Bob's situation was very different from John and Cordelias. He has a long steep hill in his backyard, which leads to a large flat area - ideal for a natural appearing stream and pond.

This series will concentrate on Bob's stream, though we'll start with a few pictures of the pond under construction.

In this photo, the pond has been staked, edged and excavated, and the skimmer has been installed. Bob created plant shelves, each about 9" deep. To the left side is a sloped area that will form a beach of small boulders.

When properly placed, the top of the mouth of the skimmer is about an inch above the edging.

Here, the liner has been laid in, and stones and Rock-on-a-Roll have been placed.

It's important to note that, while Bob wanted a lot of stone in the bottom of his pond, all that rock is not needed. In fact many pond owners prefer to have no stone in their pond.

This is a view looking up the hill, and shows how the stream connects to the bottom pond.

This shows the beginning stage of the stream's construction. The vegetation has been cleared, and stakes have been placed to outline the stream.

There is a circle of stakes that will form an in-stream planter. The drawn black lines indicate where the edges of the stream and planter will be.

Edging has been attached to the stakes with 5/8" sheet rock screws.

Bob dug flat spots for the waterfall stones. He placed them before laying in the liner to see how they would look. They had to be removed again, of course, to lay in the liner.

The liner has been laid along with Rock-on-a-Roll. The waterfall stones have been put back in, though not yet leveled.

The waterfall stones have been leveled and secured with black polyurethane foam. There are more detailed pictures of this in the series of photos of Yvonnes's project. Gravel and boulders of various sizes have been put in.

Here the stream is almost complete. All that remains is to trim the liner and backfill.

Bob decided to run the waterfall before backfilling, so that he could be sure water was not creeping over the sides.

Here, the sides of the stream have been backfilled and mulched, and some landscape plants have been put in.

This is the upper part of the stream. A few larger boulders provide a nice accent.

You can see how the stream divides around the planter.

At the bottom of the steam, just before it enters the pond, Bob placed a beautiful weathered stepping stone.

After a few months the landscape plants grew in, hiding the edges and making the stream look completely natural.

With all of Bob's wild flowers and other plantings, he has created a wonderful little natural sanctury for himself and his family.

Next: Yvonne's stream and pond