[NOISE]
[MUSIC]
So we're moving along pretty fast on this project before we get too far along I want
to take you in close, and I want to talk about rock selection, and
show you some tricks on edge treatment.
Let's talk about rock selection.
When selecting stone for
your waterfalls the last thing you want to do is get a pallet of all the same size stone.
Often times you'll go to a rock yard and they'll have a complete pallet of,
pallet of say six inch rocks or 12 inch rocks or 18's.
So when you go to do your selection, you want a variety of different sizes.
So for example, on this waterfall,
we have 36 inch plus stone character boulders where the waters gonna spill over.
We have our frame rocks set in place.
And then if you'll notice, we have have other stones mixed in,
some 18's, some 24's, and so forth.
We've mixed them all up.
Now, when it comes to gravel, on this particular project,
we're using a larger gravel because we're gonna have very fast moving water.
And then, it's often times better to have a little bit bigger stone to match this when
you, when you have into these little pools and
areas where the water is going to collect.
So we've used an inch and a half to three inch cobble for
where the water is going to go.
If you use too small of gravel, and you have a big water flow,
then the gravel is going to get pushed all the way down to the bottom of the stream,
and your liner is going to be exposed.
So the rock that we're using on this project, it's nothing fancy but it's kind of special.
All the stone that you see in this waterfall, beside the gravel that we've used in
the stream bed, has been taking from the property.
Now, they've done a lot of excavation for barns and so forth, and
we've pulled all of this rock out of the hillside.
We've collected it, separated into sizes, and now we're reusing it in the waterfall.
The great thing about this is, when you come onto the property,
all the natural stone that's around the area blends perfectly with this water feature,
so it looks like it's a real natural piece of the landscape.
So, you'll noticed that we've used a lot of angular stuff in the waterfall spillways and
the things that are more round we, we use in on the walls and so forth.
So it's going to be really nice once this is all cleaned up,
because you can see it's pretty dirty right now.
But once we rinse this all down, and get it set up, it's gonna look gorgeous.
So on edge treatment I wanna show you a couple tricks.
If you'll notice you can see our liner still right here.
And we've done a fold, we've done a vertical fold so
the liner comes straight up, and then we fold it straight back down and
we leave some excess here so you'll see it goes down like this.
So we leave the excess there and then we can just tuck it like so.
That way someone can put some plants very close to the pond,
have, have the, the plant creeping into the pond, and gives it a real natural approach.
So once we fold this down,
then we can work in some of this cobble and give it a real natural look.
Cuz you don't want these big stones all, all of a sudden blending right into the dirt.
Often times you're gonna see a mixture of different size stone mixed in.
So you'll have a lot of different stuff and
as I take you down the line you can see how we finished it off right here.
[SOUND] Line it up like how it was,
let's just [INAUDIBLE].
>> Okay. >> Now you get back in.
>> 'Kay. >> Now we're ready for this.
>> How's that?
>> So on this particular waterfall, we have an elevation change of 12 to 15 feet.
So one thing I want to point out is, we're going to make some terracing along the way,
we're not going to have a 15 foot tall waterfall.
Now what we're not going to do as well is we're not going to have a series of
two foot waterfalls, or a series of three foot waterfalls.
We want to mix those benches up.
So I'll have an eight inch spillway, a, a 24 inch spillway, a three foot spillway.
And we, we make it look a little more natural by
changing up the elevation changes in each waterfall.
Now one thing I want to point out is in these terraces each spillway stone
will be positioned about three to four inches above the bench that I'm standing in.
Now what this does is it creates a pooling effect and,
and what happens whats really cool about this is when the waterfall spills into the,
into the area, it's not washing all the gravel away.
And it's also landing in the water, so it, it reduces the splash.
So if there was, if there was very little pooling, the water'd be hitting the gravel,
splashing all over the place.
But if we have a small pool, the water starts to tumble,
it gives it a neat gurgling sound, makes it look really natural.
It's really important in a hard bend like we have over here because in,
if it was just flat the water would splash and wanna shoot straight that way.
But when we have that pooling effect it can pool, settle out, and take a turn.
So make sure you have pools on each one of your terraces.
I wanna point out all this fabric in here,
cuz it looks a little bit messy at this point.
But we're using this geotextile fabric underneath some of
the large walls that we're building.
So you'll see this, this fabric is under the bottom of these stones.
And it gives it a little bit of extra protection on the liner here.
Now once we complete, what we'll do is we'll come through here.
And we'll cut off all the excess fabric so you won't see this.
But it gives us a little bit of extra
protection on top of the liner when you're setting big walls and heavy rocks.
So let me give you a design tip right now.
This is what we call a wishbone waterfall that's on this particular bench.
We place a large boulder somewhere within the, the realm of the bench.
And then we put a waterfall on each side of it, so when it's running you have water
spilling around a large character stone so it looks really natural.
The important thing I want to tell you is don't place this character stone
in the center of the bench.
Not right in the middle, because you don't want say a two foot waterfall on this side,
and a two foot waterfall on the other side.
It looks, looks kind of man made like that, so,
what we wanna do is push that character stone to one side.
If you'll notice over there, I have about a one foot wide spill way and
a lot of small stones, so the water is gonna come crashing down there.
And on this side, I have about a two foot spill way, a large flat stone, and
then you'll have a more calming effect happening on this side of the waterfall.
So it's a really neat look.
That's the last tip I have for you today, until next time,
I'm Eric Triplett The Pond Digger.
See you soon.
[MUSIC]