Here's what they started with - a flat city lot.

Here is what they created. The next photos will walk you through the process.

They needed to build up soil for the waterfall next to the garage, but didn't want dirt touching the stucco. They used some old treated boards as a barrier.

John excavated the pond and used the soil to build up the waterfall area. Here, he is shown compacting the dirt to minimize future settling.

The stakes were pounded in along the perimeter of the pond, and leveled with a four foot carpenter's level.

Stakes were also pounded in the waterfall area, and landscape edging was attached with 5/8" sheet rock screws.

Dirt was built up on the inside of the edging to avoid having a gap between the edging's bottom and the ground.

There was one large gap next to the skimmer that couldn't be easily filled with soil, so John used a few stones instead. He also used stones and soil under the neck of the skimmer to support it.

45 mil EPDM liner was laid into the pond area and attached to the skimmer. The method of attachment varies among skimmer brands.

Here you can see the liner overhanging the landscape edging, attached to the skimmer, and going up onto the waterfall mound.

The liner was not quite large enough to cover the uppermost pool. Another piece was laid in which overlapped into the bottom liner.

You can see a single section of Rock-on-a-Roll along one part of the edge.

Rock-on-a-Roll was laid along almost all of the edges. Some soil has been backfilled to hold the liner and Rock-on-a-Roll in place.

The waterfall was built from the bottom up. Round boulders were placed so that their tops were at about the same level as the lowest flat spot in the waterfall area. This provided support for the waterfall stones.

The bottom waterfall stones were secured with black polyurethane foam (see Yvonne's pond for more on this), then smaller round stones were placed on them to create a secure flat spot for the next waterfall stones.

The final waterfall stones were placed, and gravel was put into the lower pond to fill the spaces between round boulders.

This shows the filled pond. The bottom waterfall stone is just above water level. The pond edges were backfilled, with the dirt left a few inches low to allow for a layer of mulch.

A walkway was added, along with backgound plantings.

After just a few months, landscape and water plants had grown so much that the edge of the pond was barely visible. As you can see a variety of plants adds tremendous interest. There's pennywort, parrot's feather, umbrella palm, corkscrew rush, thalia, iris, and a variety of rushes.

John and Cordelia keep their waterfalls running throughout the winter. This picture was taken just after a freeze. As John said, "this pond just keeps on giving!"

A final winter view.

In the next series of photos, Bob builds a stream following the natural terrain which flows into a large lower pond.

Next: Bob's stream and pond