garden pond waterfall design

garden pond waterfall design

Backyard Ponds > Garden Pond Waterfall Design

Garden Pond Waterfall Design Basics

Proper garden pond waterfall design and planning can result in the soothing sound of falling water sooner than you think. Besides there are really only a handful of backyard pond waterfalls and design considerations to keep in mind. Hopefully this quick and dirty garden pond waterfall design checklist can help you on the right track with some of them.

Quick Garden Pond
Waterfall Design Checklist

First think about how high the waterfall will be. Knowing that the higher the water has to re-circulate the more it can cost both for the pump and juice to pump it there.

Another thing? You have to decide if you want your waterfall to turn off or run 24/7. Waterfalls add oxygen to the pond water so turning it off may not be in the best interest of your fish. Which can work to choke off the pond's oxygen supply if there's no waterfall. Given that water plants become consumers of oxygen at night.

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Then there's splashing. This is more of a problem with the cascading type of garden pond waterfall. Design to minimize splashing might not be a bad idea. Since splashing means some water will be lost. Ending up on the grass, plants and so forth. Meaning more pond refilling for you.

Another common garden pond waterfall design mistake is to make the water feature too big. For instance a twelve foot by fourteen foot pond should have a waterfall sized eighteen inches to two feet wide. That's it. In other words the width of the waterfall should fix in with the pond's size. So you can all but forget about being a Horseshoe Falls wannabe when starting to work on your garden pond waterfall design.

Finally if you build a stone waterfall you want your waterfall to face north or northeast if at all possible. If it must face south or west, plant a something to shade the falls in the afternoon and evening. This prevents algae growth. And who wants some yucky slimy green algae covering the rocks they painstakingly positioned?

Anyway…those are some things to think about when planning and building garden pond waterfalls.

Garden Pond Waterfall Design