Waterfall garden designs for small yards

Waterfall landscape design, perfect for a small space garden.

The remarkable thing about waterfall landscape design is the sheer transformative power it has on hardscape and softscape elements. There are many different types of landscape design in the world, some formal, some traditional, others historical and cultural in origin.

The beauty of waterfall landscape design is its universal application to any of these styles. There is no landscape where a waterfall of some kind cannot add value and presence. This is because water itself is a life-sustaining substance that does not possess a form of its own, but rather reflects and supports the forms around it with an essence uniquely its own.

In every landscape master plan, there is always some place within that plan where waterfall landscape design can be incorporated into one or more specific elements that we create. Just a few of these elements are discussed here today in order to give you a sense of the potential this particular aesthetic can add to the value and beauty of your home.

Waterfall landscape design is a cornerstone of pond and natural swimming pool construction. Perhaps nothing else makes a pond look more natural than a waterfall. In order to create the appearance of actual mountainsides and cliffs; we build them using only materials such as boulders and limestone.

We place each of these stones by hand, making sure to lay them in patterns like rock formations in the wild. We then conceal silent pumps behind the rocks to drive the force of water from an unseen source. This creates the impression of a mountain stream pouring over the edge of a mountain into the silence of pristine waters.

When people hire us to build them a swimming pool, they want us to build more than just a place to go swimming. A custom luxury pool is so much more than that. It is an architectural landmark and a focal point for gathering and celebration. Because the swimming pool works on so many levels to establish the landscape as a realm of outdoor luxury living, it is common for us to build a waterfall into the fountain or spa area of the pool.

In a very real sense, a Japanese garden is a type of waterfall landscape design in its own right. Originating in the East as a carefully manicured environment dedicated to sacred space and meditation, the Japanese form has become popular in the West as a personal environment of retreat and rejuvenation.

While not every one of our clients wants a Japanese garden for the same spiritual reasons as its historical progenitors, it is nevertheless true that clients who invest in this element later tell us that it adds a remarkably calming presence to their landscape and ultimately becomes something of a private sanctuary that is uniquely personal to them and far removed from the stressors of the outside world.

Koi ponds are often built to closely resemble ponds in nature, and for all intents and purposes, fall into the category of pond landscape design. Others, however, are deliberately mathematical in their proportions and look more like pools of liquid geometry in modern landscapes filled with abstract forms and contemporary architecture.

In such a setting, waterfall landscape design can add just a touch of the natural to contemporary landscape design without overpowering the absolutes of Mentalism that define it.

Custom fountains can be built to look like actual waterfalls, or they can have waterfalls flowing into them. We feel that either of these constructs works better than the generic three-tiered fountain that has become something of a stereotype in landscape design.

Our fountains are designed to be a little more unique and personal than that. We see the fountain as an expression of individual feeling that reflects a state of mind our client aspires to experience in calm repose at the end of the day.

Jeff Halper has a passion for landscaping and landscape design, for more information visit Exterior WorldsWaterfall Landscape Design or Landscaping Design you can read more about


Jeff Halper