Ever Try To Rebuild A Waterfall?

And the saga of the Stephens’ garden remodeling continues.

Last week we looked at how a simple paint job of the deck turned into a remodel of its entrance along with a few other added amenities. This week in further preparation for our upcoming garden party, we’ll tackle the water feature.

About 10 years ago, we had a waterfall and pond built into the hillside in our back yard. It consisted of water cascading with the force of Niagara Falls over the tops of about 10 boulders into a small pond at the base. The pond was home to 11 overgrown goldfish, one koi, six large snails and a family of frogs.

All was fine until a year ago, when a large, furry bandit decided to dine on a bit of escargot. We presume that while fishing for this delicacy, the raccoon scraped the side of the pond lining, piercing it just enough to start a slow leak. Before we knew it, the shallow end of the pool was exposed and the varmint came back to do some fishing.

Overnight we lost all the snails, 11 goldfish and one koi. Tadpoles are still with us.

With the garden party quickly closing in on us, something had to be done with the nearly empty, stagnant pond. We had always toyed with enlarging it, and there’s no time like the present. After all, how difficult could it be? All we’d have to do is dig a wider hole and re-line it.

I didn’t count on digging into 2 feet of rock. Nor did I make contingency plans for the disposal of wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of excavated rocky soil. (Thus the beginnings of yet another garden project which will probably be addressed at a future date.)

As if that weren’t enough, resting on the bottom of the freshly dug hole was a huge 3-by-3-foot boulder. As it turned out, the boulder was no match for our son and the car jack. It came to rest on the lawn. (Dealing with deep depressions in the lawn — a topic for a later column.)

The pool was finally dug into the shape and size that we had designed. It was time to line the pool with the new liner.

Nothing that’s worth anything comes easy…or something like that. The new liner had to be tucked up under the bottom of the flat waterfall boulder.

This boulder happens to be a slab about 4 feet wide, 3 feet deep and 4 inches thick. Sitting on top of it was a slightly smaller boulder, and overlapping it another boulder and so on up the hill.

The first order of business was to remove the somewhat smaller boulder sitting atop the big flat boulder. We needed to do this in order to jack up the flat boulder and slide the liner up under it. (Thank God for strong muscles and young backs.) It worked, the liner was secured in place. The flat boulder was lowered back into its compartment, or so we had hoped.

It’s hard to believe that being a couple of inches off would spell doom for the entire waterfall. Like a game of dominos, one by one the boulders came lose and shifted out of their cozy compartments where they settled for nine years.

Since I wasn’t wild about the configuration of the boulders anyway, we dismantled the falls.

When Jim came home from work that evening and asked how the pond was coming, I encouraged him to relax and enjoy a cool drink.

God works in mysterious ways. I had to be gone the next day, leaving Jim and two of our sons to rebuild the falls. It’s amazing - with a bit of geometry, a little artistry, cool heads (most of the time) and lots of muscle, these men fashioned a dynamic, beautiful falls and pond - a dramatic improvement over the original version.

We still have a week left before the party, I wonder if we could….

Good reads

The National Arbor Day Foundation is offering a tree identification guide, “What Tree Is This?” The 84-page guide identifies 157 trees found in the Western United States.

To obtain a tree guide, send your name and address and $3 to What Tree Is That?, The National Arbor Day Foundation, Nebraska City, NE 68410.

To-do

Pinch faded blossoms of annuals and fuchsias to encourage continuing bloom.

Cut petunias stems in half to encourage stockier plants with more branching and flowers.

Compost as much yard waste as possible, this includes weeds as long as they haven’t gone to seed.

If lupine or columbine are suffering from a severe case of powdery mildew, cut the plants to the ground. New, clean foliage will develop quickly.

Mulch all plants to maintain moisture and to control weeds, but never apply more than 3 inches inches thick.