Before designing a backyard waterfall you should inspect some natural basin at the top of the fall, area around, sides, and bottom of a fall. Observe how the water spills over and around the rocks, and how far it falls. Visit public or private places that have waterfalls, fountains, ponds, streams. Look at pictures and photos. Ask designers to show you waterfalls that they have completed.   Style When you have collected designs and ideas, join it into your plan, note others. The design of your waterfall should be visible now. A formal design can have geometric forms, such as a straight canal, stepped falls, or a wall that water drip over. The best building materials for formal design include cut stones, slabs, tile, glass, metal, and acrylic. The backyard can include ground grass, trees and shrubs.   An informal or realistic design usually includes a single fall way, surrounded by a rocks and plants. Or you can choose for multiple-cataract waterfall, where more than one stream flows over the fall way. The plumbing for this design utilized a manifold behind the falls that divides the pipeline from the pump into two or more lines. Each line has its own valve to adjust how much wate more...