Garden Waterfalls Are Fun!Did you know that even the new home gardener can easily install garden waterfalls? Waterfalls are a wonderful water feature almost anyone can add to their garden. The peaceful sound of water tinkling over rocks or into a garden pond is unmatched by simple shrubbery or flowers.  Adding a waterfall to your garden or garden pond is a step up from installing the pond itself. But it can be a great addition! One of the hardest parts of planning garden waterfalls can be the cascading structure of the water feature. If you can use an existing slope on your property, it will make your life easier. But if this isn't possible, then you'll need to make an artifical slope by building a berm, lining it and then covering it with rocks. And that can be a lot of work and/or expensive to do. An alternative—especially for small scale garden waterfalls—is to just use a small pile of rocks or boulders for the water to cascade over. The rocks that the water actually flows over should be more flat than rounded. This ensures that the water drops cleanly into the pond at the bottom, rather than flowing back under the rocks. You can find a great article at About.com on how to design small garden waterfalls using this cascading rocks method: Waterfalls at About.com.
If you have your heart set on building a large-scale garden waterfall, then check this out: I found a great free ebook for constructing your own backyard garden waterfalls and garden ponds. Your only "cost" is to share your name and email address so ClearwaterLandscapes.com can email the book (in PDF) to you. You can download your copy here: http://clearwaterlandscapes.com/pondebook.htm. HGTV.com also has a number of detailed project plans for building garden waterfalls and other water features. They also have information on care and upkeep of waterfalls and ponds. Here's a short article that provides a few additional tips on constructing a waterfall in your garden...
How To Build A Waterfall
by Elizabeth Morgan With a fair amount of hard work and patience, you can easily build your own waterfall in your garden. However, before embarking on the task, there are some things to consider. Check whether your landscape has an elevation. If not, it means more labor. Building a waterfall pond will require digging. Check with utility companies to see if you’ll be damaging any of their underground cables in the process. While building the waterfall, the important aspects to be considered are the base pool, the height to which water is to be lifted and the feature on which it is to be cascaded. Begin digging the ground at the desired spot. This would require care and labor. Pack the bottom of the pond with stones and sand. This will give it an ocean bed effect, as well as prevent water from percolating inside the ground. Now you can begin setting up the cascade. It is better to play with materials that are freely available in the garden, such as rocks. Select rocks that are large enough and at the same time fit well into each other. Place the rocks in such a way that the heavier rocks are at the bottom and the smaller ones are at the top. The basal rocks must jut into the pond, otherwise the fall won’t happen. Do not pile the rocks too high. Judge the height of the waterfall by the amount of water in the pond. Concrete rocks are also available in the market. These wedge nicely into each other, but they increase the cost of the waterfall. Once this is done, the difficult task of setting up the pump begins. You will need a submersible pump. Place this pump inside the water. Attach the pipe to it and bring the pipe to the top of the rocks. The pipe should be hidden into the rocks. Adjust the rocks a little if need be. Even at the topmost point the pipe should be hidden among rocks. When the water falls, it should appear as if it is falling through the rocks and not through artificial pipes. Many aesthetic things can be done with the waterfall. Some rocks can be placed in steps one above the other. If these rocks are flat enough, the water will strike them and bounce down, leading to another waterfall in itself. Fishes and plants can be placed in the pond. Artificial birds or mermaids can be erected around the pond. You can even keep a birdfeeder so that birds would chirp around the waterfall all the time, giving it a more natural effect. The sound of water striking water in the garden is soothing. However, do not keep the waterfall running when you are absent. It will lower the level of water in the pond and the pump may burn out. About the Author:Waterfalls provides detailed information about waterfalls, indoor waterfalls, waterfall gardens, waterfall ponds and more. Waterfalls is the sister site of Preformed Pond Liners. Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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