Building a waterfall garden part 1
12/9/2007 12:39:21 PM
No stream would be complete without a waterfall. No waterfall would be complete without a stream and no landscape is complete with out both. For the do it yourselfers the most important thing to remember is that the water goes over the rock, not underneath it. This is easy to do by sealing the rock to the liner using (black) expanding foam sealant or motar. When you are building backyard waterfalls consider whether you want to have a fish pond or whether you would like it to be a pondless waterfalls with pondless streams. Every outdoor water feature will be unique to the landscaping. Disappearing waterfalls and disappearing streams will use a lot less space than a garden ponds waterfall.
First you need to think of how many waterfalls you want and pick out a piece of flagstone for each location. Don’t be a home depot pond builder and invest in plastic waterfall rocks. Before installing the liner, adjust the soil so that the rock will fit snug. After each waterfall location is prepared, remove the flagstones and put the liner down. Place a bead of expanding foam sealant on the liner then replace the rocks, packing additional dirt around them. The bead of expanding foam sealant should be 2" wide and 1" high.
It is not absolutely necessary to have a perfect seal, but most of the water should go over the falls. Some pond builders use concrete but it does not bond to the liner and takes 24 hours or more to dry. Using the expanding foam sealant, you can usually run water after 30 minutes. What is special about waterfall and streams is there is no need to rush, take your time to make a beautiful creation. The waterfall stones should be level from side to side to ensure that the water will flow across the entire face of the rock. A slight tilt forward will encourage the water to project further and form a sheet, but too much water will look unnatural. A tip of mine is to take a rock hammer and chip in groves about every inch or so along the edge of the waterfall rock. If the water flow needs to be changed after the installation is complete, move a few rocks to redirect the water. This change can be made permanent by turning the water off for a few days or until the rocks are dry, then foaming the dry rocks in place.
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