DIY Pond and Waterfall Tutorial – Solar Powered!

I absolutely love water features, I find the sound of running water calming and soothing. So, I have been working on a couple new water features in my yard, and today I’m sharing one of them. I have this large granite boulder in my back yard that looked a little boring, so I decided what better way to spruce it up then to add a beautiful DIY pond and waterfall, and, since we don’t have electric power in this area, I chose a solar pump with a backup battery to ensure the waterfall was running for a large part of the day without having to run extension cords throughout the yard (plus I love using green energy whenever possible!). I also added in some solar lights both in the pond and around so it looks spectacular at night!

Here is a brief description of the process i used to create the pond. For full instructions and more pictures, please visit my blog post here.

To build the pond, I first dug the hole in the area for the pond.

Once the pond area was dug out, I used one row of concrete retaining wall blocks to outline the pond. I ensured the ground underneath the blocks was level.

Once all the retaining wall blocks are in place, I placed the liner into the pond area.

I used the retaining wall caps to hold the liner in place. I used my concrete saw (bought used on Facebook Marketplace) to cut the retaining wall caps so they line up evenly next to each other.

Once the two adjoining block cap sides are cut, they should line up perfectly on the top of the retaining wall blocks/pond liner. Use landscape adhesive to adhere the pond liner to the retaining wall blocks below, and then on top of the liner to adhere the retaining wall cap blocks to the pond liner and the retaining wall blocks below.

Next, if building the pond with a wall