Man-made Water Features

Waterfalls

• Many types of man-made waterfalls can be used in a home garden. You can purchase mechanical waterfalls that are designed to recycle water flow, so that no outside source of water is required to feed the falls. Man-made garden waterfalls can also be built from stones and other natural materials. These waterfalls can be fed either by a naturally occurring water source or with man-made elements such as a pond or water recycling system similar to that described above.

Ponds

• Garden Ponds 101 lists five types of man-made ponds: preformed, lined, kit, swimming and fish. Preformed ponds are molds that can be bought, placed in the ground and filled with water. Fish and swimming ponds are exactly what they sound like, and kit ponds are those built from kits. Lined ponds are made by buying lining, digging a hole in the ground, laying the lining in the hole and filling the hole with water. Man-made ponds, especially fish and swimming ponds, need to be filtered and outfitted with a pump to maintain a fresh supply of water.

Fountains

• Fountains can be freestanding garden features, erected next to a waterfall, or attached to a pond. Fountains require a pump to cycle water. Fountains can be attached to the same pump as that used for a pond or waterfall. Waterfall pumps are often underground. A fountain attached to the same pump as that of a waterfall would stand beside the waterfall. Similarly, a fountain attached to a pond pump would stand beside, or at the edge of, a pond. Freestanding fountains require an independent pump or similar water-cycling device. Aesthetically, home garden fountains run the gamut from florid, Renaissance-inspired pieces to meditative and understated Japanese ones.