Is there a backyard in your home and you want to transform it into a beautiful garden? Backyard garden waterfall is a feature which can instantly enhance the beauty of your garden.
Waterfall also causes the sound of water flowing, bringing the serenity of nature right to your backyard. Here is how to make a beautiful waterfall in your backyard garden.
Table of Contents
Make a complete planning
Making a backyard garden waterfall isn’t difficult, but it needs preparation and planning. Making it means you need to choose a location to make two structures, the pool into which the waterfalls (lower pool or basin) and the cascading structure (the waterfall). Sometimes, people also make the upper pool because it will hold water when the pump is off.
The plan should include not only the location but also the foundation and size. Foundation of a waterfall can be under the surface, but if the land is hard to excavate, you can make the waterfall above the ground with rocks as the foundation.
The size of the waterfall depends on the preference and budget, but you must calculate the capacity of the pool. To have around 75-gallon stream capacity, the lower basin with 40-gallon and upper pool with 240-gallon capacity is enough.
Map and excavate
Map the location based on your planning—mark where the upper pool, cascading structure, and lower basin will be. If you plan to dig the land, start excavating right away. If you want the aboveground waterfall, order the stones and arrange them into the structure of backyard garden waterfalls and ponds.
Put a fabric underlayment
After you finish setting up the location, put a fabric underlayment or rubber liner. Make sure that the whole area is covered. The aim is to prevent soil from absorbing the water in your waterfall. It prevents the waterfall from drying.
Install the pump
What is the “spring” of your waterfall?
The answer is none. You need pump and pipe to bring water from the lower basin to the upper pool, creating a cycle. Connect the pipe to the pump on the floor of the basin, then fill the basin with gravels. You can choose any gravel, but for the surface, add a layer of decorative gravels for aesthetic purpose.
Arrange the cascading structure
After your finish with the lower basin, arrange the stone in the cascading structure. The first stones to put are the decorative boulders on each side of the cascading structure, followed by flat spill stones.
Fill the gaps between stones so the water won’t flow through them but only through the waterfall. You can use foam for that purpose and complete it with foam. After you finish with the cascading structure, put gravel in the waterfall and upper pool.
Pour the water into the upper
After your waterfall is ready, you can pour water into the upper pool and let it flow to the lower basin. Pour as much as the capacity of the waterfall, then turn on the pump to automatically bring the water from the lower basin back to the upper pool.
For an aesthetic purpose, you can make backyard garden waterfalls with bridges on the lower poor area. But, to have a bridge, your waterfall must be big enough. Either way, the bridge is only decorative—you can’t step on it.
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