Help - I am going to drive hubby crazy ....

[capewind]

So I am sick, blonde, and basically, dumb as a stump right now, and am driving hubby nuts already LOL. Just got back from picking up a 10x15 liner to be the waterfall/stream to his lily pond (4000-4500 gallons), and for the life of me, I can't express what I want LOL ... hoping folks have some pictures I can show him. Waterfall will be fed from a 150 gallon skippy with a total drop of about 5' I am guessing ... Falls/River area to be about 5' wide (the stock tank is 58" wide) ... I dont want a straight drop .... and will only have 8-10' of liner length to flow water over ... I definately want to be able to plant just inside the river area, and really dont care about a massive look of flowing water ... Im thinking more in line of a river, where the rocks will stay wet looking, and not rapids .... I am also interested in little tweeks, that will help clean the water too ...

He's asking me if I want tiers, or mini ponds at different levels, and I DON'T KNOW ... LOL...

Here's pic of the rough dig ... the skippy filter is only going to be about a foot away from the rocks at the pond above it .... In the bottom corner of the second picture, you can just make out a couple of those rocks ... The pics are deceiving of elevations:-( Thanks in advance!

 

[gardengimp]

I think you should go look at the progress photo's from when Addy built her stream. It meanders and switchbacks into side little planting areas.

 

[capewind]

I am so off, I cant even find it:-( Looked at it many times too....

 

[Mmathis]

I think you should go look at the progress photo's from when Addy built her stream. It meanders and switchbacks into side little planting areas.

I was thinking along the same lines. It's what I would do if I had the room.

 

[capewind]

I love everything Addy did, it is gorgeous, but I am having trouble seeing how to take a short section ... Ive seen lots of pictures posted that I can borrow ideas from, but cant find them LOL. Hubby threw out a lot of different concepts at me, and with this damn bug, I just cant grasp what he is saying, I need visuals. I was just hoping to work something functional in ... Hubby started some of the formal digging last night after work ... Just going to tell him to do "whatever" he wants. I want a small planting bed between the current pond and the skippy, and we bought a big enough liner to give the width I wanted, so from there, just going to tell him to make what he wants happen.

 

[addy1]

With a short section, if it was mine, this is what I would do. Taking into the account the width you want, wet rocks, not massive water flow, and plants.

You said 8-10 foot in length, five feet wide.

Make 2-3 tiers.

If 3 tiers, make the top one the narrowest, i.e. 2 feet or so, in that first tier have some flat areas, dug deep enough to keep water in them then to the sides, have a mini pond dug, i.e. 10-12 inches deep what ever width you want, 2-3 feet, here you could put is some small plants, rocks for the river look.
The next tier do the same but slightly deeper, move your mini pond to the center or other edge. Same with the last tier.

I would have one area low enough to let the water flow over, i.e. dig in a depression put in a neat flat stone tilted slightly down so the water flows off the rock. do the same with each other tier.

If two tiers do the same above just make them wider.

I put in mini ponds, all along my stream, they collect water, frogs, grows some plants nicely, stays wet even when the stream is off (recall I run mine on a timer) The mini ponds are from 10-15 inches deep or so. not real wide. My stream is not more than 1.5 to 2 feet wide, varies as I battled the slope.

Not all of my drops are flat water water falls, a lot of them are rocks the water falls down and over, foamed to keep the water on top of them

I can do a word doc and try to draw it up if that would help\

not the best View attachment Doc1.doc

 

[capewind]

Thanks Addy, what you drew is in line with one of the things hubby was trying to tell me for options ...

He did a bit of digging last night (mainly the rock shelf on the pond), but got the skippy filter near where it's going to give me a visual ...

Top view of the skippy ... along the boulders (bottom of pic) will just be rocks from the side of the waterfall area up against them .... once the skippy is surrounded by rocks, I'll have a small dry land planting area to the right of the skippy (edge of existing pond is the rocks on the right of pic) ... He has a bit of a berm right now dividing pond area, from waterfalls area ... a bridge will be going across there, hiding the edge of the pond, but not hiding anything to the right of that berm ... the flat rocks in the background will eventually be steps, to get to the area where the "square rock" and pallet of rocks behind that are (small patio area, the rocks on the pallet were taken off another job and will be my "pavers" for my sitting area) ... where most of the weeds are near those flat rocks will be a strip of dry land planting area, just outside of the waterfall rocks ...



Same area, just from the other side ... if you draw an imaginary line from where the shovel is leaning on the boulders, to the PAW PRINTS (naughty dog) in the lower right of the pic, you can get a better idea where the bridge will come across ...