February 9, 2025, 4:35 pm | Read time: 7 minutes
A stream is a place of longing for many people. The gurgling waters stand for sweetness and the romance of nature, and occasionally, they also stand for refreshment – depending on the water quality. A babbling brook can also be created in your own garden.
Having your own stream in your garden not only enhances the property’s value but also creates a beautiful sight and provides a habitat for various plants and wildlife. Implementing such a project is not as daunting as it may seem, with minimum costs being quite manageable at around 150 euros. However, the garden should be large enough. Areas that are as small as bath towels are too limited for a full stream – unless a simple trickle suffices for your needs. However, we are talking about at least three meters long, thirty centimeters wide, and ten to twenty centimeters deep. The gentle gurgling sound is delightful to both the marsh forget-me-not and burning buttercup, as well as providing refreshment for birds and a peaceful spot for human contemplation.
Overview
Creating a Stream in Your Garden – What Should You Consider?
In Germany, you don’t need to have any legal or ecological concerns. “Anyone can create a stream in their garden,” says Jutta Lehmann, Group Purchasing Manager at DIY and garden store operator Hornbach. However, tenants should consult their landlord beforehand.
You are well advised to draw your ideas in advance, as you would with a building plan for a house. Of course, you can simply dig out a channel and pour water into it. But that would quickly become like a medieval moat – a stagnant, brackish broth. And if this rivulet were exposed to constant sunlight, there would soon be no water left in the moat at all.
How Does a Circular Economy Come About?
Our stream should flow and gurgle continuously. That’s why it’s worth having at least a semi-shaded course that protects against water evaporation. Even more important, however, is a gradient; otherwise, the water will not flow on its own. The principle of the garden stream is always the same: water is pumped from a pond via a hose at least one centimeter thick to the highest point of the stream, from where it flows back into the pond. This is a classic example of a recycling management system in action.
There are basically two ways to build a stream in the garden. You can either use ready-made watercourse shells (made of ceramic, for example) or design your own individual watercourse using PVC film. Here is the recommended sequence for laying the substrate:
- Earth backfill (to achieve a certain height)
- Sand (for modeling)
- Fleece (to protect the liner)
- Pond liner (ideally made of PVC with a thickness of one millimeter)
- Stone liner (to cover the PVC liner and for visual design)
Ideally, a kind of capillary barrier should be erected at the edges of the watercourse, Hornbach expert Lehmann advises. “This design prevents water from seeping out and saturating the surrounding property.” And this is how you build a capillary barrier: use earth and sand to create a raised edge so that the flowing water cannot get over the edge.
When Does It Become Worthwhile to Create a Storage Zone?
How steep the gradient is depends on individual taste, says gardening expert Jutta Lehmann. For a longer stream, about five meters or more, you should only make sure that water retention zones are created after a longer section, about every one to two meters. These should be 20 to 30 centimeters deep and 40 to 50 centimeters wide and long. “Ideally, these should be stocked with pond plants and stones to maintain the biological balance in the pond,” is Lehmann’s advice.
The benefits of weirs include not only visual enhancement of the stream but also natural filtration that helps clean the pond. The damming zones also ensure that the watercourse is not drained when the pump is switched off and the pond may overflow as a result (depending on the design). In addition, the watercourse fills up much faster when the pump is switched on and does not require as much water from the pond.
With the pond system, it is not necessary to connect a tap, emphasizes Lehmann: “A stream with a pond is a closed water circuit that is connected to a stream pump. The water circuit starts with the pump. This connects the stream to a spiral hose with an internal diameter of at least one inch. The water that emerges from the hose flows back into the pond via the stream, thus completing the water cycle.”
How Much Water Must the Pond Hold?
The volume of water the pond can hold must be proportionate to the size of the stream. Let’s stick with our example stream mentioned above, which is three meters in length. Horticultural expert Lehmann advises: “The collecting basin should have a capacity of at least 1000 liters.” You can sink a prefabricated pond made of polyethylene (PE) into the ground or give free rein to your own design ideas with a pond liner.
Another tip from Jutta Lehmann: “For aesthetic reasons, the size of the stream and pond should be coordinated.” So, if our example stream had to compete with a kind of reservoir, the result would be a visual imbalance. This would fail to create a visually appealing and inviting space in the garden.
What Is Important for the Pump?
The pump serves as the heart of the water circuit, vital for its operation. Its size depends on the distance from the water level in the pond (important: not from the pump) to the highest point of the stream and its width. For our example stream with a width of 30 centimeters, we calculate one meter from the water level to the highest point of the stream. Hornbach expert Lehmann recommends a stream pump with a pumping capacity of 5000 liters per hour. At a height of two and a half meters, it should be 7000 liters per hour.
Some pump manufacturers provide user-friendly calculators to help determine the correct pump size. These are, for example:
- https://www.oase-teichbau.de/bachlaufrechner
- https://www.heissner.de/teichberater/wassergarten-rechner/bachlauf-rechner.html
Note: The pump does not need to be attached to the pond. Simply set it up, connect the hose to the stream and you’re done.
What About Water Hygiene?
Once the watercourse is established and the water begins to flow, however, there are still a few important considerations to address. About fauna and flora, for example. Stream expert Lehmann advises against releasing fish into the stream. “Only in the pond.” Instead, the banks of the stream can be planted – we have already mentioned marsh forget-me-not and burning buttercup. But there are even more waterside plants. Water hygiene is important, emphasizes Jutta Lehmann: “Due to the shallow water depth, thread algae can form along the stream on hot days. You should remove these regularly by hand.”
And for the pond: “Ideally, you should add starter bacteria to the pond at the beginning,” recommends Jutta Lehmann. In this case, these are beneficial bacteria that break down pollutants in the water caused by the metabolism of plants and vegetation. 150 grams of starter bacteria are sufficient for 10,000 liters of water and are available for less than 10 euros.
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What to Do with the Stream in Winter?
Garden streams are not suited for the harsh conditions of frosty winters. They should be shut down at this time, or at least the pump should be stopped. “If you do want to enjoy the stream, the pump must now run 24 hours a day to prevent it from freezing over. The hoses coming from the pump should be buried in a frost-proof place,” are the winter tips from expert Jutta Lehmann.