| We purchased a new home with a large backyard (large for So. Calif. anyway) many years ago. The front yard was landscaped, however the back was not. The yard had steeply sloped hills on two side, and so we decided to cut them back, and build retaining walls. Just before we started, we thought... how nice it may be to have a small waterfall spilling down the hill. Hmmm... later, we figured why not have it spill into a small pond? We did do some rudimentary research, and talked with a "pond builder"... ughhh! Ended up with an undergravel filter system on one end of the pond, which we stocked with water lillies and goldfish. The pond worked reasonable well (cleaning that gravel bed was a nightmare however), untill we "discovered" koi. We were hooked immediatly, and after joining one of the lcoal koi clubs, quickly came to the realization that our pond was woefully inadequate for keeping koi. Anyway, I guess you could say that we got started because we wanted a waterfall. Sounds so lame in retrospect! |