Do you feel the need to spend more time outdoors? In just a month or two from now, the weather should be hitting high 30’s. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a water feature in your backyard that you can enjoy in the early mornings or evenings when you are back from work? After scouring the web in search of the perfect water features for the garden, our customers came across WaterfallNow. They now love to invite friends over for barbeques, drinks, and sitting out in the evenings by their beautiful water features.
Many people are starting to look for the best ways to decorate their gardens for the summer of 2014, which is ‘likely’ to be the hottest on record – at least in the UK. But let’s just pretend it will also be the same case in BC, Canada just so that I don’t have to figure out the El Nino patterns and other weather related information. If you feel the need to educate me please do.
Here are some ideas of water features for the garden ideas that you can implement this summer.
1. Drop by the nearest pond and water garden nursery in your area. Once at the store you can browse determine the types of flowers, plants, and designs that you like best. If you are unsure of what plants to buy, ask the staff if they can assist you. Certain plants thrive better in the shade or in damp areas. These are the types of plants that you would want to incorporate into your water garden. Man-made water features look great when combined with the right plants. The plants add greenery and help to provide a more realistic looking water feature as you would find in nature.
2. Do you want a pond? Ponds are undoubtedly beautiful but only if maintained. They can require a lot of manual labour from taking the rocks out, cleaning the basin, putting the rocks back in, so on so forth. Without this maintenance the pond will eventually turn into green pea soup which I’ve seen a lot of. How deep do you want the pond to go? Before you dig, call http://www.bconecall.bc.ca/. It is free to call. Don’t do any digging without calling to avoid causing damage to any pipelines, telecommunication cables, sewage lines, and electrical wires.
Back in our landscaping days we used to get calls to do maintenance on ponds – something that we often didn’t look forward to. You may be familiar with a TV show called dirty jobs. That’s what cleaning these ponds resembled. It was a dirty, disease ridden mess. Eventually some of them called us in after they’d had enough maintaining the ponds and asked us to fill the pond with dirt and lay fresh turf over top. Problem solved. The racoons on the other hand weren’t as happy because there was no longer any fish to eat.
Some people don’t realize that having a pond requires continual maintenance. (Slap my head). It DOES. But, some people actually enjoy working on their ponds on a daily basis. If not, then a pond might not be your best choice.
All ponds require some level of maintenance. When you are looking to care for koi fish you must keep the water clean otherwise the fish will develop diseases and die. Using a variety of water plants such as water lilies or water cress can help to naturally clean the water. There are different schools of thought on whether or not you should have a gravel or dirt bed. I prefer to go without the gravel basin. If you are going to make a pond, don’t make a small pond because the fish will grow. It is also an addicting hobby and you may wish you had a bigger pond.
If you already have a pond then you probably have a grasp by now of how they need constant cleaning. We prefer the pondless or invisible waterfall water feature designs to minimize maintenance and maximize the time spent enjoying the project. Ponds are undoubtedly an excellent addition but unkempt ponds harbour diseases, mosquitoes, and are unattractive. Make sure you know what you are getting into.
3. Decide on how much space you have to allocate to a water feature for your garden. For smaller gardens, focus on height to maximize horizontal space. WaterfallNow is fairly good at doing this as our lightweight artificial rock panels can be stacked to any height. Natural rocks typically require more horizontal space to achieve the desired cascading effects of mini waterfalls.
4. Pondless features are gaining in popularity. WaterfallNow’s pondless water feature system means that you can run these rock fountains in all 4 seasons with no maintenance. Just add water and let it run. To clean our rocks simply spray them with a pressure washer. You can even change the colour of the rocks from one year to the next using a special paint. They can be set to run on a timer or set up to a remote control switch. This would allows you to switch on the rock waterfall sitting in your backyard at night from inside your home.
These look spectacular at night when the floodlights are shining on them. The occasional sweeping of leaves and other debris that might otherwise clog the water pump and ensuring that the water level does not get too low is the majority of the maintenance requirements. Should you decide to not run the waterfall in the winter we advise to drain the water basin, disconnect the water pump, give it a rinse, and store it indoors to prevent cracking or damage to the internal parts from freeze-thaw. They can be set up again simply by connecting the water pump back to the hose, adding water to the mini pond and turning the water feature back on.
The majority of WaterfallNow’s rock fountains are pondless meaning the size of the pond is built to hold just enough water for the water feature to operate.
Add a faux rock water feature to your backyard for stunning results
5. Determine the type of sound that you want to achieve. Taller water features often produce more of the crashing sounds of water. The amount of water pressure or the size of the pump used plays a significant role in the sounds. There are low-sound water pumps that can reduce sound coming directly from the pumps motor. If you prefer a smaller trickling sound consider a cascading waterfall feature. The horizontal movement of water followed by small overhangs produces very relaxing sounds. WaterfallNow can adjust all of these sounds by adjusting the angle and speed of water flow.
6. Do you want something permanent or moveable? This is one of the decisions that one must make when working with concrete which is permanent. WaterfallNow used to use concrete until we realized how little our customers could use their water features. The damage from weathering over the years meant multiple leaks and cracks which can cost a lot of money to constantly repair. But that was back in the day. GFRC concrete employed today is much more durable. WaterfallNow no longer employs concrete but uses fibreglass instead. It can be as strong as steel while remaining flexible enough to avoid cracking. Should something crack we can easily repair it. Sometimes our customers will call us a year later to come and add another section to their rock waterfall. Other times our customers will sell their home and call us to help them move the rock fountain to their new home. It is all about your personal preference. WaterfallNow caters to a wide-variety of requests.
7. What kind of lighting do you want to use? Many of our customers enjoy the backyard paradises that we’ve created for them. Some of the pool waterfalls which we don’t have any pictures of look amazing at night. The white floodlights shine on the waterfall spillway while purple, blue, and green lights all create a unique ambiance. We are very proud of some of the projects that we’ve created because of how happy our customers are. It is only a matter of time until more people can experience the joy of enjoying their own backyard paradise with a water feature built the way they had in mind.
Rock waterfalls not your thing? Then check out articles from popular sites for other ideas:
Visit Houzz to brainstorm some visual ideas of water features for the garden. It won’t be long until you find yourself sitting outside in the summer with a cold drink glad about the choices that you made.
HGTV – 15 unique garden water features: outdoors home & garden television
Pinterest – This is currently the most popular and fastest growing social media website to view photos and get ideas for garden water features.
For updates and free stuff head on over to our Facebook page and let us know what you like best about garden water features.
Water Features For The Garden – Just Add Water
