The sun’s out again, the garden is starting to wake up and you want the sound of running water in your garden. Garden waterfalls and fountains are a great option for most garden projects. They’re not prohibitively expensive and they tend to last a long time if you look after them right!
Moulded garden waterfalls & watercourses
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Atlantis Highland Tiered Stream Waterfall£224.99 -
Bermuda Watercourses Ghyll£299.99 -
Bermuda Watercourses – Brecon£289.00
Moulded garden waterfalls and watercourses are a quick and easy alternative to landscaping your own. In order to make the most of them you’ll need to bear a few things in mind;
Plumbing your waterfall
Moulded waterfalls will have a discreet inlet for you to connect to your pipe and pump. These are typically suited to 1″ pipe and some watercourses (Bermuda’s for example) come with a connector included. You’ll need to connect your waterfall to a pump in order to get water flowing down it! If you already have a pump to your filter and you’re even a little bit concerned it might not be powerful enough to handle your waterfall as well then it won’t be. Grab yourself a secondary pump to run your waterfall.
Cleaning your watercourse
Being outside and fed by a pump from the bottom of your pond will mean the build-up of detritus and algae. There are plenty of fancy cleaners you could use but an old washing-up brush and some elbow grease every other week or so will do the job just as well. 2 or 3 minutes every 10 days could prevent big cleaning issues or even blockages down the line.
General maintenance of your watercourse or waterfall is as simple as keeping it clean. Be careful not to put too much pressure on a watercourse. Any crack or split of the material will mean the unit is no longer waterproof and you’ll lose water through the gap. This may not feel like a huge issue but over time it could cause issues with the ground underneath.
Metal garden waterfalls
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Oase Steel Waterfall XL£174.99 – £329.99 -
Oase Steel Waterfall£139.99 – £249.99
Steel garden waterfalls are more of an ornamental style than the moulded watercourses and what you decide to have will depend on your aesthetic. They can sometimes be easier to set up as they’re not meant to ‘disappear’ into the background. You have more freedom when it comes to placement so long as you can make it secure.
As before you’ll need to plumb them in and run them with a pump. As you’ll see from the images above these come with connectors, too, but you’ll need to purchase a pump and hose separately. Keeping them clean is the same again – just take care of it little and often and everything will look great and last ages!
