How to Build a Small Waterfall Garden

Lay down a long piece of rubber hose that matches the intended shape of the garden. Take sidewalk chalk and outline this shape on the ground. Dig down with your spade shovel 8 to 14 inches, creating a continuous 8- to 14-inch-wide shelf around the inside of your pond shape. Set aside any cut sod. Use the square-point shovel with its straight bottom edge to flatten your shelf, and the bubble level to help you eliminate slopes. Because containers will rest on this shelf, it must be level.

Measure the depth of the pond to determine the size of the rubber liner. Add the length of the pond to twice the depth, then add 2 feet to adjust for the sloping sides. Repeat this for the width of the pond. Use these two measurements as the length and width of your rubber liner.

Place a fiberglass tank on the ground at one of the pond's ends. Fill it halfway with gravel to act as a biological filter. Place the water pump hose in the tank. Place coping stones above and around the tank to hide it. Also place a coping stone in front of the tank so that as water runs out, it creates a waterfall into the pond. Coping is a term used to describe a stone that caps or covers the edge of some structure.

Place coping stones flat around the edge of your pond, letting them hang slightly over the edge. Use your overturned sod pieces to anchor these coping stones into place. Remove all spikes from the rubber liner. Place your water pump inside the pool and turn it on. Wait one or two days for the water temperature to reach the air temperature before adding any plants.

Add water lilies and lotus plants in pots to your pool. Put in only enough plants to cover 35 percent to 45 percent of the garden's area. Add shorter plants in containers onto the shelf of your water garden. Create splashes of white, red and orange with pots of annual impatiens combined with bright yellow from pots of perennial marsh marigolds.