Introduction: How to Make an Amazing Garden Landscape With a Decorative Waterfall
The greatest wealth of living in a house is the backyard where you can sit quietly and relax while enjoying the sounds of nature like birds chirping, breezes and the babbling of a brook. Everything is provided naturally only without the water sounds. But don't get scared there is a simple way to achieve an adorable landscape composition with a small decorative waterfall. You can complete the project in a mere weekend with no tension. Here are the steps of my father's project.
Step 1: The Mechanical Part
Technically the waterfall is a water flowing up a pipe and trickling back down in a continuous cycle. For the construction you'll need water, a pump which will propel the water and a sculpture or a piece of art, over which the water will flow. You can design this sculpture from whatever materials you like, but my advice is to choose only the ones that can withstand a constant water flow. For this project we used stumps, branches, roots and stones found in wild nature.
The heart of the system is the submersible pump, which is placed underneath the water line in the basin. It recirculates and makes a fine-filtering of the runoff from above. The waterfall should be placed somewhere near an exterior outlet, since the pump is run by electricity. You need to consider the fact that most pump cords rarely reach beyond 15 metres and it's not preferable to use extension cords. Another thing that needs careful consideration is the easy access to the pump. That is so because you'll need to maintain the pump regularly and for that purpose you should be able to reach in, unlock the pump and pull it out of the water reservoir. The pump is connected to the pipe that carries the water to the top of the sculpture. You can easily regulate the power of the water flow with a little help of the small ball valve attached to the pipe.
Step 2: Design and Construction
First I'll list the things you'll need for designing a composition similar to the one I showed you here.
- tree stumps
- natural decorative stones with holes
- wild dry roots
- crooked dry branches
- a few bonsai
- an old vat
- an antique wooden tray
- water
- an electric pump with a pipe
The construction of this landscape is quite simple. Firstly, you'll have to place a sound basis, which carries the whole structure. Here, for the exact same purpose, is used a solid stump with three legs and a hole in the middle. In font of it is placed an old vat full of water. The pump is on the bottom and the pipe goes through the hole of the stump and hides behind it. Then the pipe ends in a hollow branch, which resembles a natural spring. Then, the water falls through a hollow dry stump, landing in an antique wooden tray, flowing over some crooked dry branches and roots and falls into the vat, where the water starts its cycle all over again. This fabulous waterfall is surrounded by bonsai and decorative stones that resemble natural rocks. On the top of the main stump you can notice small branches that look just like small trees. The combination of these decorative small trees and stones forms an ensemble that reminds me of a real wild mountain landscape.
Oh, I forgot to mention that this landscape is my father's piece of art and no he's not a designer, not even a bit. To your amusement he's a loyal prosecutor and yes, his hobby is to organise and decorate the back and front yard of our house. He also makes small design projects for the interior of our home. The reason, I told you this, was to encourage you to try making your own unique garden landscape. The only thing you'll need is a desire for beauty and a little self motivation.
