Your Water Garden Oasis
A water garden can provide you with a level of relaxation and calm that you may never have even dreamed was possible. Adding a water garden to your backyard can transform your property's outdoor space from a run of the mill lawn to a transporting, beautiful place that makes you feel instantly peaceful and tranquil.
One reason why a water garden creates such a calming atmosphere is due to the effects of the gentle noise of bubbling, flowing water. Water creates what is known as white noise, a calming atmosphere of sound that some experts believe is reminiscent of the sounds heard in the safety of the womb. White noise has been shown to reduce stress and tension, and regular exposure to environments rich with white noise, such as a water garden, may help lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke. The sound of water helps to block out other, less pleasant ambient sounds like traffic or the activity of noisy neighbors. The white noise of a water garden can create an atmosphere that makes you feel as though you are millions of miles away from your daily life, in a place of safety and calm that nothing can intrude into.
The Joy Of Water Garden Design
Planning and creating a water garden is a complex exercise in aesthetics. In the process of constructing a visually harmonious water garden that is pleasant to look at, you will develop skills that will serve you well in many other realms of your life. The process of arranging a balance of different kinds of plants and animals in order to create an overall impression of lushness while still maintaining calm will develop your visual sense so that you will start to look at everything with the eyes of a professional designer.
Although working on your water garden won't teach you all of the lingo of art and design, but it will teach you many of the fundamental concepts. Paying close attention to how your water garden looks will teach you to notice things like how effective it is to balance elements of vertical and horizontal interest, and how crucial a sense of texture is to creating an enjoyable visual experience. Although this kind of terminology may sound foreign, the concepts behind it will become very familiar to you in the course of creating a beautiful water garden. When you decide that a relatively flat blooming flower like a water lily looks most appealing next to a very tall flower like a bird of paradise, or when you notice that a pile of very smooth rocks is more appealing when placed near a spongy cluster of moss, you are teaching yourself these basic concepts.
A water garden gives you a playground where you can let your creativity run free. As you spend more time arranging and rearranging your water garden, you are sure to develop a better sense of what does and does not please the eye. A water garden gives you a relaxing, pressure free zone in which to explore your personal aesthetic sense and gain a fuller understanding of visual harmony through trial and error and experimentation. Once you have spent some time with your water garden, you will start to see the whole world through the accomplished, finely honed eyes of a professional designer. A water garden will teach you to look not only for what is there, but for what could be, a skill which will enable you to see the possibilities for improvement in your interior and exterior decor.
Do You Know The Benefits Of Water Gardens ?
The beauty and tranquility that a water garden adds to any outdoor area is more than enough incentive to create one of these stunning landscaping features in your backyard. However, there are benefits to a water garden that go beyond the pleasant hedonism of enjoying the unique aesthetic pleasures of a water garden. A water garden is as great for the environment as it is pleasant for homeowners.
The negative ions that moving water releases into the atmosphere help to purify the air. If you've ever noticed that air smells and tastes fresher near a waterfall or just after a rain storm, you have had a firsthand experience of the impact that these ions can have. A water garden produces a continual stream of negatively charged ions that help to remove toxins and impurities from the atmosphere. When you take a deep breath of the fresh, clear air that hovers around your water garden, you will find tangible proof of the fact that your garden is having a positive impact on the environment as a whole.
One of the reasons why eco-conscious gardeners are increasingly attracted to water gardens has to do with the idea of conservation. Most forms of plant based landscaping like lawns, flowers, shrubs, or gardens based in soil require constant watering. A lush yard of vibrant green grass can soak up gallons of water each week, especially during the summer months when heat threatens to wilt your carefully tended plants. This sends your household's water consumption through the roof, despite the fact that environmental experts recommend conserving water and using as little as possible. When you create a water garden, you create a self sustaining cycle of hydration that will keep plants alive and well without you having to water them at all. An occasional top-up with a hose or a watering is necessary, but for the most part your water garden will literally water itself, allowing you to save water, which is doing your share to save the earth.
A Self-sufficient Water Garden
One of the primary advantages of choosing to have a water garden is that if you plan it well, a water garden will maintain itself. With a water garden, you can say goodbye to traditional garden tasks like raking, mowing, weeding, digging, and tilling, and hello to being able to relax and enjoy the fruits of mother nature's labors. If you create a water garden that follows the basic tenets of water garden design, pest control will become a thing of the past as your tiny water based eco-system chugs along in a harmonious balance of pest and predator without your intervention.
A water garden does require additional maintenance, like a yearly draining and scrubbing, and a monthly or weekly cleaning of the filtration system. You will occasionally have to run the hose into your pond for a few minutes in order to replenish water lost to evaporation. However, once you've got your water garden up and running, you won't have to spend more than a few minutes a week caring for your garden in order to keep it in top shape. In fact, once your water garden is fully installed and populated with plant and animal life, you won't even have to feed the fish.
By learning a bit about how a water garden works, you will be able to design a water garden that has a harmonious and self sustaining balance of fish, insects, algae, exotic aquatic plants, and bacteria. The fish will eat the insects and the algae, keeping the water clear and bright, and harmful pests that could damage plants completely under control. The bacteria will break down the waste produced by the fish into the core nutrients that the plant life and algae need in order to survive. The algae and the plants in your water garden will soak up these nutrients along with water. The plants will then transform this food into beautiful blooms and lush greenery that will attract more insects, starting the sequence all over again.
Water Gardens Hidden Benefit
When homeowners decide to install a water garden on their property, they often expect a beautiful area where they can relax in peaceful contemplation. However, once you've had a water garden in your yard for a few weeks, you will start to notice that you are not the only one who is enjoying the beauty of your new landscaping feature. A water garden can be an attractive draw for all kinds of wildlife. When you have a water garden, you are rolling out the red carpet for some of nature's most beautiful creatures from delicate butterflies to quirky tree frogs in bright, eye-catching colors. A water garden brings the unique wildlife of your region out of the shadows so that you can get to know them, and you just might be surprised at what you discover.
Some of the Earth's most beautiful insects are likely to be drawn to your water garden. Many water garden owners are delighted to start each day by discovering a few energetic dragonflies hovering over the water's surface, or skimming through the air with their bright blue and green bodies flashing in the sun. Dragonflies lay their eggs in water,