Water features, from DIY to fantastic

Before: Yearning for water

Here's how the site at Hughes' Oregon home looked as construction began.

Depending on where you live, professional installation of a U-shaped, 100-by-80-foot pond such as this one would probably cost around $60,000. The 70-foot-long creek feeding it would run an additional $10,000 to $15,000. Installing a new irrigated lawn this size costs $6,000 to $10,000, Hughes says.

The biggest expense in his project, however, was purchasing mature trees and plants, including the 110-year-old maple tree in the foreground, to give the landscape its old, established appearance. Hughes says a tree that age would cost $15,000 to $25,000, depending on the branch structure. The more training it received over its life, with the proper pruning, the more it would cost, he says.

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Before: Design challenge

Hughes solved the challenge of designing a water feature in a problem area outside the home of clients in Lake Oswego, Ore., a Portland suburb. He created a meandering creek, 60 feet long, alongside the home.

"It was a very tight space, as you can see, and it sloped away from the house," Hughes says.

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After: Intimate stream

The intimate stream was just the ticket for this long, cramped side yard. The creek begins near the home's entrance, on higher ground, and flows for 60 feet, ending at a clump of evergreen shrubs behind the house. There, the water drops into a reservoir below ground. A pump circulates the water through the creek and reservoir. The flow can be stopped with the flick of a switch.

This type of "pondless" or recirculating water feature is low-maintenance, as there's no pond to collect debris and algae. Hughes and his crew built the creek in about 10 days at a cost of around $38,000, including landscaping.

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Great for entertaining

Patti and Tim Slattery love entertaining outdoors around the pond and small waterfall they built behind their home in Schaghticoke, N.Y., north of Albany. They hired a contractor to dig the 22-by-16-foot hole. He also installed a rubber liner in and around the hole, planted water lilies in the pond, covered the pond bottom with small stones and moved large stones around the edges.

The excavation and materials, including liner, pump, pipes and a skimmer — a screening mechanism installed at the pond's edge to captures leaves and other debris — cost about $7,000. Patti Slattery did the landscaping in and around the pond.

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Romantic at night

The Slatterys' soothing pond and burbling falls are a pleasant backdrop for outdoor entertaining, especially in the evening. Their neighbor, landscape-lighting professional Janet Lennox Moyer, author of "The Landscape Lighting Book," lit the pond and falls. Professionally installed lighting for a pond this size runs about $7,000, including one transformer and about 20 fixtures, Moyer says. Her lighting tips:

• To frame a pond's edge at night, use soft lighting at several intensities. Shine lights down, not out. "You don't want to see light sources or fixtures," Moyer says. "Rather, you want to see the pond itself lit by fixtures."
• Underwater lighting will make a murky pond look dirty. If your pond's not clear — and few are — light the surrounding landscaping instead.
• Underwater lighting raises the water temperature, endangering fish — unless you use cooler LED lights.
• Leave part of the pond dark so fish have a place to retreat. "They need some downtime, just like the rest of us," Moyer says.

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Low cost, high impact

All the stones for this 100-foot stream came from the six-acre surrounding property, the home of Janet Lennox Moyer and George Gruel, near Brunswick, N.Y. They excavated the creek bed with a small landscape tractor, connecting the stream to an artificial pond on the land. The only construction costs were the purchase of a pump and a dog cage.

Yes, a dog cage.

They installed the pump inside the submerged cage, which they'd wrapped in landscape fabric to protect the pump from mud and sediment. The system has required no maintenance since it was built four years ago.

A friend showed Moyer how to design the streambed to enhance the water's sound. She placed large rocks at the inside edges and middle of the stream's course to pool, divert and trouble the water, forcing it to make soft, pleasant rushing sounds. The stream and pond attract turtles and birds, including several types of herons and, recently, a kingfisher.

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Under construction

This partially finished small water garden shows how a flexible rubber pond liner is draped over a prepared site. A framework of rocks is arranged to create shelves for plants at different depths. Some plants, such as irises, are shallow-rooted and found near the water's edge. Others, such as water lilies, need to drop their long roots into the pond's murky depths. The plants cooperate not only to create visual harmony but also to clean and filter pond water and provide shade and oxygen for fish and wildlife.

A finished water garden this size, with no pump, can be built for about $1,000 in materials.

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Splashing around

Splash pads are found in many city parks, and kids love them for cooling off. Water spurts from jets and is circulated back into a below-ground tank. Parents love them because they're safe, with no pool or standing water.

Several companies make them for home use, including Rain Deck. Simple Rain Deck kits cost from $3,100 to $3,735, including tank, pump, filter, manifold and controller.

"We've had a lot of homeowners do it," says Ashton Avarell of Rain Deck. "But some homeowners feel more comfortable having a contractor do it."

Professional installation adds $1,000 to $6,000 to the cost. Professionally installed projects start at $4,000 to $9,000 and can easily run $40,000 or more, installed, depending on the complexity, design and materials.

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Low-maintenance solution

The owners of this weekend cabin in Battle Ground, Wash., near the Oregon border, were tired of mowing the lawn. Hughes suggested a lower-maintenance option: a pond. In 1990, he dug up their lawn and built a 70-by-40-foot pond. The project today would cost $70,000 to $80,000, he says.

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Naturally stunning

The weekend cabin is reflected in the finished pond. No cleaning or maintenance is required, except for tidying up plants in the fall.

Hughes' advice to pond owners: Accept some algae growth. Don't strive for swimming-pool clarity. Natural ponds are somewhat dark from plants, sediment and nutrients.

Although his company sells pond-cleaning supplies, he refrains from cleaning ponds, preferring to work with the existing water to establish a balance between oxygen and nutrients. He avoids using too much fish food and lets fish supplement their diet by grazing on algae and pond critters.

"All ponds will have algae, but it can go crazy if it gets too many nutrients," he says. It costs around $300 a year to hire a pond-maintenance company, depending on your pond's size and the proximity of trees, which can drop debris into the pond.

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Replacing a basketball court with a wetland

Happy with their pond, the owners of the Battle Ground weekend cabin commissioned Hughes to tear out a basketball court on the other side of their 1.5-acre vacation property and build a 100-by-40-foot wetland.

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Depth for wintering fish

Here's the wetland in mid-construction. When hiring a contractor, ask friends for referrals. Aquascapes, a pond-supply company, trains and certifies contractors throughout the country. Search by ZIP code to find one locally. Check contractors' portfolios to see if you like their styles. Get references and ask past clients if the contractor performed as expected and finished on time.

Hughes advises protecting yourself with a contract detailing every step of the job, including materials, costs and timeline.

"The last thing you want is for them to come back and say, 'We never said we'd do boulders there. That'll be extra,'" he says.

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A kingfisher's stump

The finished bog consists of two pools, each about 5 feet deep. Depth is important so fish have a place to settle in winter when the water is colder at the top of the pond and warmer at the bottom. The depth required varies by region. Hughes included logs for basking turtles and a snag (foreground) for kingfishers to use as a fishing perch. Other critters are less welcome. Mosquitoes can be controlled with mosquito "dunks" that are impregnated with bacteria that infect and kill mosquito larvae and close relatives such as gnats and black flies. Other insects, fish, birds, worms and animals are unharmed. Fending off raccoons and deer is tougher. Electric fences work, but they're unattractive.

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Low-cost rain gardens cleanse runoff

This educational rain garden is on the grounds of Oktibbeha County Heritage Museum in Starkville, Miss. Rain gardens trap street runoff and rainwater, holding and cleansing it while it gradually leaches into underground aquifers. Permeable fill — usually sand or gravel — is placed beneath the surface. Native plants are best suited to local cycles of rain and drought. Their roots filter pollutants from the runoff.

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Dry creek: an excellent DIY project

A dry swale like this one at the Birmingham (Ala.) Botanical Gardens is beautiful and functional. The use of native trees, plants and stones make it fit naturally into its surroundings. It carries water when it's raining and looks good in dry weather. It's an easy project for do-it-yourselfers and can be done for no money. With no pond, pump, liner, filter or other equipment, costs are limited to any purchased rocks and landscape plants, and perhaps hiring help for the excavation. Be sure to think through how you'll direct storm runoff away from homes where it could do damage.

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Fools the eye

This water garden at a residence in Jackson, Miss., was created by landscape architect Robert F. Poore, who specializes in ecological design. This labor-intensive, upper-end project appears to have been found in nature, but everything except the large pine at left was designed, imported and installed by Poore.

The artificial creek in the foreground helps channel overflow during heavy rainfalls. When designing a pond, plan a low spot where overflow can go.

Check with local building officials about any regulations and required permits. Poore's tips: Use native plants and install them close together, shading out weeds and lowering maintenance.

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Take cues from nature

A waterfall that Poore constructed at the Jackson home shows his careful observation of the natural landscape. To design a naturalistic water feature, he watches how water occurs naturally.

In some regions, creeks and streams abound but ponds are unlikely. If you live in an area with steeper topography and have plenty of elevation on your site, creeks and waterfalls like this one will fit right in.

"I look at local rock in its natural state, how it lays, how it breaks and cracks, whether there are scattered rocks," Poore says. If you'd like to learn more, he recommends reading "Gaia's Garden, Second Edition: A Guide To Home-Scale Permaculture."

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Before: A cramped entry

The 10-foot-wide space between these two houses in Jantzen Beach, Ore., near Portland, didn’t leave Hughes with much room to work. As home footprints grow to cover more of their lots, tight placements like this are common. His solution — a rebuilt entrance and stream connecting it to the back garden — demonstrates how a water feature can transform a difficult landscape.

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New privacy

To prevent the long, skinny side yard from defining the home's entrance, Hughes built a half wall, creating an outdoor "room" that embraces the front door. A diagonal walkway leading to the door adds drama and helps open up the entrance.

At right, a 40-foot-long creek begins in a backyard koi pond. The stream is wreathed in ivy, geraniums, vine maple and tall, clumping bamboo. The neighbors' house, just 10 feet away, now seems much more distant.

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Attractive to buyers

Lush landscaping is one key to the success of this narrow creek, seen from the backyard of the house. The sound of the burbling stream and the tall, cool foliage now transform the 10-foot gap between houses, creating privacy for both families.

With a higher-end home, a tasteful water element can be an advantage when selling, but it probably won't add dollars to the price.

"An appraiser is not going to make a specific $10,000 or $20,000 adjustment in their analysis, but it might push the home into the upper end of a price range," says John Bredemeyer, spokesman for The Appraisal Institute.

In the middle price range, water features neither add nor detract, but they can take away from a home's value in lower price ranges if buyers see them as an extra maintenance headache or cost, he says.

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Build an inexpensive stream

A homeowner can replicate this 40-foot stream for about $2,000 or $3,000 in materials, Hughes says. This one encircles a home and walkway in Lake Oswego, Ore., near Portland. The water drops into a hidden, recirculating reservoir. The largest rocks are 8 to 9 inches across. A shady location is required for these moss-covered stones.

If you can't find mossy rocks, you can cultivate moss easily on bare stones. Also, the meandering design is crucial to this stream's natural appearance.

"I try and stop people from doing creeks or falls looking like steps of stairs," Hughes says.

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