Water features - review

Garden designers, writers and owners agree on one point: EVERY GARDEN SHOULD HAVE A WATER FEATURE. But it seems rather easier to go wrong than right in the design.

WATER SUPPLY alternatives:

• use a natural water course [the best solution but also the least common]
• excavate to the water table, thus forming a natural pond [very successful if the water table is high in your garden]
• collect rainwater water runoff from roofs, pavements, lawns etc [most gardens should do this - but few do]
• use piped water from the mains supply [the most expensive and the least sustainable solution]

WATER RETENTION alternatives:

• natural retention [as mentioned above]
• a flexible rubber or plastic pond liner [relatively cheap but damageable - and ugly if visible]
• a rigid fiberglass pond liner [more durable than a flexible liner - but ugly if visible]
• waterproof concrete [structural concrete - a 1:2:4 mix - is waterproof but needs to be well detailed with with waterbars at joints. Concrete is also ugly if visible.]

WATER BODY alternatives:

• lakes and ponds (with irregular shapes)
• tanks and pools (rectangular)
• streams and channels (linear, with flowing water)

WATER CIRCULATION alternatives:

• gravity
• mains powered pump
• wind- or solar-powered pump

WATER MOVEMENT alternatives:

• streams and cascades
• bubbles
• fountain, sprays and jets
• whirlpools

ECOLOGICAL alternatives:

• chemically sterile water
• ecologically unbalanced (euthrophic) water - usually unclear
• ecologically balanced water - usually clear