How to Install Pondless Waterfalls

Sitting in your yard and listening to the gentle trickle of your own personal waterfall can be relax. But most backyard waterfall installations include a pond to catch the water, which can take up a large portion of your yard, using land for which you may have other plans. Skip the pond and create a mysterious disappearing waterfall. This project looks like a normal waterfall down a pile of rocks, but the water falls onto a bed of smooth stones and disappears without a trace. You'll have the relaxing feeling from waterfall sounds without the extra care needed to keep a pond clean and healthy.

Shovel
Level
Wading pool
Fountain pump
Plastic tubing
Heavy screening
Metal snips
Tent stakes
Mallet
Large rocks
River rocks

Instructions

- 1
  Dig a hole in the yard the size of a wading pool. Dig the hole exactly as deep as the pool, using the pool itself to test the depth. Use a level at the bottom of the hole to ensure the surface of the hole is level on all sides.
- 2
  Place the pool into the hole. Set the fountain pump against the wall on one side of the pool. Attach flexible tubing to the pump and lay the other end of the tubing on the ground behind the pump.
- 3
  Fill the half of the pool with the pump with large rocks. This will help keep the pump steady and serve as support for the larger rocks in the waterfall.
- 4
  Cut a piece of heavy mesh screening six inches larger than the pool in all directions. Lay the screening on top of the pool. Feed the tubing through a hole in the mesh, cutting the screening slightly if needed.
- 5
  Secure the mesh screening on top of the pool hole by pounding tent stakes through the mesh and into the ground all around the outside edge.
- 6
  Pile large rocks up at the pump end of the pool. Create a tower of rocks that creates a step effect from the top to the bottom. Build this pile around the tubing, feeding the tube through the rock pile and adding more rocks on the back side to conceal it.
- 7
  Cover the rest of the mesh screening with river rocks. Pile up a double layer of rocks so none of the screen mesh shows through. Extend the edge of the rock covering onto the grass around the pool, to make it look like a natural surface that simply extends up through the grass. The final piece will look as if you dumped a pile of rocks in your yard.
- 8
  Fill the pool with water up to the top edge. Plug in the pump and turn it on. The water will begin to pump up the tubing and out the top, tumbling down the steps of rocks onto the river rocks below. The water will fall through the rocks, through the mesh and into the pool below to get recycled back up through the waterfall.
- 9
  Inspect the aim and flow of the water. Move the tubing and rocks to adjust the direction in which the water moves. Add more rocks to divert the water in a different direction, if needed.

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