Pondless Waterfalls - Adding Interest to Your Landscape Design
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Build a Disappearing Waterfall
The small footprint of a pondless waterfall enables you to create a water feature in areas that are not suitable for ponds including small yards, decks and patios, even rooftop gardens. A pondless waterfall consists of a catch basin to hold a reservoir of water, a submersible pump with tubing to pump the water from the catch basin to the top of the water feature, a grate with a gravel covering to disguise the catch basin, and a decorative element such a large urn or granite pillar. Here are a few tips for building pondless waterfalls.
Kits for pondless waterfalls are available at many garden centers and online, or purchase the components individually. Invest in a quality tub to bury in the ground and hold the water reservoir. Heavy-duty rubber livestock tubs work well, are reasonably priced and available at feed supply stores.
Do you have a water feature in your yard?
How To Install A Pondless Waterfall
Dig In!
Attach the tubing to the outflow of the pump, fill a bucket with water and test the submersible pump before installing it permanently in the catch basin. It is much easier to test the pump in a bucket than to disassemble the finished water feature to troubleshoot a finicky pump.
Place the submersible pump at the bottom of the basin. To prevent debris from fouling the pump, cover it with an inverted plastic flowerpot. Drill holes through the sides of the flowerpot to allow the water to flow freely to the pump.
Cover the catch basin with a heavy grate. The grate must be strong enough to support the design element that you are using to create the waterfall effect, yet the grating mesh must be small enough to prevent any of the river rocks surrounding the water feature from falling through.
Plastic faux rocks specially designed for pondless waterfalls are lightweight, inexpensive and easy to install. Granite pillars and ceramic urns look good, but the extra weight requires a study, well supported grate system
Get the Water Flowing
If using an urn or other decorative element for the water feature, drill an entrance hole for the tubing at the bottom of the water element, and seal the opening with waterproof silicone caulking. Position the decorative element in place, reinforcing the grating as needed to support the weight of the water filled decorative element. Spread a layer of river rock around element to cover the grating and provide a finished look.
Fill the basin with water. Turn on the pump. Dirty water may flow initially, but will quickly dissipate as the soot and sand settles to the bottom of the pondless waterfall. Add plants around the pondless waterfall to soften the edges and blend the water feature into the existing landscape.
Tips & Warnings
Do not allow the water reservoir to run dry. Operating the submersible pump without water will quickly burn out and destroy the pump.
Premium Pondless Waterfall Kit
The "bird-bath" style bowl in the top of the rock, holds about an inch of water, which then gently cascades over the sides and back into the hidden water reservoir. The fountain base (reservoir) is completely self-contained. It holds approximately 12 gallons of water, and the submersible magnetic-drive pump can move 396 gallons per hour. The pump, water flow adjustment valve and hose are all included, pre-cut, pre-glued and ready to go.
Simply screw the connections together, fill the reservoir with water, plug your pump in, sit back and enjoy your fountain!
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Pondless Waterfall News
- Window well designer offers beauty for basements
- ?It's an endless, pondless waterfall. The rest are typical pond plants ? an encapsulated terrarium protected from outside elements.? McGuire started a new business called Window WellScapes in January, in which he designs a scene for a window well and ...
- Building Beattie Bobcat Falls
- Beattie Middle School Principal Angela Newhaus and Assistant Principal Peter Lock check out the new pondless waterfall installed at the school May 23. Built by Theponddigger.com with assistance from more than 90 Beattie students and funding from the ...
- Swimming Pool Services Wins 2011 Wisconsin Remodelers Award
- A pondless waterfall gurgles from its other side, the water bubbling and cascading down the rocks before disappearing into the bottom stones. A new pool house matches the owner's nearby home in design and materials. The building has an open area ...
Installing a Pondless Waterfall
Pondless Waterfall Design Ideas
Aquascape Stacked Slate Fountain
Aquascape Blue Rain Urn Bubbler
Aquascape Three Tier Bowls With Urn Fountain
Aquascape Ceramic Angled Top Urn
Alfresco Spiral Resin Fountain
Water Gardening in the News
- NYC exhibition evokes Claude Monet's flower garden
- The water garden alone accounts for some 250 paintings, including a series of monumental canvases that led to his Grandes Decorations at the Musee de d'Orangeries in Paris. His flower garden is featured in at least 40 works. The exhibition, which runs ...
- Go with the flow
- By Meredith Goad mgoad@mainetoday.com If you're thinking of putting in a water garden, it might help to see what other people have done with their properties. The Seacoast Water Garden Club's annual tour of water gardens in Maine and New Hampshire ...
- Gardener: Building a water garden
- There are several basic types of aquatic plants for a water garden. Oxygenators are rapid-growing, floating plants sold in clumps. They release oxygen into the water through photosynthesis, and shade the water to help prevent algae growth.
- Water features can work anywhere
- Fact: Ponds come in all shapes, sizes, prices and varieties, so it is possible to enjoy a pond without owning a yard, such as a container water garden. Container water gardens, also known as patio water gardens, require a low investment of time and ...
Featured Lens: A Small Garden Pond
Left behind from the retreating glacier that covered the Northeast during the last Ice Age, the granite ledge and large rock outcroppings in our backyard provided a dramatic backdrop for building a little garden pond. A gap between two boulders left a natural trough that was perfect for building a little stream to trickle down towards the pond, cascading over the edge of a waterfall and then spilling into a small pond that we dug out between the rocks and contained with a cinder block retaining wall.
Building this small garden pond in an area surrounded by ledge and boulders, under trees and on a slight slope was a challenging project, but it was a lot of fun too.
For Your Pondless Waterfall & Water Garden
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Was this article helpful? Your comments are appreciated!
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bjslapidary
Mar 23, 2012 @ 9:22 am | delete
- Great info. Need to come back to this. So want a pondless waterfall.
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pawpaw911 Mar 18, 2012 @ 10:23 am | delete
- Great idea. Wish we had more room, so I could implement some of the ideas in your great how to lenses.
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TheLifestyleChanger
Mar 16, 2012 @ 7:49 pm | delete
- I love this type of water feature. I have two water features either side of my front gate. Imported from Bali and just beautiful. It is so peaceful and welcoming.
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Ladymermaid
Mar 9, 2012 @ 6:47 am | delete
- I love the new fountains and you can now even get solar powered ones which is great. Our old property had a creek running around it so we didn't need fountains but our new yard could sure use a pond or fountain. We get lots of birds and I am sure that they would enjoy a little water out there to bathe in.
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KimGiancaterino Feb 3, 2012 @ 1:10 pm | delete
- We bought a pond kit, but there's really no room for it in our garden. The neighborhood raccoons would make a mess of it anyway. I like your ideas for urn bubblers, and they would hold up with the night critters.
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