Marking the territory

We knew we wanted flowing water and a pond deep enough to overwinter fish, but didn’t have the space for a riverbed, so a tiered pond with a small waterfall was our choice. Since our backyard is completely flat, we had to create a berm the waterfall could ‘spring’ from. This was also the easiest solution to get rid of the soil we dug out.

As for position, we wanted part shade, part sun. A compromise between having flowering plants and keeping algae in check. We also didn’t want to have to fish out too many leaves in the fall, so opted for a position at the edge of an overhanging lilac bush, took out the day-glo spray can and marked our territory:

In the end, we decided to go a little bigger than originally planned, but not too much.