A Stream with Waterfalls
I think most people when designing a garden want something fairy easy and easy often means it costs less.
I don’t do easy and had no idea what id let myself in for when I changed my ideas from a path, to a wonky path, to a stream and wonkey path to a stream, waterfalls and wonky path. I had a budget but like all budgets it went wild, mainly because of the cost of the stones, the rest was reasonable for what i finally achieved, considering how much a professional might charge for this.
Considering I had never done anything like this before, I did my research and followed the theories and logic and along the way, adapting things as i needed, its all common sense really.
There was a natural slope so a stream would work well, all you need is a pond or sump at the bottom end, a water source at the top end, which is normally accomplished by pumping up the water from the bottom to the top. Then you have a liner , like in ponds, that the water runs down and gets pumped back up again.
Line it with rocks and voila.
Easy.
Famous last words.
I did a lot of research to make sure I had the flows correct, the right pump to manage the water, too large and Niagara falls ensues, too small and it won’t reach the source at the top.
After many many designs and a many changes of mind, I came up with a design that had the stream to one side and a path with corten steel edging, winding through the other side, with a bed that we would have grasses and lavender growing almost across the path, lovely and aromatic and lots of texture from the grasses.
As the levels were Ok with a natural slope, all I had to do was dig a shallow channel along one edge that would hold the liner and mark out the shape of the path, which I wanted to have a slight curve in it.
That was all fairly easy, although getting rid of all of the roots and rubble that was there was never ending, bearing in mind there was previously a small forest that had been cut back.
Id planned that at the bottom there would be a sump to contain the water, and the area just before it would contain stones that would create as natural a waterfall as I could manage, falling into the sump. A plastic framework rather like an open crate is inserted into the sump hole, which was appx 60 x 60 cms and 80cms deep, this is lined with a pond linger and the plastic crate creates something that you can file large stones on top of, making the sump look like a dry bed of pebbles.
That was the plan and to be honest it pretty much worked out apart from the large stones ( rocks ) that id ordered to border the edges of the stream. As we are a terraced house with an enclosed garden, everything has to come through the front door and through the house, all the rocks included. I couldn’t have them delivered direct as the gravel drive at the front of the house cant receive large trucks and pallet trucks to deliver the 1 tonne crates of rock, so I arranged for them to be delivered to a local transport company I knew, who would use a forklift to take them off, put them onto the garden contractors truck for them to bring to the font of the house and bring to the back garden using wheel barrows.
In theory this would be ok as they had taken all of the garden wastes, trees, roots, and general old rubbish from the back to the front in the same way.
This went ahead and the rock arrived in the garden but there was a problem. The company I had ordered from had sent to wrong rocks. After many many conversations with them, they wouldn’t take liability for making the mistake so I had to make arrangements to get them swapped over, in the same fashion as before.
Very annoying as it was entirely their error but they maintain I should have spotted the rocks were a different color, even though I had sent them a picture when I thought it was wrong ad they said, no they are often kike that ( a different color )
This was a lot of rock, appx 75 pieces over 1000 kilos.
Eventually we got it all sorted and before putting the rocks and pebbles in place I felt it prudent to test the pump, and water flows to make sure it was all good and managed the flow up and down. I did and it was, behaving just as I had expected.
So we began laying the rocks and pebbles to make the flow that I was looking for. You can control the water flow by placing the rock and Peebles in places that move the water in different directions, causes small pools and slow and fast flows.
Id bult my own water source at the top of the stream from a open top plastic storage box with a slot cut in the side and piece of slate tile inserted to create a waterfall, this would eventually be covered with stones so not be seen.
Id realized at this point that the 1000 kilos of rocks wasn’t going to be enough, so had to order another 1000 kilos.
The additional rock I used to make a sort of a cairn that had the waterfall inside. I used all of the rock and was determined not to have to get anymore. A few pierces left I also made a small pond which I will eventually part cover with some garden decking to complete that part of the garden, well almost as im sure ill find some other things to do.
We finished that part of the garden off with a nice curvy path using Corten steel edging filled with small pebbles as opposed to single, as the small pebbles are rounder and look better we felt. That said it you have wide tread on the soles of your footwear, youll be forever picking stones out of them!
The other side of the path we planted with lavender in a wavy line matching the path and planted up with spring bulbs, finishing in a small rockery at the bottom of the path on the opposite side of the waterfall and pond.
Before
So here’s a before and after to save you scrolling to the top of the page :-)
After
We hope you’ve enjoyed and been inspired by some of our ideas.We did all of the work we've shown you on a very tight budget, doing as much as we could ourselves. Contractors are expensive but you can still make savings by doing some work that they are overskilled to do. For example the old paving stones - I lifted them put them in a place where they could be collected and 1 day on freecycle and they were all collected and re-purposed saving us a fortune on contractors costs and skip hire to take them away.Alway use the skills you have to do the work that contractors are overqualified to do, it will save you a small fortune.Please get in touch and let us know what you think.