Your first landscaping task is to remove any weeds from the area you've selected for your waterfall pond and waterfall, and make sure it's level. Then you will dig out the hole, into which the preformed liner will be placed. To get an accurate measurement for the hole's dimensions, simply flip the preformed liner upside down and trace around it.
Incidentally, I suggest taking care of the waterfall pond structure first, simply because you'll be laying your rocks for the cascading waterfall structure in such a way that the front of it overhangs the waterfall pond (see the waterfall picture at right). This entails placing some of the bottom rocks very close to the waterfall pond. If you were to build the cascading waterfall structure first and then dig the waterfall pond, you might undermine those rocks. Besides, the overhang of the waterfall structure will just be in your way while digging.
Make the depth of your waterfall pond's hole about what the depth of the preformed liner is. Try to make the diameter of the hole match that of the preformed liner as closely as possible, for a good tight fit. If, however, you find you've made the hole too wide, use sand to fill in the gap.
Sand will also be used at the bottom of the hole, since sand floors provide the malleablity needed to play with the height of preformed liners. Put about an inch of sand in, so that the top rim of the preformed liner will stand about an inch above ground level -- reducing the amount of dirt that will keep falling into your waterfall pond. You'll be pushing the sand around to get the level of the preformed liner just right.
Next, place the preformed liner into the hole for the waterfall pond. Check for levelness by placing a carpenter's level across it -- both front to back and left to right. Depending on the readings you get from the carpenter's level, it is at this point that you'll have to remove the preformed liner from the hole and adjust its sandy floor accordingly.
For pictures that correspond with these instructions for installing preformed liners, please see my article on building water fountains.
Before moving on to the waterfall structure itself, a word of caution is in order. I will be discussing strategies for minimizing water-loss on the following pages. But regardless of how well you do at minimizing water-loss, it is prudent to check the level of your waterfall pond water periodically. Should the pond go dry due to water-loss, you'll burn out the pump.
Consequently, you must turn off the pump overnite or when leaving your property. Of course, if you're frugal, you'll unplug the pump when you're not around anyhow, to save money on electricity. Since this water feature is intended only for decoration and for relaxation (it's not a fish pool), there's no reason to keep it running if you're not there to enjoy it.
Now that the waterfall pond and other preparatory work is out of the way, on Page 3 we'll look at how to build the simple waterfall whose joyful stream will tumble hypnotically into the waterfall pond we just built....
