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[F553]Fountains For The Garden

by Elizabeth Jean, Eli

Simplicity has always been the basis of good design, and adding a garden fountain is no exception. Besides, good garden design is nearly as easy as it is simple! It's when you complicate things that issues arise. You have only a few things to worry with when planning to add a garden fountain to landscape your home. They are: 1) A source of electricity 2) The placement area; and 3) How to create a harmonious landscape around your new water feature. Creative solving of these basic problems will beautify your home and greatly improve its beauty and value. Penciled plans are simple to prepare, easy to repair and worth their weight in gold when it's time to install new the new planters, statuary, and green material around your water fountain.

The first things you need are several large sheets of graph paper with five or ten lines to the inch and plenty of plain tracing paper the same overall size, plus a pencil, ruler and eraser. Tape-measure your lot and draw its outline on the graph paper, making a special note where you want to install the outdoor fountain. Use a one-inch square of the graph to equal 10 square feet of your property. This places the usual 50 by 150-foot lot on the graph paper as a five by 15-inch rectangle. If your graph paper is too short for the entire plot plan use cellophane tape and stick two sections together, as needed. Then measure the house and its relationship to the fountain and the edges of your property. Transfer these dimensions to the graph paper, together with the size and location of the garage, driveway, walks and other permanent installations. It's also a good idea to mark the location of large trees, garden planters, statuary, or shrubs which are now growing.

Next take the plot plan outside and carefully survey the area surrounding your home. Perhaps you can see a large telephone pole beyond the back property line. Mark it on the graph paper. Indicate all neighboring houses, large trees, statues, or other obstructions in your line of sight. Mark this survey of your view from both sides, the front and rear of your home Mark down everything you can see and indicate its approximate distance from your house. Now comes the fun part. Cover the plot plan with tracing paper and you're ready to go to work; adding the outdoor water fountain to your landscaping on the lot with everything you would like to have and enjoy. But just a minute! Before you charge madly off in all directions at once, take a breath and visualize your yard. Think of those things you like best (fountains? statuary? cast stone planters?) and mark them for easy reference. It's these notes, these ideas, that will springboard you to action in the proper direction when the truck pulls up and the fountain is delivered.

With the notes you can return to your tracing paper and locate the essential factors of your garden plan: A place for the electrical connection, a garden bench, or the surrounding plants in their garden planting containers, etc. Then, sidewalks to the front and back doors. Perhaps a protected area for the children's play area. A dog kennel? If you plan to enjoy outdoor entertaining, now is the time to decide on how much paved or bricked area would be needed to surround the barbecue.

Placing your garden fountain is common sense. If you're on a firm, level surface, no problem. However the ground is earth, or lawn, you'll need to do a little preparation. Dig down about two inches, to firm ground. Then add a few inches of packed sand or pea gravel. Use a level, and you're all set. This will reduce or eliminate the effect of any natural leveling.

Keep in mind, of course, the view from various parts of the yard, protection from prevailing winds and use of existing trees. You don't want your fountain hidden from view, nor do you want the water flow to fly around the yard if you place it in a windy area. Large water features are no longer only for the wealthy. The landscaping planning phase is the perfect chance to plan the location of your fountain. Properly chosen, a water fountain can be the centerpiece of a masterful garden design.

If you have a beautiful and stunning garden filled with exotic plants and flowers, or even just lilies and carnations, and you are looking for some way to add a new and exciting element to your garden planning, you should consider adding wall fountains. Wall fountains may be exactly what your garden planning process is lacking, especially if you feel like there are not enough hardscape elements already present in your plan. Hardscape elements are elements that exist within your garden but that are not living, like rocks, fences, walls and fountains. Wall fountains are a great addition to your garden planning process, as there are fountain options to suit practically any garden design.

Wall Mounted Fountains as a Hardscape Element

Outdoor wall fountains continue to be a popular idea for garden planning, because they can add to the aesthetics of your garden without taking up a lot of space. You can place wall fountains in a variety of different places in a well planned out garden, and they will look absolutely stunning. Consider putting fountains low to the ground around flowers and plants that do not climb too high, or let a climbing plant like Jasmine or climbing roses wrap their vines around the wall where your outdoor wall fountains are present. Place a large, vertical water wall fountain along a tall wall or fence, and plan tall-climbing plants around it. Wall fountains do not have to be attached only to walls; they simply need a flat or mostly flat surface to attach to. So you may consider installing your outdoor wall fountains onto fences, along your home, on pillars, or anywhere else where you have a flat surface that can accommodate a small or large fountain. For more information on how to incorporate wall fountains into your landscape visit http://www.ckclandscapinginc.com.

Choosing the Right Water Wall fountain

Wall fountains tend to incorporate all of the tranquil and serene characteristics associated with water in a stunning outdoor or garden setting. By installing outdoor wall fountains, you can truly allow your garden to come alive by adding not only aesthetic value in the form of sight, but also the tranquil sound of flowing water, which actually tends to bring out the wonderful scents of the plants and the soils. If you want to complete your garden planning process, you have to be willing to install the right wall fountains to increase the drama and the beauty of your garden design. These choices include numerous colors, styles, and themes.

The garden planning process is not something that you should rush into ? especially not when the planning process involves expensive hardscape elements like walls, fencing and fountains, and rare or difficult to maintain flowers, like exotic plants from other cultures and countries. If you are going to put this much effort into your garden, and you are taking the time to put effort into garden planning, you do need to consider outdoor wall fountains as an affordable, visually appealing and popular design element. Fences, walls, columns, pillars, rocks, sand, tile and other non-living elements are all an important part of your gardening, because the aesthetic qualities of a garden are not simply based on plants and flowers. If you want to add more to your garden than just greenery, water wall fountains are an absolutely wonderful choice. Because there are a number of options for outdoor wall fountains, and you can choose something that suits your garden planning, there is no reason why you cannot implement a stunning wall fountain in your garden to significantly raise its overall beauty. Get more information about wall fountains at http://roymk.blogspot.com/2007/11/wall-fountains.html.

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