Water Gardens and Tuned Wind Chimes

Posted by maryparker on August 5th, 2012

require time, upkeep and exhaustive planning, but in the end, the result is very much worth all the painstaking (and sometimes expensive) effort. What’s more, you can further enhance the attractiveness and pleasing qualities of a water feature with thoughtfully chosen decors, such as tuned wind chimes, statues, and certain ornamental plants.

While you can make a garden whose design is directed at helping you achieve a sense of inner peace, nothing is like a nice water feature to drive home this point—try looking at any pond edged with flowering plants and see if it does not instantly calm you. And when successfully constructed, your water feature can attract those little beautiful creatures—dragonflies, butterflies, and the like. If these creatures are happy, so will you be.

Safety Considerations

Keep in mind that when we speak of water features, we do not only refer to water ponds. In fact, thanks to modern technology, there are currently several options you can choose from when it comes to using water as a design element in your garden. Building a water pond can even pose as a safety risk if you have small children—regardless of the depth of the pond, it should not exist in a home where curious, active children live.

Possible (yet equally pleasing, if not better) alternatives to water ponds are water features in which water is made to splash down a sloping wall. If your garden has such a wall, you only need to improvise with a pump to achieve the effect—it does not even need much construction work. You can also achieve the same effect with glass. In fact, water-on-glass fountains are becoming more and more popular as an indoor decor, and you can often find them now in most modern homes or at the lobby of office buildings.

Another fairly common idea is making an easily constructible semi-fountain that is designed to splash water on pebbles—now this has the bonus effect of attracting butterflies to your water feature as they like wet stones to drink from, especially during summer.

Once you understand the operating principles of fountains (which is to draw or pump water from a source, circulate it, “feature” it, then back again), you can apply the same principles in any other fixture you create regardless of design. You can let your own creativity guide you. The important thing is to make sure that the water can be seen—the larger the area, the better—and that it somehow aerates the surrounding air, which in turn creates negative ions that are good for the health. If you have been to the Niagara Falls or any other large body of water or even after a rain, the easy sense of exhilaration that you feel is due to the negative ions created by the water.

Water-based Plants

Although they are quite common, water lilies are by no means the only plants that thrive on water. A typical water feature should be complemented with the appropriate plants or flowers. If you’re unsure about which plant to use, however, you can always choose any flowering plant you like and simply install them around the water feature. In that way, you can have the best of both worlds.

Wind Chimes for Aural Enhancement

Wind chimes, specifically tuned wind chimes, can incredibly complement your garden’s water feature. Such wind chimes are particularly interesting as water features—such as a medium-size pond, stream, or artificial lake—naturally attract the wind. On breezy days in the summer or autumn, having appropriately placed chimes can be a real godsend—they really do uplift the mood and transform the whole place into something magical.

After all, the meditative effect of gazing at a beautiful and serene water feature is much more enhanced when at the edge of your consciousness you hear the sweet, gentle sound of the breeze caressing the wind chimes. When placed strategically to optimize both the sound and their potential in catching the breeze as much as possible, the wind chime’s music can bring great joy to anyone who hears it.

Whimsical Winds is the largest retailer of wind chimes on the web with over 800 styles available from some of the most popular wind chime manufacturers. Wind chimes make the perfect gift, memorial, or personal addition to your home. Carrying tuned wind chimes, bells, gazing balls and wind spinners from over 14 manufacturers, you are guaranteed to find the perfect musical and decorative piece for your home.