Creating your own water feature in your garden made simple

Having a water feature in your garden can create a relaxing and tranquil atmosphere where you can sit and enjoy your lovely garden. If you are one of those hands on people, who prefer to get the satisfaction of starting from scratch on a project to achieve a sense of accomplishment with the outcome then creating your own water feature is actually not that tough.

The concept of flowing water transforms the ambience of a garden. It doesn't really matter where the source of the moving water is coming from this is all personal preference. Whether it’s a garden pond or a spectacular flowing cascade water feature, the end result is the actual the sight and sound of flowing water that provides triggers a response of our senses. An important factor to consider is the actual placing of the water feature as once it is placed and water is flowing, you really do not want to be moving it around all that much. A couple of perfect ideas to consider are areas of your garden that is partially shaded, sheltered from wind and of course where the water feature can be appreciated by yourself and others.

What you need?

All in all it is actually quite simple and there is no need for you to be a garden designer or some sort of water feature specialist in order to construct. All recycling water features, i.e. those that circulate their own water feature. As with many self contained water features that recycle from a reservoir via a pump through a decorative feature, they are actually mostly constructed in a similar way whether they be freestanding, flush with the ground or even a wall-mounted feature.

To create a basic garden water feature of your very own the essential building kits consists of: a reservoir, which is filled with water; a submersible pond pump (plus attachments if you are creating a fountain effect). Obviously you’ll also need some sort of tools for digging out the hole (if the reservoir is below ground), and a spout with extra hose if the out-flow is elevated above the reservoir, and a nearby electricity supply.

A note to remember is that even though the submersible pump recycles water, the reservoir will need topping up every now and then (especially during days of warm or windy weather). Water features generally use pumps which run off low-voltage electricity. Remember though that they all need to be plugged in in-doors and always use a residual circuit breaker (RCB).

It is possible to create a simple water feature with a small budget. So unless you are thinking of creating a luxurious cascade water feature with expensive rocks or millstones then this may be a double if not more. To keep things simple, here is a shopping list to create a lovely yet simple water feature in your garden.

�� Small pump
�� Butyl pond liner and reservoir tank or pebble-pool reservoir
�� Steel mesh
�� Cobbles

First dig in your reservoir.

Next cover the reservoir with heavy gauge steel mesh and supporting timber if needed.

Attach a pipe to the outlet of the pump, and pass it through the mesh to the fountain head.

Position the head and arrange some stones so that the head is held in place and can’t be seen.

The flow rate will need to be adjusted by a valve on the outlet pipe of the pond pump so that water sprays out of the fountain, washes over the stones and back into the reservoir.

To build a raised water feature could potentially be a little more expensive depending on the actual fountain head that you decide on. This kind of water feature could also be constructed in a day. To construct a raised water feature you will need:

�� Medium-sized pump
�� Reservoir tank
�� Steel mesh
�� Fountain head
�� Cobbles
�� Length of hose

In order to construct this kind of water feature the reservoir needs to be big enough/deep enough to hold water feature pump. If free-standing, you could choose an attractive container such as a water tank or large ceramic pot. If not then it can be concealed behind a low wall or behind an arrangement of flowers

Place the new water feature pump in the tank and attach a long piece of flexible hose to the outlet pipe.

Cover the tank with a piece of steel mesh and thread the hose through it. (Same as before)

Then run the flexible hose up to the fountain head.

Disguise the pipe work by running it behind a batten attached to a fence post.

If the water feature is built against a wall, embed it into the brickwork.

Cover the steel mesh with a layer of decorative garden pebbles.

Adjust the flow rate so that water sprays/flows into the reservoir.

Choosing the correct pump really depends on what your intentions are. With such a wide range of water feature pumps available, it will certainly be to your benefit to doing a little research on which pump will suit your water feature.

One final note, as we know water and electricity are a potentially lethal combination, so when conecting our new feature to the mains don't forget to make sure that any mains supply to the garden is protected by an RCD, preferably at the house fuse box.

Sit back, admire your new water feature and relax in your garden. Job well done!

UK Water Features has a huge range of garden summer essentials ranging from garden lighting, garden buildings, bbq's and water features.