Some people might view adding water features to the home landscape as unnecessary and frivolous. To them, only the necessities make sense as an expense. Most likely they do feel that having cable TV is a necessity, yet it offers nothing of intrinsic value. Watching television is not a lifestyle enhancement and a great deal of the time the entertainment value is highly questionable. Not only do waterfalls, streams and ponds enhance the intrinsic value of your property, they provide a natural source of entertainment for every member of your family.

A well designed and artistically installed water feature offers many very valuable forms of free and constantly renewable entertainment. The plants that thrive in a garden pond or stream add a dimension of natural beauty and visual richness not possible from the other types of ornamental plants we can grow in the soil of our landscaping. Having a natural looking landscape around Koi ponds and waterfalls is easier to present in a way that more vibrantly designed than trying to create one on dry soil.

The enchantment of lotus blossoming is something only those who have water features can enjoy at home. Additionally, growing plants like elephant ears in the pond or waterfalls makes them more handsome and less prone to pests due to drought stress. Growing all marginal plants in a garden pond reduces your irritation over their shortcomings rendering them far more entertaining in the landscape.

The garden pond adds loads of unique dimension to the view in its portion of the yard. The water bounces around more color and foliage than really exists near the surface. Bringing the sky to earth requires a mirror and garden pond water provides this feature. The water also mirrors the planting and increases the impact along with doubling the beauty of form and color. A small, very low maintenance planting in and around ponds will be more visually arresting and lovely to look at.

The forms of wildlife that waterfalls and ponds or streams attract to your property let your children absorb an excellent and entertaining form of education. Studying all the different new types of creatures that take up residence in their own backyard will keep them from being so easily bored. Toys are great, but they don’t give birth and change with each passing day or week. Frogs and fish are cool pets and no one has to walk them. They may not be furry and can’t sleep in your house, but they will entertain your offspring for countless hours free of charge.

It's not like ponds and waterfalls in your backyard will look like the water features next door or in anyone else's yard either. No matter how hard a person tried to duplicate a design in a second spot, it would never work out to their wishes. The boulders and rocks, unless cut to pattern, will never fit together in the same way twice. Only plastic ponds and waterfalls could look alike.

Last, but definitely not least, the music of cascading water is very entertaining. It is also a balm to your jangled nerves and will quickly become the center of everyone in your household’s attention. You will find that this natural source of entertainment provided by cascading waterfalls and garden pond pastimes has a profound effect on changing the way your family interacts in a very profound and positive way. No one can say the same thing for television, and cable is only sustainable if you keep sending them money every month. The effect of TV on a family is that it drives them apart quite naturally.

Stepping outside into your own private world can be any place you want it to be, like some magic transport system into a different reality. Reconnecting with nature makes outdoor living such an attractive use for what was once the forgotten space behind the house. There among the flora, your lounge chair becomes the throne from which to survey the magic kingdom. The best location for any castle will definitely be next to a source of crystal clear water burbling freely and musically. Waterfalls and quick moving streams are a wonderful focal point that moves from place to place in your outdoor living design.

Streams can be created to have more than one spot of cascading water. They can wander through your backyard or be a central focal point in one area. Since a stream is a smaller body of water than a garden pond, adding this kind of water feature will be less costly than you might imagine. You backyard stream can be a small feature and provide a great deal of soothing beauty. Longer streams can be an excellent way of getting the benefit of many different focal point areas.

In nature, streams don’t follow a straight path and adding them into your backyard landscape design allows a great deal of playfulness to their location. Working streams into the landscaping and patio design can open up views not possible with other forms of water features. Being able to make them drop over rapids to create waterfalls can be done just as easily as making them widen and then narrow.

Streams can start in the front yard at your steps and wander around to become an important element next to the patio. They can begin at a garden pond and meander to another area of the backyard to end in a waterfalls. Steams can trickle lazily along or move rapidly, frothing around rock placed in their path. You can dabble in water gardening with a stream just as you can with a garden pond. The types of plants you can grow in streams will be limited to those that thrive in shallow water or marginal bogs. Streams don’t allow the enjoyment of growing Koi, but connected to a garden pond you can have the beauty of both worlds.

For homeowners who are concerned about the safety of small children, streams can present the perfect solution. You can enjoy a much larger water feature with streams without the concerns of deep water dangers found in adding ponds to the yard. Streams are a bit like elongated pondless waterfalls, they just lengthen the distance between the cascades and the point of recirculation or disappearance.

Streams don’t need chemicals either when installed using biosystem filtering. It won’t matter if little feet wade through their shallow, sparkling water. Just like a garden pond, streams can provide your children with a limitless source of entertainment and discovery. Floating boats, studying dragonflies and watching tadpoles change into frogs is an excellent way for growing minds to pass time. All these forms of nature and learning fascinating stuff about water life can be found in streams and ponds at home.

A Koi pond can be a magical addition to any garden and backyard landscape. They compliment brightly colored flowers, and are a conduit for relieving stress. The offer aesthetic appeal that is hard to rival, and it certainly leaves you standing out from your neighbors. Without careful planning however, beautiful Koi ponds can quickly turn into a sore spot for you and your pocket book. Do your homework before you start building your Koi pond and follow these guidelines to avoid common mistakes.

• First and foremost, Koi ponds are a time-intensive project. You should be willing to invest time in it, and your fish, daily. The installation and build of the garden pond alone requires a large amount of time if you're performing a self-install. You can always look toward hiring a contractor if you're not sure about the costs.

• Ensure that you have an environment conducive to maintaining healthy fish. If you live in an area where your water could quickly become polluted by runoff, acid-rain, or other factors that might alter the pH of your water quickly (a lot of organic waste from plants) then you should reconsider installing a Koi pond. You may do better with a simple garden pond that doesn't need to sustain aquatic life.

• Unhealthy, or poorly bred Koi, discolor fairly quickly creating problems in ponds. You'll need to invest in a more quality breed of Koi if you intend on displaying the fish or breeding them yourself. Replacing Koi frequently because of color and pattern fading is more expensive than purchasing a good, stout breed that holds its color.

• Expect to keep your Koi pond water clean, and free of debris. Don't overstock the water with aquatic plants. What's the point of having Koi fish if you can’t see them? As plants in ponds increase, you'll want to be sure to divide some of them to maintain viewing spots for your lovely Koi.

• Install your pond with size in mind, especially if you intend on stocking your garden pond with Koi fish. Koi need a lot of room to swim, and require a healthy supply of oxygen in the water. Shoot for no less than 500 gallons. Having somewhere between 500 and 2,000 gallons of water is the perfect starting point for a Koi pond.

• Make it deep! Koi like to have that room to swim, and deep water means they can get down into the shadows to avoid any predators that make their way into your pond. Aim for 6' deep, but deeper won't hurt. Besides, a 6' deep pond takes up the same space as a 13' deep pond.

• Install a quality aeration system to maintain the oxygen level in the water, and keep the current flowing to avoid stagnation. This is a big part of water quality in ponds.

• Balance the plant life around your Koi pond, and be sure to give ample "breathing room". When plants die, especially on the edge of water, you end up with organic waste that can poison your water and kill off your Koi. Creating a nice balance that is elegant and pleasing without choking off your access to the pond.

Lastly, pull up a chair, stick a straw in your lemonade, and put your feet up. Feel the satisfaction. Let the pride of accomplishment set in.

You just set yourself up to make the best looking garden pond on the block.

Sometimes it has nothing to do with decorating. Sometimes, we have no interest in gathering insects, or breeding fish. It has nothing to do with creating a place for family to gather. If we had it our way, we would be able to lock our families in a soundproof room. Do not lie; you know that is you, also. No, it is a far deeper experience when it comes to building a pond with waterfalls and streams. There aren't too many people who would turn down a waterfront piece of property if they had the opportunity to get one. Water has an innate ability to calm the restless individual, like music soothes the savage wife.

Crashing waterfalls have a molecular effect on the world around them. The area contains evaporated water from plants, which encompasses thousands of negatively charged hydrogen ions, generated through the splitting of water molecules. These negatively charged electrons merge with free positive electrons to neutralize residual electrical charges in the air. This is the reason animals can discern from common weather patterns and approaching storms. It's also why we can feel the dip in barometric pressure before a storm when old injuries and joints begin to ache. Our moods are all affected by the electrical charge of ions.

The tradition of Niagara waterfalls as the honeymoon capital started sometime in the early 1800's, where people came from all around the world to witness the intensity of the romance and emotion here. These massive waterfalls are enveloped in an aura of aquatic mystique. While it's imaginative escape stirs the very fabric of our desires for some kind of elegant getaway, there is a physical reason for the ambiance. It's far more potent than millions of gallons of water spilling over into the massive hole they have worn into the surface of the Earth.

We experience a very natural and direct relationship to waterfalls due to the impact they have on our body. The waves of negative ions absorbed from the mist directly affect our serotonin levels. Spend just fifteen minutes in the presence of a waterfall, or any moving water for that matter, and you'll feel your mood shift to a sharp positive. You will be at peace.

Everyone should bring an experience like this home by building a pond with waterfalls on your property. It should be part of your grand landscaping plan. Serotonin plays an important role in healthy living, which explains why waterfront communities are so popular. That, and probably the fishing… and the boats. I digress.

Erecting a waterfall in a garden setting that is secluded from the world and carefully dressed with decorative, sweet smelling flowers has the potential of reconnecting the human mind with the balance to which we are all naturally born. No, not the screaming newborn part... The calm, swaddled, warm and asleep part. Building a pond with a waterfall is one of many solutions to help with trouble and health issues in our bodies.
Cascading water from decorative garden waterfalls have been found to work wonders with depression without the use of chemical stimulants. You'll also find that it helps with the reduction of fear, anxiety, insomnia, fatigue.

You couldn't choose a wiser investment to ensure the health and satisfaction of both you and your family. Ok, forget the family. Do it for your sanity.

If you are the type of person who likes to get away from everything going on around you, then you're probably someone who appreciates the serenity that comes from sitting along the shore of a quiet lake. It's a tranquil setting that we all enjoy, but can seldom find our way back to. If you enjoy the sound of birds singing, the rustle of plants in the wind and the scent of flowers in these surroundings, then you should consider a garden pond.

A garden pond can really improve on the experience of a vacation at the lake by adding all these dimensions and more to any outdoor space. If you have the room, you can enjoy a bath-tub sized pond to a small lake. It's a known fact that the sight and sounds from a decorative garden pond can be relaxing, even therapeutic. Spending an afternoon in these surroundings is often the perfect antidote for the pressures of modern living.

By recreating the serenity of nature in your own living space, you're putting up a range of opportunity to extend the ecosystem of your property, and you'll be creating a more lush, rich environment right outside your door. Ponds have something to offer every home.

What Can I Do With A Garden Pond?

The real question is "What can't you do?" If you have the available property, you can even make them private swimming ponds, or fishing holes. The ideas are endless, but here are a few just to get the gears turning in your head.

A Decorative Garden Pond – These are the most popular ponds, nestled snuggly into the corner of property, shaded by beautiful trees hanging down to guard the precious and fragile rainbow of color growing along the edges of the pond. Without too much effort, it's very simple to create healthy ponds with a nice variety of aquatic plant life. Water Lilies are a common choice, as they help keep the water free of algae. With a few specialty rocks and some other plants around the edge, you will have an attractive addition to your garden in no time.

Fish Ponds- When most people think of garden ponds, they start manifesting images of Japanese gardens and Carp. While any kind of a traditional Japanese garden would take a long time to develop properly, it's rather easy to create your own garden pond stocked with fish, including Koi. Doing so only take a few weeks and some additional investment in equipment such as Aerators. They are a marvel to look on and a great relaxation point, as many people can enjoy watching the calming movements of fish within the water. Why do you think fish tanks are so popular?

Educational Garden Ponds – While any pond you create can serve as a point of education for a child, it's still important to highlight something like this. With today's economy, many schools are cutting back and may not have science programs capable of sustaining any kind of a pond, be it indoor or outdoor. Having access to these miniature ecosystem ponds can be a wonderful gift to a child of science. Small animals and insects can be studied, as small as the organisms in the water with a proper microscope and older children can study the effects of light on the plants and water as well as its need for maintaining a healthy balance in different plants and animals that dwell in or around ponds.

Whatever your preference, a garden pond can suit all the needs of you and your family, even with varied interests.