[voisin]

I have seen people online dig a pit, let pigs hang out in the pit and in a process called “gleying” the pigs seal the pit making it watertight.

I have some acreage and would love to try this out to create a pond, but there are never any real good details on this - what areas it works best, etc etc.

Anyone here have experience with making their own pond without using a liner?

[ljf]

Do it on the lowest point on your land - is there anywhere that naturally gets boggy and damp in the rain?

I lived on a small farm as a child and at the bottom of the land someone had dug a basic well near a very small spring. The spring was really just a muddy puddle, but over time from the sheep walking back and forth to drink from the puddle, it slowly became a small pond. As we scaled back the number of sheep we had, the pond slowly disappeared again.

What is the soil like on your land, do any springs already occur or are there other natural ponds?

[pvaldes]

You either had clay in the soil, or need to add a thick layer of clay for that. Then you use machines to compact the clay layer, remove air and made it watertight. Put water, will turn into a brown mess, wait for the clay sinking eventually, done.

If you don't have clay, ducks can provide manure that turns into fine mud with the same properties and pigs can provide the compact work, but will taint the water later with nitrogen. Machines are better.