Like HowStuffWorks on Facebook!

How to Build a Water Garden

Gardeners can build a beautiful water garden without professional help. See more pictures of famous gardens.

Water contributes a sense of peace and tranquility to a garden, making it more inviting, more romantic, more livable. Whether the water garden is little more than an enlarged bird bath or an elaborate aquatic milieu brimming with plant and animal life, its presence alone makes your yard a more pleasant place. Water cools the air on hot days and helps keep frost away on cold ones. Activated by hidden pumps, moving water also supplies a relaxing background of natural music. And water in the garden attracts birds and butterflies.

In this article, we'll explore some of the aspects of building a water garden, including planning a water garden, planting a water garden and animal life in the water garden.

Famous Gardens Image Gallery

Many gardeners put off plans for a water garden because they think water gardens require too much effort to start or a great deal of experience to maintain. Actually, water gardens require little care and are no more difficult to maintain than the average flower garden. Some knowledge of the care and maintenance of garden pools and aquatic plants is necessary of course, but all the basics are explained in this article.

So why wait? Even the smallest backyard or patio can host a water garden: for example, a half barrel containing a single dwarf water lily. There is no limit to how extravagant the project can be if you have the space: two or three levels interconnected by waterfalls, complete with wooden bridges and garden lighting, and brought alive by sprays and fountains. All that is possible in an average backyard.

In the next section, we'll show you how to plan a water garden.

Looking for more information about water gardens? Try these links:

More to Explore