NORTH BEND - Not that long ago Penny Eamer and Robert Johnson's front yard was a swamp.

The property on 16th Street in North Bend had a drainage problem. Water would pool in the front yard, making it an frustrating task even to mow the grass.

"It was like a puddle up here," Eamer said. "It was just so wet."

It's still wet, but now in a good way. No longer a swamp, the couple's front lot has a two-level pond with three waterfalls and is populated with dozens of brightly colored fish. The pond is one of the new features on the fifth-annual Parade of Ponds tour this weekend. It's a fundraiser for Habitat of Humanity.

Eamer and Johnson moved here from California almost three years ago. They remodeled their house and went to work on the soggy lawn, installing drains, brick work and Eamer's favorite, the pond. The effort won the couple a beautification prize from North Bend Mayor Rick Wetherell.

"We're here to blend in," Eamer said. "That made us feel part of the community."

Wetherell said the couple's home is a hidden treasure. He noticed it last year as a flurry of construction was going on. Not many people see what is going on up 16th Street, Wetherell said, so he thought honoring Eamer and Johnson was a good opportunity.

"It's such a unique pond," he said.

Anita Vandervelden, who works with her husband, Bob Vandervelden, at Living Waters Aqua Scapes and helped install the pond, said they try to build water features that look similar to what could be seen on a forest hike.

"We don't want them to look like a pile of rock," she said. "We want it to look as natural as possible."

Pond owners add their own touches, too, such as a favorite piece of driftwood or rock. The Eamer's and Johnson's pond, Vandervelden said, used tree root remnants made the pond look natural.

The upwelling bog in the top half of the pond is functional.

It works as a filter, Vandervelden said. As water makes it way up through the bog, it's filtered by rocks and plants, keeping the lower pond clean. Plants love the oxygen-and nutrient-rich environment, which invites vegetation to cover the bog.

Many of the pond plants are just starting to sprout. Hidden among the newly awakened greens are mushrooms made of melted and painted PVC pipe and ceramics in all shapes - gnomes, squirrels, raccoons and many, many frogs.

Frogs are Eamer's favorites. She had two smiling amphibian statues floating on lily pads in the pond. Occasionally gold, yellow and orange fish come out from hiding places beneath the waterfalls, enticed by food Eamer scattered in the water.

Artistically, Vandervelden said, each pond is unique in appearance and formation of waterfalls.

"When Bob looks at the rocks, he pretty much knows where he's going to put waterfalls," she said.

He can configure them in such a way to create a gentle trickle or a cascade of water. Eamer said he took awhile setting one of the rocks to form a split waterfall on one side of the pond.

Eamer has always wanted a pond and now that she has one, she said she enjoys every minute of time spent around it. Her  house has views of the pond from all the front windows.  But it's not just a visual delight.

"I love the sound of the water," she said.