Waterfalls, Ponds, and Fountains

Granite waterfall without pond at the bottom

There’s something about water in the landscape that draws people out into the garden.  Whether it’s a small bubbler in a pot, a formal pond with a fountain, or a natural stream bed with waterfalls and pools, a water feature will enhance your enjoyment of your landscaping.  Rodda and Sons designs custom water features to fit the style of your landscape and what you find appealing.  For some, it’s a very formal reflecting pool to provide elegance and serenity.  Others want the feeling of being in the forest with a babbling brook tumbling over small waterfalls.  Still others want the excitement of a very architectural water feature with drilled rock columns or geometric pools, channels, and falls.  Some want to add water plants and/or fish to their ponds, and most of our clients take great pleasure in watching the birds that are attracted to the water.  Our designers can help you choose a water feature that fits your lifestyle and your garden, and plan where in the garden it will be located.  We like to place water features where you can enjoy them from the main living areas of your house.  Natural streams and falls work well when they are sited on slopes that face the viewing area.

Japanese basin with bamboo water spout

The easiest way to bring water into your garden is with a birdbath or large, decorative pot filled with water.  You can float glass balls in it or perhaps a few water hyacinths or other water plants.  If the pot is large enough, you can add a tiny fountain. Water spilling from a bamboo spout into a stone basin creates a Japanese garden feel.  Some of our customers want the splash of water but don’t want an open pond.  Our solution is to have the water flow through rounded rock and into a basin below.  Then a small, recirculating pump carries the water from the basin back up to the bamboo spout or top of the water course.

As contractors, Rodda and Sons has installed many preformed plastic ponds, digging the hole in the shape of the pond, and adding rock in the bottom and around the edges to make it look more natural.  We’ve also added recirculating pumps and rock waterfalls to these ponds for additional interest.

Heavy pond liners have become very popular in recent years as the base under a water feature.  Rodda and Sons has used them very successfully under long watercourses with several falls and ponds (see below), as well as under smaller pond installations.  Pond liners are less expensive than a poured concrete base.  We take care with liner ponds to make sure the edges have good support under them, so that if someone steps on the edge, it won’t sink and the pond lose water.

Before: Poured concrete shell under water feature

After: Just completed water feature

Rodda and Sons Landscapes often pours a concrete base for a water feature.  We do not set rocks first and pour concrete around the rocks.  That method just invites leaks between the concrete and the rock.  For a natural water course, we pour what looks like a very large shell and then mortar rock inside the shell to create a natural looking stream bed and falls.  Several types and sizes of rock are used, just as you would find in nature.  We set additional rock outside the concrete water course to create planting pockets for shrubs and groundcovers.

Fountains can be a fun way to have moving water when your site is flat. There are several choices of shapes and sizes, from simple bubblers that shoot a single stream into the air to fancier fountain shapes.  Drilled rock columns have become quite popular as fountains, either as a single feature or in multiples of varying heights.  The water flows from the tops down into a surrounding pond or through large, washed gravel into a basin below, and is then pumped up through the rock column again.

Natural stream and falls with pond liner under it

Most water features have recirculating pumps, so they need a source of electrical power.  Most, unless they are quite large, are filled with a hose.  We have installed water features that are hooked to house downspouts, but they need to have overflow pipes to carry off excess water.

Rodda and Sons can install landscape lighting around your water feature that will allow you to enjoy the sparkle of water in the evenings.  Low voltage lighting fixtures can be a decorative part of the scene or hidden behind plants and rocks to provide a glow but not be visible during the day.