A rock garden pond with a waterfall is a great way to improve your landscape which is both inexpensive and easy. Making a pond your rock garden's centerpiece will drastically increase the beauty and allure of your whole landscape—and it takes hardly any instruction to do it, too!
Be forewarned, though, there's a lot of engineering involved here that you'll have to deal with as a novice, because there's nothing simple about a pond that doesn't leak. Consider, first, your land.
If you really want a pond and a waterfall, then you'll need a lot of room. The ground will need to be level for you to work in it, and you'll have to get rid of any debris or vegetation in the area you'll be using. You also want to avoid drain pipes and run-off sections of your home or property for the rain so you can keep out unpleasant contaminants.
Be careful about building too close to trees, too, or you'll spend a lot of time dragging the pond for leaves and branches that have fallen into it. Finding a good place with direct sunlight is good, too, as it will help your plants to grow.
Once you've selected the land you want to use, you must decide what sort of pond you prefer. Do you want it to have fish or plants in it? If so, you'll have to take the pond's size into consideration—too small, and it could be uninhabitable.
It may be better for you to have a pond that's too big than to have one that's too small. With a small pond, it would never be easy to create enough room for the vegetation. Once you've selected the location and size of the pond you want, you need to cordon off the chosen area so you can design and visualize your plans more clearly.
Drive a stake into the ground and tie adjacent stakes to it with nylon cord to trace the desired area. When you're done cordoning it off, dig in for about six inches to make the first shelf, which is called the coping shelf.
When you have your coping shelf, dig for another foot to make your second shelf, then another six inches to make the base of the pond. These shelf positions are necessary so that you may place different plants and fish at each position. The larger the pond, the more stable it will be, so it will be easier to maintain without having trouble with dying plants or fish.
When your hole has been dug, add soft sand and pack that in tightly. You want about half an inch of thickness with the sand. Any home improvement or pond supply stores ought to have the materials you'll need at this juncture.
You will need something to line your pond. To figure out the size of the liner, take the largest width and length, then calculate the depth and twice what you already dug. That ought to ensure you have the right size pond liner.
Remove your shoes, then take the liner and settle it onto the bottom of your pond—and then work it neatly into your shelves. Follow the pond's contours carefully. Once you've lined the whole pond, you'll need to fill it with water.
Usually, a waterfall is bought in a kit. You'll have to decide on your own how best to integrate your waterfall into your pond. Most shops selling waterfalls will also sell you some books on how to work out this sort of design.
Around your pond's border, you should make small piles of rocks and stones both on the outside and on some of the inner shelves. This should hold down your liner and keep it from ruining your pond by coming unattached. Now, all that's left is to add plants and fish to make your pond as beautiful as it can be.