Waterfall rocking sadness

[CreatureBlackLagoon]

Maybe take a break from the project for a day or two also. Sometimes you just need to take a break and come back to it with fresh eyes. It's going great -- you just don't know it. It will be beautiful!

I went to the lake and then came home to do some patio planing, overlooking the pond but ardently ignoring it! Thank you!

 

[CreatureBlackLagoon]

I think the set up is cool. A few plants and it will look really natural.

Thanks! I am so excited about the plants. I have lots of plans and just want to get going!

 

[Meyer Jordan]

You certainly can leave the waterfall at its current height but to make it look right and be stable will require a considerable amount of additional soil which means having some hauled in. That could get costly because you absolutely do not want your water fall to look like a water volcano, but rather a real waterfall sited at the top of a gently sloping mound of soil. This will enable it to blend in visually with the surrounding landscape. A lot of height is not needed to get "splash for your cash", in fact too high can cause problems with water loss due to splash out.

 

[CreatureBlackLagoon]

Also thanks for not judging my languishing Christmas tree in the pictures. ha ha. I will hopefully not miss the next brush collection!

 

[CometKeith]

It sounds you are way past this point but typically when people dig their ponds they can use excess dirt to build berms for their landscaping designs and mounds for their waterfall. Good luck with your waterfall. I think I rebuilt my last one 25 times. To me that's what makes having a pond fun. There is nothing like spending a nice summer day enjoying my favorite beverage and playing around improving my pond! If it was perfect right off the bat it would be pretty boring for me!

 

[CreatureBlackLagoon]

It sounds you are way past this point but typically when people dig their ponds they can use excess dirt to build berms for their landscaping designs and mounds for their waterfall. Good luck with your waterfall. I think I rebuilt my last one 25 times. To me that's what makes having a pond fun. There is nothing like spending a nice summer day enjoying my favorite beverage and playing around improving my pond! If it was perfect right off the bat it would be pretty boring for me!

It's not too late because we still have quite a bit of dirt. I believe I will enjoy many things about having a pond more than building a waterfall.

 

[addy1]

Lower the water fall box is what I would do. Like said above you get a lot of water fall without it being real tall.
Have it lower makes it look more natural, rather than a waterfall popping out of the ground.

I always make the mound of dirt spread out from the waterfall , planted, rocked blend it in with the surroundings.

Put the top of the waterfall box, i.e. the back edge, about where the red line is.

 

[cas]

I love what you have done so far! Great rock work!
I have moved the rocks around in my water fall every year since I built my pond (13 years). Not as much in the last few years, but I always feel like it could be improved. If I felt really ambitious I would lower my falls box, but I don't want to dig up all the plants and move all the heavy rocks again.

 

[Lisak1]

Also thanks for not judging my languishing Christmas tree in the pictures. ha ha. I will hopefully not miss the next brush collection!

Haha! We just burned our Christmas tree last night - it's a family tradition to light it up during our first fire of the season. Now I just have to decide what color my new umbrella should be... @tbendl warning. Not flammable. But definitely meltable.

You are making good progress, but as you have discovered there are certain tried and true pond construction techniques that make for a more natural looking finished product. As has been suggested, I would lower the waterfall box and blend, blend, blend. Your goal should be to see mostly just the rim of the box, which will be much easier to camouflage. Any rock that you have stacked around your pond needs to be done in a way that it's stable so you won't have any catastrophic rock slides. The higher you try to stack the harder that gets.

Not having the liner attached to the filter box is concerning. Water flows in all directions. Just because the intent is down doesn't mean it won't also go backwards and sideways.

You'll get there... the first step is realizing it's not right, which takes a critical eye. You'll know it's right when you get it!

 

[mgmine]

Here is a picture of a similar sized pond but the waterfall layout is much different.

 

[Usman]

It sounds you are way past this point but typically when people dig their ponds they can use excess dirt to build berms for their landscaping designs and mounds for their waterfall. Good luck with your waterfall. I think I rebuilt my last one 25 times. To me that's what makes having a pond fun. There is nothing like spending a nice summer day enjoying my favorite beverage and playing around improving my pond! If it was perfect right off the bat it would be pretty boring for me!

if u can tell this to my parents why i spent time around pond and keeps on changing/improving/extending things lol they re always saying why ur pond is always under construction when wil ur pond finish its funy . i did several times WF too, and when i get bored of watching same view, i change it

You certainly can leave the waterfall at its current height but to make it look right and be stable will require a considerable amount of additional soil which means having some hauled in. That could get costly because you absolutely do not want your water fall to look like a water volcano, but rather a real waterfall sited at the top of a gently sloping mound of soil. This will enable it to blend in visually with the surrounding landscape. A lot of height is not needed to get "splash for your cash", in fact too high can cause problems with water loss due to splash out.

i agree , i thought they must have dug-up soil , if u have to struggle to get new soil its better to do that with same soil , u can dig the container in more and make sure the front where water falls has some depth as much as u can to have effect of it falling from height or it will look like a stream, i cant determine the height of ur fall , but looks like 2 ft? 2ft or less is proportional for ur pond size and if u want high fall u can have more sound but uil need more electricity too , more evaporation aswell .

Tip : if u want good sound and visuals , try to design in a way that water falls directly in a pool of water or on pond surface .... if not then it will have steamy effect
have some extra liner overlapping behind the joining place where fall enters liner to eliminate leak or water wastage

 

[Usman]

Here is a picture of a similar sized pond but the waterfall layout is much different.View attachment 100323 View attachment 100323

exactly what i wanted to say , WF shud appear like a 1 step higher plain , not a pyramid , i did this mistake too and had to redo

 

[Mmathis]

Good luck with your waterfall. I think I rebuilt my last one 25 times. To me that's what makes having a pond fun. There is nothing like spending a nice summer day enjoying my favorite beverage and playing around improving my pond! If it was perfect right off the bat it would be pretty boring for me!

There ya go! Couldn't have said it better myself!

 

[CreatureBlackLagoon]

Hi everyone!

First, THANK YOU SO MUCH for all of your advice AND encouragement! We're so grateful we have a place to turn with our questions! I'm feeling less forlorn today (thank goodness!)

We took your advice and lowered the filter by several inches, implanting it in dirt. Doing this also allowed us to bring the liner almost all the way up to the lip of the spillway, too.

(We should probably have pushed it forward some for a good sound and waterfall visual, BUT we had been hemming and hawing about the stream/cascade or full on waterfall effect. We're happy going with the babbling stream effect, given the position of the filter.) Now we're challenged with making that look good and be functional!

I think we should change the shape of the berm by creating shelves where we can easily put rocks, but my co-designer used some concrete in the berm that he says he cannot dig out. (Grrr.) So we're stuck with a slope, which is less steep than before. The trouble now is that if we put rocks climbing up the slope, we get too high!

 

[CreatureBlackLagoon]

Here is a picture of a similar sized pond but the waterfall layout is much different.View attachment 100323 View attachment 100323

@mgmine is this yours? It's dreamy!