How To: Excavate a pond and use hand tools

This video shows you how to excavate a pond using hand tools and a jackhammer.First of all, you must organize your digging in shelves. A pond should have some parts deeper than others. You start by leveling the pond at the part where it will be more shallow (thus creating the first shelf). Then go to a deeper part and level that out. In this way you create shelves with different elevations.Your tools for excavating are the spade, the flat shovel, the pick, the wheelbarrow and the jackhammer. The spade is used mostly for digging, because it penetrates the soil much better than the flat shovel. It can also be used to chip soil from the edges of shelves, though a pick works better. Flat shovels are used to shovel the soil you excavate from the pond to the wheelbarrow. The wheelbarrow is used to get all the dirt away from the working site. If you hit hard dirt, you can use a jackhammer to work easier. Avoid using leather gloves when working, because they get worn out easily.