Larry Bender's Landscaping

Design Beginnings...

Some designs are existing and some have yet to be imagined...

That's where we start...

Do you want a rebuild in a designated area?

Is there a spot just perfect for something special?

Does your entryway need a focal point?

Limited space available... How about a water vase?

Want very low-maintenance? Go pondless!

Why just have rocks piled high when you can have a terraced garden?

Don't want unsightly filtration equipment?  Our designs are natural eco-systems!

Visable man-made parts is a pet-pieve of ours!

We secure the underlayment, liner, stones and gravel for long-lasting beauty & strength!

The following pictures are showing before and after we do the job.

We have 100's of pictures so keep coming back to see the latest ones uploaded. 

Annie's front yard make-over.

The top picture shows just after we started the sod removal. Annie wanted to completely re-do her front corner to a low water usage and low-maintenance yard. She wanted a water feature that could incorporate her stone-head carving and had an idea about some paths and perhaps some stones about. The bottom picture shows what we designed and installed. She is so very happy with the entire corner now. The ground cover is actually crushed walnut shells which, when first spread out it is a feast of  small chips of walnut meat for any bird in the area.

Below is Annie's backyard pond. Her original was falling apart and she was tired of spending her weekends rebuilding it and trying to find and repair the leaks. So she called us and we made it funtionally sound, safer for her fish and beautiful!

The Cactus Pond... well actually it is a pondless design.This was a sticky challenge to say the least. Since it is so tiny of a space we did an inside wall of protection so we could sit in the basin and build the waterfall.We even removed all the bermuda grass that was invading the cacti and spread the fabric over the entire cactus garden and covered it with the matchingPlum Creek Cobble and Gravel.Below is The Grande.We used the largest bio-falls bucket and spilt the falls in three directions to get the proper circulation around the horseshoe shaped pond and to the skimmers located at the far ends. After one season they had lots of new babies and can continue to see them all!

Bobby's "The Bomb" is below!

He was so fasinated with our construction process he would go to work in the morning to get his crew on-task and come back to watch the design take place.

We found lots of construction trash in that raised garden when digging it out for the pond... tsk, tsk. We do proper clean-up after each job. 

Crawford's Pyramid Lake

They had a favorite stone that was shaped like a pyramid and wanted an attractive water feature around it. When the original was not quite what they expected they called us. The old spillway was styrofoam with a stucco-like substance sprayed on it and rocks stuck to it. The "streambed" was a depression in the soil with liner and gravel layed in it. The design was not even adequate for them to move around it to set up their delightful "G Scale" village!

This is the Dog Pond!The couple have three dogs that need a place to cool off in the Sacramento heat.So we gave them a watering hold and a "land tunnel". We actually designed this as a pond, including a fish tunnel. With that forethought the future homeowner's can just eliminate some of the loose rocks filling the deeper area and add more water. Meanwhile, the dogs are loving life!Dorothy's DelightThe original pond lacked visual balance, had leaking edges andin Dorothy's own words, "was ugly". When we started the demolition we found the builder had used 2"x 4" boards, metal stakes and screws for his under fabric & liner construction.Without hesitation (or added costs) we eliminated that! We could not build onto this doomed-for-rotting design and wait for it to fall apart.So we made it into exactly what she wanted... AND THEN... SHE WANTED MORE!See the next picture down to see her upgrade.

This is the new delight for Dorothy! She upgraded from the pondless basin to a full size water garden. She will be adding water plants in the Spring.  But wait... now she's having us replace the existing waterfall bucket (a small non-filtering chamber) with a real Bio-falls for even better filtration. The pump vault is beneath the gravel near the bottom spillway providing under gravel filtration. 

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Fire Falls

This is an absolute favorite of so many people. It does require, somewhat, an existing slope to work with! The homeowner's had built it three times through the years but it failed to hold together. Once the rodents and snakes started setting up homes from the nature area behind the fence they knew they needed to rebuild this water feature for good! They called us!

We dug out the embankment, created a specialized spillway, glued rocks in place so the water would go over the top instead of disappearing behind and through the stones, bult in some seating spots for Gramma's photo sessions and the favorite of all... used one single strip of rope-lighting and wound it up and through the stonework so as to be replaceaable when necessary.

The Twin FallsThis was a fun design to create! The trouble was demolishing the very well built concrete pond built 22 years prior. The waterfall leaked like a sieve, but the pond was strong! It took a week of jack-hammering during an August heat-wave to break it up and haul it out of our way!But the end results were worth all the work!The Mother's Day PondWe named this pond as such because we worked 14 days straight to get it done for their Mother's Day Party. Besides, with the lovely statue of The Blessed Virgin that the homeowner's wanted included it only seemed fitting.We included a few favorite pieces for the owner's including a cluster of crystals that is about the size of a dinner plate. You can see it along the edge of the pond, as though it is just under Mary's feet. There is a miniture pathway up to the statue behind the pond build-up.The Survivor's DomainThis before picture was after a good start, with the right idea and not enough time by the homeowner's. But this huge Koi was a true believer that they would get his house in order! So we did! He has two 4' tunnels and two caves to hide it. He was 6" longer than a 5-gallon bucket when we built this pond. I am certain he is sharing his home with more friends by now.The Beast to BeautyOne of everybody's favorites. This is 9 spillways goind down 27' of hillside into a 7' diameter pond. The homeowner had built the concrete design 25 years prior. But when he saw "Bobby's Bomb" they couldn't wait to get us to redo theirs!We kept the lava rock with the maple trees growing in it to the side and happy so we could put it back in it's own pooling area upon completion. This was a winter project so we just tarped over everything when it was raining and then pumped out the puddles, uncovered it and kept on building. Sam & Cindy kept the project "under wraps" until the Grand Opening Party. Even Bobby was impressed!Aisatta's FallsThe before picture shows how the "professional" before us left her pond. The filter is obviously showing, the hose from it is held down with a rock and the hose from the submersed pump just lays up the side. The green net was purchased to keep the birds of prey from feasting here.When we were done the fish had several caves to hide in and the filtration and areation was appropriate. Who wants to see all the mechanics of a pond when they really want a natural look?

About the Images

We take hundreds of photo's so we have a good selection from each pond to chose from. We often burn the photo's to a DVD so the homeowner's can have copies. This allows them to refer to the building pictures to recall where hoses and such are located.

Most of the pictures in our gallery were taken right after completion of the project.  Many customers have us return every Spring for pond cleanings and plant trimming. Then we are able to update our selection to include their pond in full flora and fauna!

As time allows we will be adding more pictures of ponds, waterfalls and other yard projects that we have done.

Please return soon....

More Information

We do not have any "cookie cutter" prices. Each design is priced the same way...

• What size of a pond and how many spillways?
• Is it an existing design with re-usable parts?
• What type of stones do you want?
• Is the electrical source & water supply accessible?
• Does the site have easy access?
• Do you want to include any specialty features?
• We do not, at this time, accept credit cards.

Contact us today!
We welcome your questions and queries. Please see our Contact Us page for complete contact information.