In my research of water gardens and waterfalls, I picked up quite a few helpful tidbits of information. One piece of information which rang in my head constantly is that a poorly designed waterfall is horribly unattractive and completely unbelievable. In light of this, I was going to go with a geometric, contemporary design which would match the house nicely. Unfortunately, my wife was strongly opposed to this idea so I am going with a natural looking design. Natural looking would be a lot easier if there was some kind of elevation to work with, but here in the Scottsdale suburbs circa 1979, there is nothing but flat ground and stucco walls. Somehow, I need to take a 12 foot by 8 foot piece of flat ground and introduce a believable flow of water. No one is going to ever think that this waterfall exists naturally, but at least I am hoping that turns out to be believable or at least nice looking.
It’s very easy to build an unbelievable waterfall – most of the constructed waterfalls I’ve seen are terrible, Even some “professionally built” waterfalls tend to leave me wondering if the builders have ever seen a natural waterfall (and how much the client paid for that monstrosity). Consider this pile of rocks in the image to the left - it's a great example of everything NOT to do.
There are, fortunately, great waterscape builders out there to mimic, and a few are very enthusiastic to share their knowledge. One of the best examples is The Pond Digger in Southern California who has a number of YouTube videos taking about the details of pond and waterfall construction. I have watched each of his videos several times – a great resource.
Even though I have meditated on building my waterfall for over half a year – and I could continue for another two years just thinking about it – I am going to move forward with the acknowledgement that I have to be very conscious of believability.
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