From all the ways to create a water island in your garden near residential log cabin, a small river with miniaturist waterfalls could be one of the most creative approaches.
Usually, natural landscape rivers can be up to one thousand years old, however, you can make one per several months. This time is necessary for the plants to blossom while the river itself can be dug up per one day.
Slope. To make the river prattle in a nice way, you’ll need to reinforce the water stream – to make cascades. The cascades can be made either lower or higher, even small waterfalls can be created. Landscape specialists do not advise to make cascades too high, not to stand out from general environment. The best thing is if cascades blend harmonically with the environment.
Drainage system. It is important to examine carefully a drainage system. A heavy rain can increase the level of water dramatically, and even take away some of your equipment. The best thing when making a river is to form higher edges with the help of an excavator and to make a special guttering for rain water from concrete or stones, the last could be combined in a nice way and go with residential log cabin appearance and its surroundings. It is obvious that a guttering should be directed from the river.
It is advised to construct a river in such a way, so that water excess would run into drainage equipment or a special hole paved with gravel. The drainage system should be placed exactly at the end of the river. Shallow rivers will collect less water and the possibility of the river being flooded over the edges would be smaller. However, shallow rivers require being filled in with water on a regular basis: once per 3 weeks providing that the weather is regular or each week if the climate is hot and dry.
Other Important Steps
* Make a list of all the work to be done in sequential order.
* Calculate the expenses.
* Examine undersoil carefully, its benefits and other features.
* Consult regarding a pond digging permission.
* Think about electricity installation if necessary, in case if you decide to make water pumps or to install night lighting.
Plants
Plants will add the main decorative touch to your river and garden cabin surroundings, so it is very important to select them correctly. You can plant annual, biennial or perennial plants as well as shrubs, flowers and small trees.
If you decide to go for some small trees, they can sway graciously over the river or to make a beautiful arch looking like an entrance in the beginning of the river. Avoid large and densely planted shrubs as they can hide the beauty of the river. The most suitable plants would be Astilbe (Astilbe arendsii), Dicentra (Dicentra spectabilis), Lobelia (Lobelia cardinalis), and all kinds of fern. To make the river look vivid all year around it is advisable to have a wide range of plants from which some would blossom in spring, some in summer and other till late autumn. Each plant will highlight the natural log house color and perfectly join the nature.
