Setting the Wall

The key to good pond-filter/waterfall installation is making certain the area around the unit is well compacted, well supported and properly positioned. If you take care of all of those things, the system that drives the pond will be stable and offer trouble-free performance for many years to come.

In this video, we look with special focus at one of the support systems we see as crucial to many of our successes – that is, a good retaining wall that will help keep waterfall-related rockwork and soil and plants where we want them to be and that, in this particular case, also keeps the pond system from impinging of the performance of the fence located just a few inches behind our working area.

One point I didn’t mention is drainage, mainly because it won’t be an issue on the mostly flat site where we’re working in these videos. If there was any sort of pronounced upslope area behind our fence, we would have buried a base course with our wall to ensure its long-term stability and set up a French drain to keep water from pooling beyond the wall, where it might possibly undermine or otherwise damage our waterfall structure.

That said, there’s not much to wall construction other than a strong back (or two or three) and the determination to align the selected wall material properly and make things level. To see that process unfold, click here.

Eric Triplett is founder and chief executive officer at The Pond Digger Waterscape Design & Construction in Yucaipa, Calif. He may be reached at eric@the ponddigger.com.