Types of small outdoor water features for your home

 

There is nothing like a small outdoor water feature to make your sunset gazing while sitting on the porch feel more relaxing!  Fortunately for today’s home owners, outdoor water features are no longer only for mansion owners with expensive taste. Water features as part of a yard’s landscaping have become an economical and engaging art form that has become almost a necessity for every home. Below are 4 types of small outdoor water features you should consider for your home.

Natural ponds

Natural ponds are a basic landscape feature that has proven very popular with homeowners. They are built by digging a hole and lining it with either a rigid or flexible liner. A filtration system is installed along with a submersible pump in order to keep the water clean and some people will add a waterfall to help reduce noise from the pump.

Water falls

The standard waterfall can be designed as a standalone feature or added to a pool area to give it a more natural aura. The standard waterfall can be made out of real stones, sculpted concrete or fiberglass that is then painted and adorned to resemble the real thing. The height of your waterfall feature will depend on the topography of your back yard. The amount and type of noise generated by a standard waterfall will depend on the amount of water movement that is built into the design and the number and type of drops.

Fountain

Fountains can include LED lights to ramp up the mystery and elegance. Fountains are almost always a standalone feature. The sound they make will depend on whether the water in your fountain dribbles lazily from layer to layer or pours in great volumes down the face of elaborate rock constructs. All fountains have a collection pond from which water is pumped back to the top.

Waterfalls without a pond

While most artificial waterfalls are designed with a pond at the bottom to collect water and add a realistic overall effect you can negate the pond if space is tight. Since there is no stagnant water to worry about maintaining this type of waterfall is usually a fairly simple endeavour that involves topping up the water supply every couple of weeks to compensate for evaporation. You can eliminate this step as well by installing an auto fill feature. A good landscaping company should be able to give you all these options