Outdoor Water Features and Garden Fountains make a wonderful addition to your Backyard Area.
If you spend any time at all in your backyard, how could you say no to an outdoor water feature or a garden fountain?
What’s the difference between an outdoor water feature and a garden fountain?
Simply put, a water feature is something that remains in the same place all the time. It could be a, pool, a pond or a water fountain that is hard wired into place. In other words, it will not be moved any time soon. Once in place, it will be there all year round. Now I’m not talking about pools here, rather I’d like to focus on ponds and fountains.
What about Garden Fountains?
A garden fountain on the other hand, may be hard wired into place, but more often than not, it is a movable water feature. It will be shut down in the winter months, be cleaned, drained and put away or covered, to protect it from the cold winter weather. It will only come out again in springtime, when all the snow and cold has disappeared. Garden fountains take up much less space than a pond, and the maintenance is much less than a pond. A Garden fountain needs to be kept full of water and cleaned out maybe every two weeks or so. Birds and butterflies, bees and other little creatures will come to the garden fountain for a bath or a drink. Most garden fountains are above the ground level, or they have a reservoir just below the feature, so they are easy to clean and keep neat. A pond on the other hand will require more upkeep.
What About Ponds?
I have both of these types of water features in my yard. One is a pond that holds approximately 2,500 gallons of water. It was built for me by my husband over 10 years ago. We enjoy this water feature immensely. It is home to our 10 Koi and 2 Goldfish. My husband and I enjoy this water feature during the day, but also at night. The sounds of water falling over the rocks is very soothing and makes it very easy to sleep at night. We can hear the sounds of the water from our bedroom window and even look out over the pond in the wee hours of the morn.
Just to make it easier for you, Amazon has pond kits. Everything you need is in the first three choices. Pond liners, mechanical and electrical needs as well as a pump. The fourth choice, the rigid pond liner will require a pump and or fountain head to aerate the water.
All of these choices are wonderful but I will not lie, there is a learning curve with keeping a pond and keeping it healthy. If you think you can fill it with water and let it go, you are in for a surprise or two. Having said that, I know our pond is worth all of the learning we had to do and we would do it again in a heart beat. We started out with a rigid pond liner that I inherited from my father. He did not learn what he needed to learn in order to keep the water clean and frustrated he removed his pond and gave it to me. We enjoyed this pond for months, but it was not big enough for our wants. So we designed our own.
A good suggestion is to do some reading before you start. I would suggest this book, because I trust the information from Rodale publishers.
Once you are comfortable with this knowledge, then it is time to start digging.
Take your time and follow the instructions closely. Do Not rush the process, if you do it wrong, it is much harder to undo it and redo it again. In less than a week, you will be sitting back listening to the soothing sounds of water flowing. It will help to drown out the city noises and you will relax in your own little bit of heaven on earth.
I really like how you noted that there is a learning curve when you’re trying to figure out how to work with a later feature in your yard. I can imagine that some are worse than others, and something like a pond would be difficult because it has a lot of standing water. But hopefully fountains stay a little cleaner naturally because the water is moving more often. I loved the insight though, so thanks for sharing.
Yes there is a definite learning curve, the first time you see green water and you are scratching your head thinking how the heck did that happen? Ponds are a little harder because you need a balance in the water. Fish and plants need to have a certain balance so that algae doesn’t take over. Fountains are different because the water is recirculated and smaller in volume. What’s important is the sounds of water which both pond and fountain afford. It’s a beautiful relaxing sound. Thank you for your comments.
There is something so wonderful about a gurgling pond, fish jumping for flies, and the croak of frogs and toads. Thanks for sharing your insights here on building one, as well as the difference between a water feature and a removable garden fountain.
Thank you Kathryn, I love my pond and spend many an hour delighting in the fish, toads and birds that come to visit. We even have the butterflies stopping in for a drink too. It is a wonderful addition to our living space.
My son in Iowa has a small pond in his backyard, with goldfish. It amazed me the first time I saw it when I asked him what he did with the fish during those very cold Iowa winters. I learned that the water is ‘heated’ and the fish survive just fine. Who knew? 🙂
Well, isn’t that nice that he heats the water for them. Here we let the pond freeze over but we keep 2 small pumps going to aerate the water. Because the water is always moving somewhat, there is a hole that stays open all winter long. Our fish go dormant in the winter months, we don’t feed them or worry too much about them. In spring time they are back to their normal selves, wanting to be fed once the water warms up. I’m sure Iowa winters are colder than mine……
I have always loved water features, but honestly, I have never liked the work required to maintain them. We had a built in swimming pool for decades. We enjoyed swimming for sure, but the weekly maintenance for unbelievable. A few years back, we had the swimming pool removed and the huge hole filled back in with dirt which we covered with grass sod. I admire your dedication to taking proper care of your pond. At this point in my life, I’ll stick to the birdbaths in my yard. Even though I love pools, ponds and fountains, I can physically handle the maintenance of the birdbaths without seeking additional assistance. I just sit back now and enjoy your pond via the photos 🙂
Yes Miss Cynthia, there is work involved and anyone who says there isn’t is lying big time. While we are still able, we will keep it up, if it ever becomes too much work, we will either hire a high school kid with some muscles or fill it in and resort to the bird baths. So long as I have some wildlife about somewhere I will be happy….
Just recently I saw a pretty waterfall fountain in someone’s yard (wish I cold remember where that was) and I just loved it. I’m hoping that in the next couple of years we can install some sort of a water feature in our yard. I know they’re a lot of work, so we’ll plan and give it some good thought before we jump into that type of project. Great information here. Thanks, Olivia!
Susan, the fountains are not nearly as much work as the ponds. But the ponds offer the advantage of having fish and toads and other little critters. Fountains attract birds though, so that is a bonus too. I hope you get your waterfall fountain soon. You will enjoy it I’m sure.