Slideshow: 10 inspiring water features for your garden

Tad and Jodie Suckling are great admirers of Hawaii. They love the lush look of the plants there, the way sunlight streams through the dense foliage, and the splashy sound of waterfalls. Inspired by such sensual scenery, they decided to turn part of their flat backyard in Vancouver, Washington, into a tropical-looking water garden.

Tad installed the entire project himself. First, he used a backhoe to dig out the pond and streambed. Then he shaped the excavated earth (supplemented with additional soil) into an elevated mound for the twin waterfalls.

Volcanic basalt was used to form the rock ledges of the falls and to edge the main pond and the stream, which channels water to a nearby koi pond. The top pond has waterproof rubber liners; the stream is lined with Gunite (a mixture of cement and sand). A pair of 3/4-horsepower pumps, hidden in housing surrounded by nandina and ivy, recirculates the water.

Above the falls, a grove of evergreen English laurel reinforces the illusion that the water is plunging down a forested hillside. In the pond itself, water-loving yellow flag iris ( I. pseudacorus) forms a fountain of foliage 5 feet tall. Ferns, cardoon (front left), assorted flowering perennials, even Japanese maples grow in soil-filled pockets around the rocks. Low-voltage lights in metal housings illuminate several pathways that connect the patio to two ponds, a perennial bed, and a cave behind the falls.

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