A soft rain falls for hours, providing enough moisture to start a slow drip over the edge of a huge stone waterfall.

That all changes as builder Jim Lampl turns on a series of pumps to start a deluge of water gushing over immense boulders in shades of gray, tan and black.

The waterfall and garden have been here only a few years but look like they are a century old. In his mind, that's the most important thing when creating something like this. Lampl, 66, owner of Lampl Landscape Service, builds small and big water features with that natural look in mind.

Some of the rocks used in the project weigh up to 16 tons. They are set in place with a crane and must be put in just the right spot, something he can ponder for months. With the meter running on that crane, a job like this is not for the faint of heart. How does one know that all these gigantic boulders are going to fit together?

“You don't,” says Lampl with his trademark sly grin. “You just need to use your best guess and get a variety of shapes and sizes.”

Lampl is a rock connoisseur — some may even say a rock snob — as he meticulously chooses the perfect stones for his projects.

“These rocks are almost impossible to find with this shape and patina,” he says, looking up at the perfectly placed wall of stones.

He deals with a rock supplier who knows it's going to take a few hours when Lampl visits. “The rocks I pick for my own use are one out of 20 or 30 he has set aside.” Smiling again, he adds: “Most of his other customers don't seem to be as particular.”

The immense scale of the landscape makes it hard to comprehend how it all came together. The project began with a South Hills homeowner hiring a general contractor, who then hired a subcontractor for the construction of a pool and hot tub. He, in turn, hired Lampl for his specialty with these types of gardens. The two had worked together before, and the design was a collaborative effort between Lampl and the homeowner.

The boulders came to the site via tri-axle trucks, bringing 500 tons of rocks. He cherishes each one of these beautiful stones.

“That's the heartbreaking part of it sometimes,” he says, “because they get nicked, chipped and marred, but we dump them as carefully as we can to prevent that.”

Standing down at pool level, the finished product is impressive, towering above lounge chairs on the pool deck.

To the left of the waterfall, interspersed through gigantic rocks, are carefully chosen perennials, trees and shrubs. A tree hydrangea is in full bloom with pure white conical flowers. Bright-yellow black-eyed Susans set off the dark-purple leaves of various Japanese maples.

To the right of the moving water are tall ‘Whitespire' birches. There are conifers throughout the spaces between rocks, and climbing hydrangeas are left to ramble near the waterfall.

Creeping Japanese garden junipers are planted along with a host of other plants, including an interesting low grower called Herneria glabra. It's a dark-green groundcover that Lampl discovered a couple of years ago. He uses it now instead of Irish moss. “It's problem-free,” he says. It grows out of cracks between the stones. Lampl looks for plants that will intermingle with the rocks without obscuring them. “A pile of rocks looks like a pile of rocks, so you have to soften that.”

Near the bottom of the waterfall is a big, pretty chartreuse hosta that is a focal point and looks happy with the water falling all around it.

“That's the best part about this job,” he says, “getting to see the finished product. You're never really sure if you're going to arrive where you want to be at the end.”

Lampl's love of the outdoors and water began as a child.

“I created my first pond when I was about 10,” he says. “There was a natural spring in the backyard. I went out with a shovel and I enlarged that.” Since Easter was around the corner, his father got him some ducks to swim around the 5-foot-square space.

Eventually, it was expanded to a 30-foot by 30-foot pond. Later, Lampl used his own heavy machinery to make changes. “I thought I'd be a little more creative with it and add some boulders around the edges and manipulated the shape a little bit,” he says.

Lampl is a lifelong nature lover, admires fine art, painters and sculptors and creates these gardens on a canvas of dirt, using the mediums of stone, water and plants.

“This is my art work and most satisfying endeavor,” he says. “I'm always striving throughout the process to make it exciting, interesting, to vary the landscape and make it uniquely different from anything I've done before.”

Water therapy

This love of stone, water and creating a work of art is just as strong for Tim Wood, owner of Aquatic Edge Pond and Landscapes in Greensburg. He's pulling a few small weeds, making the waterfall and pond at Rizzo's Malabar Inn look perfect.

There's just something about being around water that's therapeutic, Wood says.

“They have actually done studies,” he says. “The splashing and crashing of water creates negative ions in the air, which affect our brains in a certain way that helps us calm and de-stress and makes us feel better.

“All you have to do is sit beside a waterfall or go to a stream in the mountains; the sight and sound of flowing water makes you feel good inside as soon as you get there.”

Wood, 36, creates lots of these features and enjoys consulting with DIY gardeners determined to make their own. He echoes Lampl's sentiments about aesthetics.

“It's harder to make it look natural, like it's been there forever,” he says. “That's what we strive for in most of our applications.”

The biggest mistake homeowners make, he says, is “underestimating the amount of work that's involved, trying to piece together a feature using less-than-adequate materials.”

A popular misconception about water gardens, he says, is that they are going to turn green and look unappealing. When a water garden is set up correctly, it will look great.

“You can have a koi pond and it will be crystal clear all the time,” he says. “Every pond is going to get some algae; you just need to know how to deal with it efficiently.”

It's something that comes with time.

“Until you have some real-life experience,” Wood says, “there's a steep learning curve.”

One trick he used here was to add moss to some of the logs and stones that are placed throughout the water feature.

Another mistake homeowners make is starting too small.

“The larger a pond is, as long as it's filtered properly, the easier it is to keep it nice,” he says. A small DYI kit from a box store is hard to keep nice, because ponds with less water are more adversely affected by small changes in the environment.

Plants will soften the edges between all the hardscape, but also help the pond in other ways.

“Plants are a very important part of the ecosystem,” Wood says. “Whenever we build a pond for somebody, I automatically include plants.”

One of Wood's favorites is the water forget-me-not (Myosotis scorpioides). It's not really a forget-me-not, but the pretty blue flowers are reminiscent of its namesake and it's easy to grow. He plants parrotfeather (Myriophyllum aquaticum), water lilies, lotus and other plants. Wood warns though, that these plants are invasive and are not for use in farm ponds without liners.

Wood stands proudly over his favorite addition to this pond.

“This log I found in a patch of woods several years ago. When I saw it, it screamed waterfall, water feature,” he says. “It spoke to me the way it's hollowed out just perfectly.”

The log sat behind his house for a year. He thought this restaurant was the perfect place for it because so many people will get to see it.

Wood is proud of his creations, but the real payoff is seeing the reactions he gets when each water garden is completed.

“I get so much joy out of it. It's hard work, but it's a cumulative thing,” he says with a smile. “Once that process is done and they come out and see it, you can just see the joy in their face and how happy they are. I really, really love creating features, small and large.”

Doug Oster is the Tribune-Review home and garden editor. Reach him at 412-965-3278 or doster@tribweb.com. See other stories, blogs, videos and more at triblive.com/lifestyles/dougoster.

---

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)

---