New small pond with waterfall

[sissy]

You can get 20 mil or 30 mil pvc or 45 mil liner .Pond liners on ebay and doctor foster and smith or pet mountain has liners .With a pump you can just put a splitter on the pump and send the water to 2 different places

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Also check with local nurseries that carry pond supplies. Many of them will also carry the pond liner in 10' or 20' wide rolls. If you live in an area that freezes, you will want to decide if you plan to shut down the waterfall over the Winter or keep it running. If you want to keep it running all year, you need *depth*. Those pre-formed liners are only 18" deep and will freeze all the way through in many areas, so you want a pond at least 36" deep (this also helps a little with the resonant sound of the waterfall). And how do you want to trim the edge of your pond? Do you want it covered in plants, flagstones, river rocks? In most cases, having a flexible liner is easier to work with.

You asked about the pond shape... with a rubber liner it can be any shape and depth you desire. Consider the picture below, the main oval is about 6' x 14' with the taper leading into a stream at the bottom. When you have an odd shape, you splice together pieces of rubber to fill in where you need. Obviously a bigger pond gives you a lot more to work with. Like you, I specifically wanted a large waterfall just for the sound of the water, and I dug up a large chunk of yard to make it happen. I pump around 5,000 gallons per hour over my falls, which isn't nearly as much as it sounds like. Before you start building your pond, consider looking at samples at local stores or online, compare how large their pumps are, and decide just how much water you actually want to push, THEN create a pond suitable to capture the flow.

And just remember... no matter how big you make your pond, next year you will wish it was bigger.

 

[sissy]

I could barely keep a preformed going here and i live 15 minutes from the NC border .It was given to me by a neighbor and only lasted 1 year before i took it out and built the big and then went bigger and then went biggest a ponders life

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Yeah my first pond was also a pair of preforms, and I gotta say they were more trouble than they were worth (and they were free!)

Oh Mr. Detail, I forgot to mention... you said you weren't planning on fish, but you're going to want some kind of mosquito control. If you plan to shut it down for Winter, use the mosquito dunks (look like brown donuts). If you want to keep it running all year, get yourself some mosquito fish or rosy-red minnows -- both stay very small and can survive the cold, but they'll eat insects.

 

[timvz]

This might be a silly question with us being on GardenPONDForums and all, but have you considered a pondless waterfall? You mentioned that you primarily want the waterfall and the sound. Is the pond important to you? If not, dig a small hole, fill with pump and rocks, build waterfall next to it, add water and turn it on (not necessarily in that order, probably bury the pump LAST). Try googling for "pondless waterfall".

 

[Mr. Detail]

Thanks again guys and gals for all of your good comments and ideas. Yes, "timvz" you may be on to something there with the waterfall only. I guess the only thing I would have placed in the pond area would be some of those cool water lily plants.
I like the idea though as it would be less maintenance. My plan was to create this waterfall/pond right near my front door
walkway, as you enter the house. I would have to build some sort of berm or high dirt pile to create where the water would spill over as this is mostly flat out front.

 

[sissy]

You could still have waterlilies i saw a you tube video where it was mostly pondless but they left 4 inches of water for deep for the basin and it was enough for water lilies