The Ease and Beauty of a Backyard Water Garden

I believe we will all agree the focal point of the best backyard water garden, without a doubt is the sights and sounds of a waterfall. After all, waterfalls are fascinating to watch, delivers the soothing sounds of moving water that serve to relax us after a difficult day.

Building a stunning water feature in your garden is really quite simple. The best and by far the easiest way to incorporate the waterfall of your dreams into your landscape design, using one of the many designs of a pre-manufactured Waterfall box available from trusted online retailers such as amazon, Home Depot, and Lowes. These design elements are available with, or without a water filter option. Simply select and purchase the size and style that best suits your landscape design online and get it delivered to your door.

Next choose the location that is both functional and let us not forget visually pleasing, after all this will be a focal point in the garden. Functionally keep in mind you will need a GFCI electrical outlet to run the all-important water pumps and underwater lighting.

Ranging in sizes, from small solar powered pumps that work well in a small  birdbath, bubbling fountain, or wishing well, to the largest submersible clean water pump used in the biggest, most stunning water features we can imagine. Selecting the proper size for any design is really quite simple. All we need to do is calculate the water volume contained in the pool, pond, pool and other fountain structures. Let us not forget, how high we need the water to spray into the air, or flow over a waterfall.

Using a little geometry to make the necessary calculations is really quite easy. Simply remember the formula for figuring the volume of a square, rectangle or cylinder.  The Volume is equal to the average length in feet multiplied by width, multiplied by height, or in this case, depth tells us the volume in cubic feet.

This is to say, each cubic foot requires seven point five gallons of water. Subsequently multiplying the cubic feet, by seven point five tells us exactly how much water it takes to fill a particular water garden feature, and how much water we need the pump to move each hour (GPH).

Calculating the volume of a circular shaped pool, pond or water basin, simply use volume = 3.14 (pi) times radius squared multiplied by the depth of the water using a contractor’s material estimating calculator. 

Using the proper GPH and lift rated submersible pump, equal to or just a bit higher than the total volume of water in a water feature, will do a good job of keeping pond water clean, provide optimal oxygen levels necessary for aquatic plants, animals, fish, let us not forget help to control blood sucking mosquitos.

To ensure a fountain and waterfall works properly, take care to measure from the bottom of the pool of water where the pump will actually be sitting, to the height you want the fountain to spray water, or flowing over the edge of the waterfall. This is important stuff to know before you will be able to select a pump with the proper lift rating.

It may be easier to understand when we look at it this way, when a pump supplies 170 gph at one foot of lift. That actually means that particular pump will only raise the water one foot above where the pump is sitting. In the event the fountainhead the design calls for is two feet above the surface of the pond, suffice it to say the water will not have enough pressure to reach the fountain let alone spray water evenly.

I believe we can all agree creative types like you and me, find the pre-manufactured water basins resembling a kids wading pool, to be just a bit too cookie cutter to use in our water garden designs. Sure they are easy enough to install, and work well for a small garden fountain however, for a combination of waterfall, stream and fishpond they just will not do. What we need is something more free forming, that makes combining all our favorite design elements flow seamlessly through our landscape design.

With turning Your creative ideas into a stunning water feature as the goal, you can easily build it using the following time and labor saving products, Sunterra PVC pond liner, PVC waterfall liner, and the touch n foam landscape filler  adhesive putting it all together, you will amaze all your friends and family with the end results.

Low voltage LED lighting is easy to install, there are sets that contain two, or three lamp sets. Both come with everything you will need to install them into your backyard water garden, fountain or fishpond.

Simply set and adjust the light fixtures where they will illuminate the desired design feature, or features whichever the case maybe. Plug the 12 volt converter into a good 120-vac GFCI outlet and that is all there is too the wiring.

Something to think about, there are light kits available with a dusk to dawn type sensor that will turn the lights on and off automatically. Otherwise, you will need to decide whether you want to put the lights on a timer, or turn them on and off manually as needed.

To further enhance your water garden design, The most popular LCD light kits come with several interchangeable filters that make changing the color of the light relatively easy. Set them all the same or mix and match colors to add another dimension to your design. These lights also work well in the landscape beds and garden pathways.

Creating your own vision of the ease and beauty of a backyard water garden is really quite easy. Using the online stores suggested in this article, and customer reviews at amazon.com, it is relatively easy to find pertinent information we seek.

Water garden designs, waterfall box, pond liners, fountains, underwater LED lighting systems. That not only inspires us, fosters our creativity. For instance, check out the image on the left, created with just such inspiration, a dear friend and homeowner just like you and me. Created this stunning water feature, with not only the willingness to get his and her hands dirty, their personal design ideas in mind, together built their own custom Koi pond, complete with underwater LED lighting, waterfall and repurposed masonry materials.

You can do it as well, happy gardening, Mike`

Allow me to invite you to share your ideas, comments, and helpful links in the comments section belowJ