Austin Pond Society

My first water feature was a pond less spillover waterfall with a large pot sitting right on top of reservoir grates and rocks. I built my current water feature in 2021 by myself.  We have a recently completed pathway from the front to the back, but a wheelchair would need to come through the gate on the other end of the yard, as long as they can still roll through the grass.]

We bought our home in 2019 and the back yard was unremarkable. It had grass with some large rocks poking up through and not much else. This backyard is also about six times larger than our previous home, so I had to budget my project ideas out over a few years. In 2021, my wife offered to host a rehearsal dinner in our back yard. Well, the yard started to look nice, but not special. So, I decided to recreate my little spillover waterfall from my previous home and got on YouTube for some ideas. Probably a mistake, as there are lots of grand pond projects on YouTube. There is only about an inch or two of soil then you hit limestone. I bought a jackhammer, went at it, and completed in 26 days. I cut a hole big enough to serve as my reservoir holding about 170 gallons below ground and built a pleasant little Colorado-style 25-ft long meandering stream above ground. I was limited as to the size of rocks I could use because I was doing everything by myself. I did however, have a friend help with the two largest rocks. I have lots of foliage in front, so you have to peak between the plants to see the entire stream.

My wife was expecting a recreation of my little spillover waterfall I had built at our previous home.  She was concerned when she saw the tons of dirt and rocks show up. The 50-ft-long rubber lining and underlayment gave away my plan for a more substantial water feature. From that point on there was a daily, or even hourly, reminder that her party was in X # of days. Frankly, I wanted to make it twice as long, but she was already stressed about my timeline, so I compromised. The only re-do I had was the addition of a tree well between the pond and my fence.