I remember the sparkling clear water shimmering in the spots of sunlight that beamed through the boughs of the trees like a spotlight cutting through the night sky. The minnows were abundant, and darted through the waters as we approached. The frogs would “kerplop” into the water as we walked along the shore. The lush green foliage of the healthy trees dipped into the water, as if they were drinking from a fountain. We spent hours and hours throwing rocks into the water, skimming stones and trying to build little dams. Fortunately, I have been able to incorporate my passion for water, streams and cascading waterfalls into my adult life. Although, the responsibilities of maturity take up much of my time, I am still building little dams. As a landscape designer, I have been involved with designing and building water features into landscapes for almost twenty years.
In the early years, we used plastic garbage cans with holes cut into the sides, with chicken wire screens to keep the leaves and debris from jamming up our re-circulating pumps. At that time, we struggled to find continuous duty pumps that were capable of moving water up a makeshift hillside, in an attempt to re-create the waterfalls from my childhood memories. We took ideas from swimming pool filtration systems such as, backflow prevention valves and ball valves to control the volume and flow of the water.