In November 2020, Mount Sinai Memorial Parks brought me in to turn their old, crumbling, leaking, hard-to-see concrete water feature into a DreamScape.
This was a challenging and ultimately very rewarding project to work on. Being in a cemetery, we needed to follow certain rules — mainly being quiet when services were held. A few times we actually stopped all work in order to be respectful. But the rest of the time, it was a peaceful, serene, beautiful location to work.
Our first challenge came while we were demolishing the old concrete water feature and removing it. There were some sections of the concrete walls and pond that were over 13 inches thick with full rebar reinforcement. We filled up seven 10-yard rubbish bins with the debris when all was said and done. Instead of the demolition phase taking three days, it took the Dream Team an entire week to remove all the old concrete, rebar and debris.
To create the 6-foot elevation for our pondless waterfall, we began by having 80 tons of boulders dropped off. We used our 3 ½-ton excavator, back hoe and other equipment to create two 3-foot-tall stone elevation walls around the back of the main waterfall area. We filled in the mountain with soft soil and thoroughly compacted it as we went along. These two curving walls frame up the waterfall mountain on the sides and in the back in a way that allows us to plant all around them. The mountain we created is 30 feet wide on the bottom level and 24 feet wide on the top level. This is where the main waterfall and largest boulders would go.
At the bottom of the 6-foot-tall waterfall mountain we created a 20-inch deep, 8-foot-round reflection pool. Then we installed a stone throne on the left side of the pool and a large sitting boulder on the right side. This invites people into the space to sit and reflect on life while hearing the rushing waterfalls. After the pool, the water flows into a 30-foot stream that ends in our basin.
Our next step was to excavate our water basin at the bottom of the 70-foot stream. We oversize our pit or basin for a few reasons. First, the lower the basin is in the ground, the cooler the water stays in this hot and windy location. Also, the larger the body of water in the pit, the easier it is to maintain water quality. If for any reason the basin had been too small, we would literally have had to take it all out and reconstruct it bigger from scratch.
Once we excavated the basin, the installation process began. First, we installed a layer of sand on the bottom of the basin. Then we installed a layer of underlayment fabric. The liner went in next, and on top of that, we installed another layer of underlayment fabric. The sand-cloth-liner-cloth process was the same for the entire liner from bottom to top. These extra layers of liner protection are like an insurance policy that protects it from damage during construction and afterwards.
Construction Components
We installed the water feature from bottom to top, starting with all the basin components: two vaults with extenders, two 9-PL Pumps with one-way check valves, our automatic water fill and dosing system, Ion Gen and all the large Aquablox. We then trenched in our two large, flexible PVC lines from the pumps to the top of the waterfall, where there were four large spillways installed. Brass ball valves were installed on each line so we could customize the water flow out of each spillway.
We finished the detail work in the basin first. Then we added rocks into the liner from the bottom to the top. The biggest challenge was installing our largest boulders on the sides and within the main waterfall area. Some of these boulders weighed over 2 tons, and access to this area with our 3 ½-ton excavator was limited.
For the main waterfalls, we installed a variety of different naturalistic looks. Some rocks have large, flowing curtain drops, and some have water jumping off the rocks. On one large rock on the right side, there is a thin sheet of water trickling down. This waterfall looks so naturalistic that it really appears to have always been there.
Landscaping the Pondless Waterfall
Finally, we began the landscaping phase. Step one was installation of new irrigation valves and trench in new lines into all the borders around the waterfall. Then we installed tough plants that are drought, wind and sun tolerant all around the water feature, including a large number of California native plants. We installed some black pine trees along with a few beautiful native oak trees. After installing the plants, we had 100 cubic yards of decomposed granite delivered so we could install it in all the borders. The finishing touches were the large, dead oak trees that were skillfully placed on top of and around the water feature. They add so much character and age to the project. It makes it look and feel like this DreamScape 70-foot pondless water feature and landscape were always there.
This natural pondless waterfall feature is so special because it brings nature’s healing energy to a place where people go to grieve and reconnect with loved ones who have passed. This DreamScape helps to uplift people when they need it most, revealing the transformational power of natural water features.
About the Author
James Hiestand has been designing and creating award winning outdoor living spaces for over 32 years in California and Oregon. He is the owner and operator of DreamScapes Water Features and Landscaping LLC in Los Angeles and has been passionately creating Water Features for decades. James is a Professional Aquascape Contractor proficient in creating fountainscapes, naturalistic pondless waterfalls, ponds and recreation/swimming ponds, always working on only one DreamScape at a time.
