked ideas.  My latest "what if" has to do with a pond.  Oh, I've posted a number of times about ponds on the blog.  Even talked about locations for them a couple of times.  But, due to a variety of factors (cost, upkeep, location, permanency, being busy with other things among them), I just haven't pulled the trigger.  

But last week, I came across an Instagram post from Erin, the Impatient Gardener that stopped my scrolling.  I've posted about Erin the Impatient Gardener before here, here and here.  As I've mentioned before, I think she's great and provides a lot of inspiration to me - not just because she knows her stuff, but because she's in (or very close) to my growing zone.  She's in Wisconsin, I'm in Northern Illinois.  So, we share the same seasons - which is rare for gardening online it seems.  Anyway...back to that instagram post:


Welp...what about a stock tank pond???  She has one, and uses it for plants - and not fish - which is a concern of mine in terms of winterizing things.  

She has a post up on her site all about her "container pond" (or as I'm calling it:  a stock tank pond) that details how she placed it in the center of her (very symmetrical) vegetable garden.  

In that post, she references another gardener - Pam Penick - who all the way back in 2009 was doing stock tank ponds down in Texas.   Pam details how you can lay one of these stock tanks out including the laying down of a surface so the tank won't sink.  Pam has (at least back in 2009) a 1000 gallon version.  While, Erin has a 165 gallon version - which seems way, way more my speed.  

Of course, I've already gone online looking for stock tanks.  It seems that the shipping is crazy, so the best bet is to head to a Farm and Fleet or Tractor Supply and pick one up in person.   I've been recently thinking of transforming the plot of turf to the south of our patio into a vegetable garden and now...maybe that garden needs a little stock tank pond.

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