Buying or Building Your Own Water Fountain
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Article by: Mike Guista Things to Consider A great deal about fountains has changed over the last decade. Now there are really high class ones made of copper, , Teak Furniture: The Premier Outdoor Furniture bronze, concrete, , Sampler of Rare Fruits for Fun or Profit and stone, , Abatement and Confronting Legitimate Issues and some fairly nice ones made of resin and fiberglass. There are several things to consider, though. As a pump , Bird Feeders: Look Who's Coming to Dinner wholesaler, I speak with fountain owners all the time and also look at lots of samples of fountains at trade shows and in magazines. Before purchasing a fountain, there are quite a few questions to ask. What looks good in a store might not look good at your home , Choosing A Landscaping Firm or business. Or it might look good for the first month or year but then you'll get tired of it. Fountains are usually around for a long time; in fact, concrete , Tick Removal and stone , Buying Teak Wood Furniture Responsibly ones last centuries and are hard to remove once they're installed. Here are things to consider. Bronze Fountains These are at the high end of fountains, and can retail for ten to twenty thousand dollars. They are plain classy. But will one of these fit in where you want to put it? Do you have the right yard , Bird Feeders: Look Who's Coming to Dinner or business or location , May Gardening Tips for the Southwest for such a classic kind of display? Also, do you like the aging process (the verdigris patina) that bronze undergoes. Can you afford one of these? If you answered yes to these questions, a bronze fountain might be right for you. It will last your lifetime, your kids' lifetimes, their kids' lifetimes, etc. And they are durable enough to be moved from house , Why Should You Own a Green? to house. , Creating Cutting Gardens Copper , The Indoor Garden: Plants that Clean the Air Fountains Like bronze fountains, these too tend to be classy, especially the name brand ones like Water , Granite Flexible Preformed Rock Ponds Wonders, which mix copper , Landscaping Tips with glass , Gardening - What are Annuals and Biennials? and slate. These make especially nice wall , A Quick Guide To Yard Bridges fountains. We have been selling Water , Plan Before Buying Rose Bushes Wonders fountains for several years at Fountain Mountain. There are certain things to think about, though. Are you locating the fountain in a room , How to Read a Seed Catalog with good acoustics? Some rooms , A Look at Fall Flower Bulbs make the pump , The Best Types Of Fish For Your Garden Pond noise really echo, especially small rooms , Want to Learn How to Compost? with walls , How to Read a Seed Catalog that are close together. Do you know someone or can you hire an electrician to hide the cord in the wall? These fountains are a bit too expensive to buy if you're going to let the cord run outside , Adirondack Chairs - How to Care for and Clean Them the wall , Garden Gazebo - A Stunning Addition to any Landscape for everyone to see. Finally, it is a good idea to go listen to them run at a store before purchasing. Some of them make little water , Save Your Fish -- Heron-Proof Your Pond noise and some make a lot. To increase water , May Gardening Tips for the Southwest sound you might have to turn up the pump , Plan Before Buying Rose Bushes to the point of there being slight splash. But if you are careful and go to a store with Water , Transplanting Deciduous Shrubs Wonders or other copper , Grow Herbs in your Garden for Pleasure and Profit fountains on display before purchasing, and are happy with what you see and hear, these are great fountains. Concrete , Choosing Lawnmowers For Cutting Grass On Tennis Courts Fountains These still provide the most bang for the buck, primarily because concrete , Using Hydrogen Peroxide in Your Hydroponics Gardening System is so inexpensive. In fact, a huge part of the cost of concrete , Garden Etiquette - How To Act When In Another's Garden fountains is in transporting them to stores for sale and in the labor , Bird Feeders: Look Who's Coming to Dinner of painting , A Quick Guide To Yard Bridges them. The concrete , Want to Stamp Your Patio? itself is the least expensive part of the fountains' manufacture. There are some differences in how they are made, though. Some companies, like Brandelli's, use a "light" mix: their fountains are not nearly as heavy as those produced by, say, Avila's. Also, some companies like Brandelli's, use a stain over concrete, , A Look at Fall Flower Bulbs whereas others, like Avila's or Lomelli's, use paints , Gardening - What are Annuals and Biennials? (usually more than one at a time) or stains. Also, most concrete , Want to Learn How to Compost? companies (though not all) reinforce their fountains with steel. This makes them strong but also means the concrete , An Autumn Garden for Halloween must be sealed. If not painted (as most fountains from Mexico are not), then they do need to have a clear sealant put on them. Otherwise the water , Choosing A Landscaping Firm will seep through to the steel, which will rust. Eventually, the fountain is likely to crack. One final word of advice , Planting Around Tree Roots on concrete, , Creating Cutting Gardens beware of "cute." Cute fountains (mama dogs with baby dogs, boys peeing) sometimes don't look so cute over time. Ask yourself , The Indoor Garden: Plants that Clean the Air if you'll still think the fountain is cute years later. Remember, concrete , Why Should You Own a Greenhouse? fountains can last hundreds of years. And they are difficult to move so pick something that will stay put. The traditional Italian 3-tier fountain is always a safe , Planting Around Tree Roots bet. Resin and Fiberglass Fountains The quality of these has gotten a lot better, and they have the clear advantage of being more easily handled than concrete , Bird Feeders: Look Who's Coming to Dinner ones. Some do look like concrete , Have Year Round Color by Planting for Birds and stone, , Buying Teak Wood Furniture Responsibly though they tend to look much more realistic at first glance than they do after a week has passed. Then it is pretty clear that they are faux. These are also a lot easier on employees who work in tores, as they don't have to worry as much about their backs. We would sell these at our store but just don't like their looks as well as the real thing. Stone , Grow Herbs in your Garden for Pleasure and Profit Fountains These look incredibly good or mediocre. The handcrafted stone , Have Year Round Color by Planting for Birds fountains out of Mexico and many of the large ones out of China are beautiful. , The Indoor Garden: Plants that Clean the Air But there are also mass-produced stone , Transplanting Deciduous Shrubs fountains, which use crushed stone , Garden Gazebo - A Stunning Addition to any Landscape mixed with resin. These just don't look like real stone , Granite Flexible Preformed Rock Ponds to us even though they are. Making Your Own Water , Park Benches Fountain There are lots of ways to make your own fountains. The easiest way, perhaps, is to place , Have Year Round Color by Planting for Birds a pump , Have Year Round Color by Planting for Birds in a small tub or on some liner. Then place , Want to Learn How to Compost? a wire or plastic , Landscaping 101 grate on top of the tub or the liner, and layer pebbles, rocks, etc. over the wire or plastic , Landscaping Tips grate. Your pump , Growing Great Strawberries and plumbing , A Quick Guide To Yard Bridges will be hidden! No one will no where your water , Which of the Hundreds of Tomato Varieties Should I Plant? is coming from. You can then connect black PVC piping to the pump , Teak Outdoor Furniture -- From the Forests to Ships to Your Patio (black sprinkler pipe is incredibly inexpensive yet professional looking) and let the water , An Autumn Garden for Halloween rise up seemingly out of rocks in your yard. , Which of the Hundreds of Tomato Varieties Should I Plant? You won't have to worry much about pets as the water , Plan Before Buying Rose Bushes source is covered with stones. , Choosing A Landscaping Firm Likewise, you won't have to worry about kids drowning. You can also build a little waterfall , The Beauty of Basil over such a pit if you want, just throwing in boulders to hide your electric , Teak Outdoor Furniture -- From the Forests to Ships to Your Patio and tubing, etc. Some people use bamboo , Tick Removal for spouts. You can also drill holes through slate (we've found it's really easy if you soak the slate for a day first). Slate is so porous, however, you ought to seal it once you're done drilling. You can also find rocks in nature , Landscaping Tips that already have holes in them. How Big of a Pump , Choosing A Landscaping Firm do I need? Basically, if you buy a fountain at a store you should have instructions on the best size pump , Using Hydrogen Peroxide in Your Hydroponics Gardening System for that particular piece of garden , Patio Umbrellas and Beach Umbrellas. Practical and Appealing. art. If you are making your own fountain, here is a rule of thumb: for every inch of width you need to pump , Buying Teak Wood Furniture Responsibly 100 gallons per hour. But note that a100 gallon per hour pump , Growing African Violets in Natural Light is not pumping the same volume at one foot head (elevation above the pump), two feet head, three feet, and so forth. If you are making your own fountain, it is likely you will have to guess which size to buy, and you might be wrong the first time you build one. Most pumps , Choosing A Landscaping Firm are adjustable but often can be adjusted down only a bit. However, magnetic-driven pumps, , Garden Etiquette - How To Act When In Another's Garden the most common kind, are inexpensive and durable. You can find them online , Lawn Mowers Guide - Cut a Fine Figure of Your Lawn at many wholesale pumps , Have Year Round Color by Planting for Birds outlets.Mike Guista is president of Fountain Mountain, Inc. and has published two books (Houghton Mifflin and Fountain Mountain Press). For more information , Tick Removal about Water , Using Hydrogen Peroxide in Your Hydroponics Gardening System Wonders or buying wholesale pumps , The Indoor Garden: Plants that Clean the Air don't hesitate to contact us. |
  
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