Rocks & Stone

Due to unprecedented public demand, here is the 'HOW TO' on building natural looking waterfalls and cascades with flexible liner.

BASIC PRICIPLES:

You must cut into the bank to make it look as though the water has the made the stream itself by cutting into the bank. The waterfall entrance into the pond is best at a sort of delta in the shape i.e. and outward curve.

The top of the waterfall must have a header pool. Also unless there is a clean drop to the bottom pool, it best to work in level, and at each level there is some sort of reservoir. In big cascades there is often the opportunity to add more water at these places as it cascades down to make an cumulative effect.

Always start from the bottom and work up to the top. If you see a perfect stone for a certain position, save it. 'Sill stones' and 'Waterfall facing stones' are particularly valuable. Stones that are shaped like the continents of Africa and India are very useful for in filling between larger stones.

There is no doubt that a water feature makes the perfect focal point in a garden. In a small garden where there are pets and children, the difficulty is finding something safe and in the current trends, something that looks natural and informal. A stone feature gushing water that flows down its surface onto some surrounding pebbles is the perfect solution.

However many people may be put off a moving water feature on the basis that they think they may need regular topping up, but if the feature, like this monlith stone, is cleverly installed it will use hardly any water, even on a hot and sunny day. Besides that even if there was a hosepipe ban in the region at some future date, the law does not prevent you from topping up your pond or water feature. In fact a feature like this can actually save you water in the garden by providing a humid micro-climate for surrounding plants that will actually help them to tolerate less watering. There was good reason for the central water features used in the fantastic enclosed gardens of the arid areas of the Middle East where many of the concepts of the garden were borne.
So if a monolith fits the bill exactly, water garden centres and builder's merchants have a huge selection of drilled stones. Pumps and fittings are probably best sourced from the water garden centres. At this time of year there seems to a particular flurry of sales of monoliths at water garden centres and when many people get them home they find that after installing them that they lose water exceedingly rapidly, they dry out, the pump may even burn out as a result and the whole thing has become a very disappointing and expensive excercise.

So you need a couple of simple tricks to help reduce the water loss and some simple tips to bear in mind when you are setting up.