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, , The Cottage Garden bronze, concrete, , Adirondack Chairs: An Ole' Time Becon for Rest and stone, , The Cottage Garden and some fairly nice ones made of resin and fiberglass. There are several things to consider, though. As a pump , Teak Furniture for Your Garden: Add a Touch of Something Spectacular 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 , Pink Hibiscus 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 , Flowering Trees - How to Make Your Garden Shady and Beautiful at the Same Time and stone , Online Flower Shops 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 , Poly Tarps For Home and Garden: More Than Meets The Eye or business or location , Free Landscaping Ideas - How To Correctly Plant a Tree 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 , Landscaping With Boulders - Do your Neighbors look at your Yard and say WOW to house. , How To Bring An Old Lawn Back to Life Copper , Choosing Fish for the Garden Pond Fountains Like bronze fountains, these too tend to be classy, especially the name brand ones like Water , Lawn Diseases Can Be Deadly Wonders, which mix copper , The Cottage Garden with glass , FREE: How You Can Make a Hypertufa Flowerpot and slate. These make especially nice wall , Pictures Of Landscaping - Using Other Peoples Ideas To Design Your Landscape fountains. We have been selling Water , Stressed Out? Maybe You Need a Gazebo Wonders fountains for several years at Fountain Mountain. There are certain things to think about, though. Are you locating the fountain in a room , Pest Control and Mosquito Larva with good acoustics? Some rooms , Online Flower Shops make the pump , Create Your Own Special Herb Garden noise really echo, especially small rooms , Greenhouse Buying Guide - Choosing The Right Greenhouse with walls , Tomato Plant Care 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 , A Home Garden Fun for the Whole Family the wall , A Home Garden Fun for the Whole Family 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 , Starting A Container Garden noise and some make a lot. To increase water , A Home Garden Fun for the Whole Family sound you might have to turn up the pump , Mint: The Herb of Hospitality to the point of there being slight splash. But if you are careful and go to a store with Water , Natural Garden Pest Control Wonders or other copper , Preaparing Your Plants For Winter fountains on display before purchasing, and are happy with what you see and hear, these are great fountains. Concrete , Poly Tarps For Home and Garden: More Than Meets The Eye Fountains These still provide the most bang for the buck, primarily because concrete , Growing and Harvesting Rose Hips is so inexpensive. In fact, a huge part of the cost of concrete , FREE: How You Can Make a Hypertufa Flowerpot fountains is in transporting them to stores for sale and in the labor , Garden Pond Liners of painting , Online Flower Shops them. The concrete , Mint: The Herb of Hospitality 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, , Tomato Plant Care whereas others, like Avila's or Lomelli's, use paints , Hydroponics Gardening - An Introduction to Hydroponics Gardening for Beginners (part 16) Temperature (usually more than one at a time) or stains. Also, most concrete , Straw Bale Culture Technique companies (though not all) reinforce their fountains with steel. This makes them strong but also means the concrete , Pink Hibiscus 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 , Unifying and Separating Landscaping Planting Beds will seep through to the steel, which will rust. Eventually, the fountain is likely to crack. One final word of advice , Pictures Of Landscaping - Using Other Peoples Ideas To Design Your Landscape on concrete, , What is Roofscaping? beware of "cute." Cute fountains (mama dogs with baby dogs, boys peeing) sometimes don't look so cute over time. Ask yourself , Preaparing Your Plants For Winter if you'll still think the fountain is cute years later. Remember, concrete , Adirondack Chairs: An Ole' Time Becon for Rest 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 , Starting A Container Garden 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 , Tomato Plant Care ones. Some do look like concrete , Gardens Provide Peaceful Sanctuaries and stone, , Organic Gardening - The Pros And Cons 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 , Flowering Trees - How to Make Your Garden Shady and Beautiful at the Same Time Fountains These look incredibly good or mediocre. The handcrafted stone , Why I Decided To Plan My Next Years Garden Last Fall, And Why fountains out of Mexico and many of the large ones out of China are beautiful. , Starting A Container Garden But there are also mass-produced stone , Free Landscaping Ideas - How To Correctly Plant a Tree fountains, which use crushed stone , Free Landscaping Ideas - How To Correctly Plant a Tree mixed with resin. These just don't look like real stone , Greenhouse Buying Guide - Choosing The Right Greenhouse to us even though they are. Making Your Own Water , Landscape Photography & Painting Fountain There are lots of ways to make your own fountains. The easiest way, perhaps, is to place , Some Favorite Garden Bulbs a pump , Gardens Provide Peaceful Sanctuaries in a small tub or on some liner. Then place , Spring Wedding Flowers a wire or plastic , A Home Garden Fun for the Whole Family grate on top of the tub or the liner, and layer pebbles, rocks, etc. over the wire or plastic , Choosing Fish for the Garden Pond grate. Your pump , Online Flower Shops and plumbing , Greenhouse Buying Guide - Choosing The Right Greenhouse will be hidden! No one will no where your water , Hydroponics Lighting: Blue Spectrum V.S. Red-Orange Spectrum is coming from. You can then connect black PVC piping to the pump , Landscaping With Boulders - Do your Neighbors look at your Yard and say WOW (black sprinkler pipe is incredibly inexpensive yet professional looking) and let the water , Tomato Plant Care rise up seemingly out of rocks in your yard. , Adirondack Chairs: An Ole' Time Becon for Rest You won't have to worry much about pets as the water , Poly Tarps For Home and Garden: More Than Meets The Eye source is covered with stones. , The Cottage Garden Likewise, you won't have to worry about kids drowning. You can also build a little waterfall , Garden Pond Liners over such a pit if you want, just throwing in boulders to hide your electric , What is Roofscaping? and tubing, etc. Some people use bamboo , Lawn Diseases Can Be Deadly 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 , Poly Tarps For Home and Garden: More Than Meets The Eye that already have holes in them. How Big of a Pump , Straw Bale Culture Technique do I need? Basically, if you buy a fountain at a store you should have instructions on the best size pump , Online Flower Shops for that particular piece of garden , Adirondack Chairs: An Ole' Time Becon for Rest art. If you are making your own fountain, here is a rule of thumb: for every inch of width you need to pump , Unifying and Separating Landscaping Planting Beds 100 gallons per hour. But note that a100 gallon per hour pump , Adirondack Chairs: An Ole' Time Becon for Rest 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 , Do You Know About A Bamboo Orchid are adjustable but often can be adjusted down only a bit. However, magnetic-driven pumps, , Adirondack Chairs: An Ole' Time Becon for Rest the most common kind, are inexpensive and durable. You can find them online , Teak Adirondack Chairs at many wholesale pumps , Guaranteed Gladioli, Summer Colour that Returns outlets.Mike Guista is president of Fountain Mountain, Inc. and has published two books (Houghton Mifflin and Fountain Mountain Press). For more information , Hydroponics Gardening - An Introduction to Hydroponics Gardening for Beginners (part 16) Temperature about Water , Fountains: A Garden's Best Friend Wonders or buying wholesale pumps , Online Flower Shops don't hesitate to contact us. |
  
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