A little water music: how to add the magic of falling water to your garden

Sunset, August, 2002 by Jim McCausland

5. Cover the liner with rocks. Position light-colored rocks, which show up better than dark ones, around the bottom of the pond (covering the bottom first also keeps the liner from getting too tight). As you work, tilt and arrange them to fit snugly together and to show off beautiful coloring or mossy surfaces. Bigger rocks go in the bottom's deepest corners, smaller ones higher up, and flat ones on shelves.

6. Add gravel. Use a shovel to scatter it among rocks; brush it into the spaces between them with gloved hands. Toss a few cobbles into the pond, letting them stay where they fall. Hose off all rocks to wash away any dirt, pump the water out of the hole, and refill the pond. Trim the liner, leaving about 12 inches excess around the edges. Fold under the excess liner (tuck it beneath rocks if possible); if there's any settling after a few days, you can unfold it.

Big splash on a small budget

This natural-looking creek works its way down a gentle slope--by trickling over terraces of stone--before spilling into a backyard pond in San Mateo, California. For an investment of about $500 and the equivalent of three days of labor, owners Barbara Carey and Mike Phinney got a gurgling chorus, a garden focal point, and a watercourse that delights their young sons as well as visiting birds.

Except for the rocks, which they selected "for the best lichen growth" at a building materials yard, all the supplies (including a rigid preformed pond shell) came from a home improvement center. The creek bed is formed with a pond liner and stones; some stones are mortared together to make smooth ledges. A pump submerged in the 90-gallon pond sends water up through a flexible pipe to the creek's top.

Barbara's best advice for beginners? "Don't be in too much of a hurry to get digging. First, consider your point of view." Then orient your waterfall so you can see it from a patio or a favorite room.

The pond is not filtered, so Mike flushes it out periodically with fresh water and liberates from the depths a trove of Tonka trucks, Lego pieces, and leaves that the boys have launched down the falls. Pots of papyrus nestle in the pond; white-flowered bacopa (Sutera cordata), pink-flowered penstemons, and grasses soften the edges. -- Alan Phinney.