Your Outdoor Living Area: An Ideal Spot for a Wall Fountain
Your Outdoor Living Area: An Ideal Spot for a Wall Fountain
A good way to enhance the appearance of your outdoor living area is to add a wall water feature or an exterior garden fountain to your landscaping or garden layout. A myriad of present-day designers and fountain craftsmen have found ideas in the fountains and water features of the past. As such, integrating one of these to your home design is a great way to connect it to the past. Among the many properties of these beautiful garden fountains is the water and moisture they release into the air which attracts birds and other wild life as well as helps to balance the ecosystem. For example, irksome flying insects are usually deterred by the birds attracted to the fountain or birdbath. Putting in a wall water feature is your best solution for a little garden because a spouting or cascading fountain takes up too much space. There are two types of fountains to choose from including the freestanding version with a flat back and an attached basin set up against a fence or a wall in your yard, or the wall-mounted, self-contained variety which is hung directly on a wall. Both a fountain mask placed on the existing wall as well as a basin located at the bottom to collect the water are equired if you wish to include a fountain. The plumbing and masonry work necessary for this type of job requires training, so it is best to employ a skilled person rather than do it yourself.
Where did Garden Water Fountains Begin?
Where did Garden Water Fountains Begin? The amazing or ornamental effect of a fountain is just one of the purposes it fulfills, in addition to supplying drinking water and adding a decorative touch to your property. Originally, fountains only served a practical purpose. Inhabitants of cities, townships and small towns utilized them as a source of drinking water and a place to wash, which meant that fountains needed to be linked to nearby aqueduct or spring. Until the late nineteenth, century most water fountains operated using gravity to allow water to flow or jet into the air, therefore, they needed a supply of water such as a reservoir or aqueduct located higher than the fountain. Acting as an element of decoration and celebration, fountains also generated clean, fresh drinking water. The main materials used by the Romans to build their fountains were bronze or stone masks, mostly illustrating animals or heroes. During the Middle Ages, Muslim and Moorish garden designers included fountains in their designs to mimic the gardens of paradise. To show his prominence over nature, French King Louis XIV included fountains in the Garden of Versailles. The Romans of the 17th and 18th centuries manufactured baroque decorative fountains to exalt the Popes who commissioned them as well as to mark the spot where the restored Roman aqueducts entered the city.
Since indoor plumbing became the standard of the day for clean, drinking water, by the end of the 19th century urban fountains were no longer needed for this purpose and they became purely decorative. Fountains using mechanical pumps instead of gravity helped fountains to deliver recycled water into living spaces as well as create special water effects.
These days, fountains adorn public areas and are used to honor individuals or events and fill recreational and entertainment needs.