People are drawn to water in the garden. It provides soothing movement to the landscape, offers a tranquil oasis, cools the body with a simple touch and nurtures a vast ecosystem.

A water feature brings new, exciting elements to your garden. Besides the ever-moving patterns found in their ripples and reflections, water gardens include a host of aquatic plants, fish and other wildlife creatures.

Photo Credit: ©2001 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard

Water lilies and simple ponds make perfect companions. The still water of such features creates an ideal habitat for these popular aquatic plants. The lilies, in turn, produce broad leaves that shade and cool the water. By blocking sunlight, the plants also limit the growth of algae, improving water quality.

Photo Credit: ©2001 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard

A self-contained water garden may adopt an Asian theme, as with the creative use of bamboo and textures to evoke strong linear movement in contrast to the graceful texture and restful color of parrot’s-feather.

Photo Credit: ©2001 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard

Water gardens are a good choice for indoor placement in sunny window locations with indirect sunlight. Supplement with artificial plant lights in locations with less than 5 hours per day of strong sunlight.

Photo Credit: ©2001 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard

Pedestal fountains have concealed pumps within their columns or bases. Carefully level these fountains when they’re installed, mounting them on a firm, masonry base.

Photo Credit: ©2001 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard

Visually dramatic, wall fountains are more elaborate than most standing features, and they often require greater effort to plan and install. The two-tier fountain shown here is a focal point for this garden’s brick retaining wall.

Photo Credit: ©2001 Dolezal Publishing/Jacqueline Ramseyer

Minimal modern pools, architectural watercourses and fountains, and traditional ponds, streams and waterfalls comprise water features in the garden. Some features lend themselves to the symmetry of a formal garden, others are casual and mimic nature in their spontaneity. The kind you pick should match your personal style, comfort level and location. Add aquatic plants to a simple feature and voilà – you’ve got a water garden.

There are different types of features for you to ponder:

Self-contained water gardens

A self-contained water garden (basically a water garden in a pot) offers several benefits over more open aquatic environments. First, they bring a structural feature, aquatic plants and even small wildlife creatures into a tiny garden setting, like on a balcony or patio. Second, they make those elements more approachable and provide closer views, especially when the feature is located near the home or in an outdoor entertainment area. Imagine the impact of even the simplest self-contained water feature – a clay dish filled with rainwater – serving as the neighborhood birdbath in a spot just outside your kitchen window.

In an open setting, a self-contained water garden can be a signature element at the end of a shaded or meandering path, or it can provide a unifying point between two formal garden areas. Because most contained water features are mobile, they can be shifted in and out of the blazing sun or removed from unseasonably cold conditions, helping to maintain water quality and plant health.

Self-contained water features take many forms. A formal garden may call for polished and hard-edged containers of stone or stainless steel that complement an overall landscape plan or architectural feature. By contrast, more casual, natural landscapes allow home gardeners to choose a wider variety of vessels, like a wooden half-barrel or clay pot.

Home stores, nurseries and garden centers typically offer water garden kits that include a container along with all the other needed components (like a fountain, light and pump), making setup quick and easy.

Fountains

A fountain can be a dramatic addition to a formal garden pool, a freestanding sculptural element, or just a playful, sensual piece in the garden for water to bubble over a crop of cobblestones.

Fountains require four main parts: a reservoir or catch basin to receive the water, an intake feeding the pump, piping to carry water from the pump to the fountainhead and an outlet. Within these constraints, the potential ways to assemble the four components is virtually endless.

A fountain is the most formal and deliberate way to create motion in a pond. In the right setting, at the center of a raised garden pool, the symmetrical spray of a fountain is often the majestic, signature feature of an entire landscape. Along with creating visual impact, fountains also evoke another sensation: sound. Splashing water mesmerizes and helps mask the noisy sounds of traffic-heavy, crowded urban settings.

Successful fountain features require respect for scope and scale, and an understanding of how one complements your garden’s overall design and style. Various fountains achieve different effects and purposes. There are many styles, and each has a place – whether it’s an arching flow from a statue above a formal birdbath, a curved spray pattern in a modern pool, a whimsical wall fountain in a small-space garden or a gurgling waterspout that mimics a mountain stream.

Pools and Ponds

The basic difference between garden pools and ponds is design formality. On a secondary level, simple pools generally contain less complex systems with regard to pumps, piping, filters and lighting.

Garden pools are generally formal and have strong architectural lines. They have a long tradition in European gardens, especially Moorish- and Mediterranean-themed spaces, and can be very effective in modern-looking gardens. They tend to be geometric with clearly defined boundaries, and they’re edged with manufactured materials, like concrete, bricks, pavers or tile.

Consider garden pools for formal landscape settings, patios or courtyards. Place a pool in the center of a landscape, at the end of a planting bed or where visual axis lines meet at a corner. Both raised pools and those flush with the ground interrupt an otherwise flat plain, reflect sunlight and shadows, add cooling relief and create a focal point. Pools containing a fountain make an especially sensual impact.

Garden ponds, by contrast, mimic nature. A well-designed pond seems like it was always there, as if a small body of water was part of the home. Pond shapes are asymmetrical and curved, with soft or sloping edges. Typically, ponds are finished with natural rock and bordered with moisture-loving or shoreline plants. Water moves by concealed pumps and pipes, by using a simple splash box or via prevailing breezes rippling the surface.

Consider a pond for a natural-style garden, especially one with a woodland or tropical setting. Tuck one in a corner or side yard, avoiding placement in the measured center of your landscape. Ponds are wonderful for slightly hidden areas, places where garden visitors and wildlife alike can visit. They allow a broader choice among aquatic plants than do pools, since they contain different environments to suit submersibles, shallow- and deep-depth marginals, floaters and shoreline plants. They also encourage and sustain wildlife.

Despite their design differences, the basic construction is similar for pools and ponds. (It just depends on your overall garden style and your purpose for adding a water feature.) In either case, pools or ponds of any size or style require greater commitment and effort to plan and build than a simple wall fountain or contained water garden. The results, however, are rewarding and spectacular.

From simple to complex, natural to urbane, you can create a water garden that suits your personality, home and purpose. Don’t be afraid to jump right in (figuratively speaking)!