Waterfalls create a beautiful, sparkling cascade of water that produces their signature, soothing sound. A water feature with a waterfall is ideal to place near a patio or any outdoor sitting area. Or position it where you can listen to the sound of falling water, such as just outside an open window or French or sliding doors. Waterfalls are created by running tubing from a recirculating pump in the bottom of the pond up to a higher point. The tubing then pushes upward water that flows out of the tube and then downward again over a lip, series of lips, or various flat or rounded stones into the pool or pond once more. You can even make “pondless” waterfalls by having the water fall into a tank submerged in the ground, covered with gravel and boulders that the waterfall empties into. A pump in the tank pushes the water back up to the top of the fall again and again.
To design a waterfall for your pond, you’ll want to shape the soil surrounding the pool so that there is a higher point where the waterfall will originate. Waterfalls work best when there is a small reservoir, called a weir, from which they spill. This assures a more gentle, cascading effect than just tubing spraying directly into a lip or stones. You can purchase a wide variety of preformed weirs or spillways for your water garden. You can also create one by digging a pool somewhat higher than your pond, lined with water garden liner. If you want the waterfall to gentily slope down to the pond, overlap liner under the waterfall pool and into the pond, using special adhesive or joint tape to create a waterproof, weatherproof bond. Run tubing from the pump in your pond alongside the pool, upward, burying one to a few inches under the soil to conceal it. Attach the tubing to the preformed weir, the preformed spillway, or into your freeform pool, secured in place with stones. As you place stones in the waterfall, they can stay in place with their own weight. Or you can secure them in place or to each other with mortar or special waterfall foam adhesive, which expands to create a watertight seal.
Get ideas for how you want to design your waterfall by looking at magazines, online, and shopping around to see what sort of weirs and preformed waterfall spillways are available. But that is just the starting point. Once you build your own waterfall, with your own stone, with your own particular size and combinations of stone, you’ll create a soothing, beautiful water feature that will be uniquely your own.
Functions of Waterfall Stones
Specific types and shapes of stone are used to create the following components of a waterfall:
A spillstone: The flat, lip-like stone that the water sheets and flows over for that distinctive waterfall look.
Foundation stones: They are placed directly under the spillstone to support it, usually along the front of any preformed waterfall unit
Gatestones: These are larger stones and boulders place on either side of the spill stone and foundation stones to help more narrowly channel the water so it doesn’t spread out too far and spill off to the side.
