A Wedding Gift That Lasts: Personalized Wind Chimes
Give a Wedding Gift that Lasts with Personalized Wind Chimes
Finding that perfect wedding gift is no picnic. There are so many wedding gift items available today that you could search for hours in your local department store or on the Web trying to find a great wedding gift! Perhaps the reason buying a wedding gift is so difficult is because it must have all these characteristics: personal, liked by both the bride and groom, useful, meaningful, unique and don't forget - affordable....
About Botanical Gardens
A botanical garden is a place in which plants are grown and displayed primarily for scientific and educational purposes. A botanical garden consists chiefly of a collection of living plants, grown out-of-doors or under glass in greenhouses and conservatories. It usually includes, in addition, a collection of dried plants, or herbarium, and such facilities as lecture rooms, laboratories, libraries, museums, and experimental or research plantings. Concrete fountains and wall water fountains are...
Add Drama To Your Home Or Garden With Slate Wall Fountains
There are a huge variety of different types of wall mounted fountains, including slate wall fountains which easily add the perfect mix of drama and tranquility to any setting, indoors or out.
Slate wall fountains are available in numerous styles, colors, shapes and sizes. There are slate wall fountains that fit into corners or alcoves, tall, free standing slate wall fountains, and wall fountains that are small and light enough that they can be mounted on walls or gazebos. Slate wall fountains...
An Ideal Gift: Personalized Wind Chimes
Personalized Wind Chimes: Ideal Gift for Any Occasion
Ancient giant bamboo chimes had practical uses such as protecting rice fields from birds and animals. Musical and artistic qualities of wind chimes were refined by ancient Asian civilizations. The Chinese in particular were skilled metal workers and excellent iron refiners. Wind chimes designed by the Chinese were used for religious and ceremonial purposes. The wind chimes were believed to drive off evil spirits while inviting kind...
Attracting Birds To A Garden With Water
Good gardeners know that birds can be a very beneficial part of a garden. Birds kill insects that can destroy plants. Just a single bird can eat hundreds of thousands of insects in a given year. Birds also provide movement and interest in your garden space. The basic principles behind attracting birds to you garden are simple: consider what birds need and how you can provide it for them. Many yards and gardens are unappealing to birds, however, with a bit of thought, you can transform your...
Cascading Wall Fountains Give Your Home New Life
While wall fountains may come in varying styles, cascading wall fountains are some of the most popular. A cascading wall fountain consists of a wall hanging design with water cascading down chiseled slate or smooth granite. These falling sheets of water provide a mesmerizing effect. The smooth movement of the water and the soft buzz of the fountain combine to create an enthralling sight. How many times have you eaten at a chic restaurant and noticed the beauty of the swathes of water that...
Create An Inspiring Wine Bottle Garden Fountain
Have you ever known anyone that collects wine bottles? While there are many beautifully shaped and colorful wine bottles, there does not seem to be many uses for them once the alcohol is consumed. People have been known to use the wine bottles as candle holders; the candle wax melting down the sides of the bottles make for a very unique indoor decoration. Often people just collect the bottles and add them to their shelves. In this case the bottles are more like dust collectors.
One great idea...
Donatellos Fountain
Donato di Niccolς di Betto Bardi, universally known as Donatello, was born in Florence around 1385 and was laid to rest there in 1465. The powerful nature of his art made him the greatest sculptor of the early Renaissance
A fountain by Donatello, carved of granite and decorated with ornaments of marble, adorned the garden of the Medici Palace in Florence, Italy. As the most elaborate and monumental example of Florentine fountain sculpture from the entire century, this work merits special...
Father Of Fountain Design: Gian Bernini
For centuries, visitors to Rome have admired the architecture and art of this great European city. Its famous outdoor water fountains, piazzas, churches and cathedrals draw many thousands of visitors each year, as do its countless art galleries. No less an attraction is Vatican City, in the heart of Rome, and its principal building, the Basilica of St. Peter.
Gian Lorenzo Bernini played an important role in the creation of some of Italy's finest sculpture, fountains, and architecture. He...
Flower Garden Design With Concrete Fountains
A concrete fountain is a great addition to any backyard, since it can transform yard into an entirely different outdoor living space. Concrete fountains can be placed into almost any garden setting, giving your garden the theme or perhaps time period you envisioned. Concrete patios can also put a lot of charm into a small space, making it easy to create an amazing living space in even the smallest of backyards.
Types of Concrete Fountains
Concrete fountains come in two different types. They...
French Formal Gardens Employ Cast Stone Fountains
French Formal Gardens Employ Cast Stone Fountains
France is famous for its romantic cast stone fountains, but it's also rich in gardens that reflect its cultural taste, as those tastes have been from the Middle Ages to the present. What better way to breathe in the essence of the French than to wander outdoors in designed spaces where you can smell and touch the living displays, sit by a refreshing cast stone fountain and move freely and absorb at your own pace?
French gardens, particularly...
Garden Fountain Lighting
You can create amazing effects with garden-fountain lighting. You can make a fountain glow, illuminate an entire pond from within, highlight an attractive statue, or heighten the reflection of a particularly beautiful tree.
Garden-fountain lights are available for installation as either inside-water or outside for water lighting. All, however, should be connected to a GFI for safety, and those used in the water should be made specifically for underwater use.
Before you shop for garden...
Garden Water Fountains And Safety For Kids
Just because you have children or frequent visits from children doesn't mean you can't have a lovely garden pool or a water fountain complete with safety for kids. Consider something like a garden fountain surrounded with stones that has no pooling water in which a little one can come to harm.
Safety for Kids is a Valid Concern
One of the biggest concerns about water gardening or a water fountain is the safety of kids. A toddler can drown in just an inch of water or in a partly filled...
Garden-fountains Can Be Provocative And Calming
Garden-fountains are provocative. They can be as noisy as a cascading waterfall or as serene as a water lily sitting on its surface. It might be a playfully bubbling garden-fountain or a mysterious black pool reflecting the silver moon. Its moods are elusive as it ripples, rushes, gurgles, splashes, drips, leaps, babbles, trickles, roars or simply lies still and quiet.
Some admirers think water is as compelling as fire and a lot easier to control. Water can be introduced into the garden in a...
Hanging Wall Fountains
When it comes to wall fountains, there are wide varieties of options that many people do not realize how many options they actually have. For example, while wall fountains that sit on the floor and stretch up the length of the wall are common and small wall fountains that attach to flat surfaces are even more common, many people are unaware of the many options available when it comes to choosing and installing hanging wall fountains.
Hanging wall fountains are designed specifically to attach...
History Of The Early Gardens
In the beginning there was a garden with natural water fountains. Creation's garden. And life was good. All plants were natives. Food was pure and abundant. Predators and prey were in balance (which is not to say they were equal).
Then people got involved and introduced concrete fountains and many other things. They brought with them their urge for order and control, and a robust curiosity fed by experimentation. Soon, the earth was plowed into furrows and crops planted in rows. The best...
Horizontal Wall Fountains Make Stunning Wall Decor
Horizontal Wall Fountains Fill up a Blank Wall
When you have a blank wall that you need to fill with something that's aesthetic, requires little maintenance, and brings in plenty of positive energy into your home, a wall fountain will deliver. Vertical wall fountains are perfect for high walls with vaulted ceilings. A tall wall fountain will not only flow nicely with the upswept vertical lines of a high wall, but is will also draw your eyes upwards and beyond, enhancing the appeal of that...
How To Light Your Garden Fountain
As with any lighting project it is important to think about the shape of the objects being lit. This is, perhaps, even more true of garden fountains. Gardens at night take on new shapes and shadows. When you want to illuminate part of it, you must think about what else may be altered by new shadows. While a well-lit fountain can be a beautiful addition to a yard or garden, poor lighting can leech away color and shading and make your garden seem flat and even spooky.
Kinds of lighting
Explore...
How Wind Chimes Make Noise
There are several different types of wind chimes that make noise in different ways. All wind chimes are percussion instruments. That means the noise is created when a hammer or clapper strikes another part of the wind chime and causes the air around it to resonate. Different materials and arrangements produce different tones.
Some wind chimes are collections of small bells. Each bell has a clapper, and as the wind moves the bell, the clapper hits it and the bell rings. Each bell produces a...
Keukenhof Gardens Dazzle With Bulbs And Concrete Water Fountains
According to the Eastman Kodak Co., the flowers and ornate concrete water fountains at Keukenhof in the Netherlands are the second most photographed place in the world, after the Taj Mahal in Aga, India. Keukenhof's history is almost as colorful as its famous Dutch gardens.
Keukenhof Has a Colorful History - Just Like its Dutch Gardens
When the fair Jacoba van Beieren (1401-1436) wasn't in the throes of planning her next wedding, the thrice-married countess spent much of her time riding...
Landscaping For Small Space
Having a small yard area does not prevent you from having a beautiful space that you will enjoy. It does, however, require planning and a bit more ingenuity than the average garden. There are a number of options for small spaces that will help you use the size and shape as an advantage. The trick is to work with the space that you have.
The first consideration in landscaping a small space is the shape and size. Many small yard areas are made up of straight lines that highlight the negative...
Lighted Wall Fountains Give An Illuminating Effect
Lighted Wall Fountains for a Hollywood Style Home
Lighted wall fountains are becoming all the rage and it's no wonder why. While all water fountains and water features, be they wall fountains, cast stone or slate fountains or indoor waterfalls, can liven up the drabbest interiors. It is illumination that can truly bring out their magical effects. When the sun goes down and all is dark, a wall fountain, helped by some imaginative illumination, helps bring out hidden accents in the design that...
Need To Find The Perfect Gift?
When looking for that perfect gift so often you find yourself exasperated. You want to give something lasting and special. You need something that your loved one will cherish. Personalized wind chimes are the answer! Wind chimes will give a lifetime of pleasure and when you add your personalized message, it gives that unique touch to remind someone of how much you care for him/her.
Wind chimes date back to the early B.C. period mainly in Asian cultures. They were used for protecting crops...
Outdoor Deck Design Using Wall Fountains
One of the ways that a lot of people improve the appearances of their backyards is through adding deck additions, and one way to spruce up your deck design is through the addition of fountains. Wall fountains make exceptional additions to any deck design, because decks have plenty of the one thing that it takes to install one: a flat surface on which to hang them. However, many wall fountains today are designed with solid bases and some people simply place them on the ground in a garden, patio...
Outdoor Fountains Add Charm And Style To Any Outdoor Setting
Outdoor fountains fit into any style garden. A fountain packs a lot of charm into a small landscaping space. Whether traditional or contemporary, it propels a stream of water through the air and creates a cooling effect. It's ideal for up-close viewing, which is why fountains are usually located on a porch, patio, or other sitting area.
A fountain can attach to a wall or stand alone. Some freestanding fountains are designed to rest in-or next to-a pool or pond, while others are water features...
Outdoor Patio Design Using Water Wall Fountains
Trying to plan out and landscape your entire outdoor patio can be difficult, but adding wall fountains can make it simply beautiful and bring things to life. Wall fountains take up very little space, meaning you have less to landscape while still offering an amazing outdoor patio design piece.
Hanging wall fountains can be used in a number of different settings, no matter how big or small. They come in all shapes, sizes and themes, so finding one that will fit your outdoor patio can be as...
Renaissance Water Fountains Of Tuscany
There were two broad classes of Tuscan water fountains known in the fifteenth century: the freestanding or "isolated" type, designed for the center of a piazza, court, or garden; and the "engaged" or wall foun¬tain, placed against a wall at the end of a square or courtyard.
The only example of a Florentine wall fountain from this period is the handsome structure of pietra serena in the court of the Palazzo Orlandini, now the property of the Banca del Monte dei Paschi. This consists of a...
Simplicity With Fountains In Garden Design
Simplicity has always been the basis of good design, and adding a garden fountain is no exception. Besides, good garden design is nearly as easy as it is simple! Its when you complicate things that issues arise. You have only a few things to worry with when planning to add a garden fountain to landscape your home. They are: 1) A source of electricity 2) The placement area; and 3) How to create a harmonious landscape around your new water feature. Creative solving of these basic problems will...
Solar Powered Water Fountains
Why Solar Power?
With the high cost of fossil fuels rising everyday, alternative energy sources are always being sought. Solar power is nothing new but finding different ways to apply this "free" energy has become more popular. Large solar panels have always been available as a source for heating swimming pools and even homes. In very much the same fashion, smaller solar panels are now being used to energize both outdoor indoor water fountains. Fountains are features that run non-stop and so...
The Basics Of Building Water Fountains
What Is A Fountain?
A fountain is a man-made installation, in which water issues from a source before falling or cascading into a basin, bowl or receptacle of some kind. The water is then drained, re-circulated or otherwise removed from the bowl; for example by being used to fill water containers.
Water fountains were originally conceived as a means of distributing drinking water to the populations of towns and cities. Fountains formed the delivery points of natural streams and aqueducts,...
The Fountains Of Chatsworth House, England
Chatsworth House is located in the heart of the Peak District National Park, an area of outstanding natural beauty in the center of England. The house is the home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, and the 1000 acre estate includes a working farm and more than 100 acres of landscaped gardens.
The house itself is more than five centuries old and houses one of the finest private collections of art in Europe, including works by Rembrandt, Van Dyck and Gainsborough, as well as more modern...
The Fountains Of Kansas City
Kansas City is thought to have more fountains than any city in the world except Rome, arguably the birthplace of the city fountain. At the last count, it was thought that there were over two hundred public fountains in Kansas City, with many more private fountains.
So what's behind Kansas City's love affair with water fountains?
Perhaps one of the reasons is that Kansas City owes its stature to water - it sits at the junction between the Missouri River and the Kansas River, and as a result...
The Public Fountains Of Italy
The Marvels of Ancient Rome
To really understand the significance of public fountains to Italians, you have to look back to ancient Roman times. The Romans were great engineers and artisans, and the network of eleven aqueducts they created to supply the people of Rome and other major cities with water was probably unparalleled anywhere in the world at that time.
The remains of the aqueducts that ran through the Campagna region of Italy can still be seen today, and are a fascinating reminder...
The Sounds Of Indoor Fountains
Indoor fountains bring beauty, harmony, and serenity to every setting. These small-scale projects make great accent pieces for your living room, den, deck, bedroom, or office. The tranquil sound of the water is sure to create a calm feeling, while the dynamic, varied designs are sophisticated works of art.
Feel closer to nature inside the home with an elegant design that has a sensational slate piece as a base. Rock accents suggest a bubbling spring rolling down the slate into an attractive...
The Use And Pleasure Of Indoor Water Fountains
In today's world life seems to move from zero to sixty on a daily basis. As soon as the alarm sounds in the morning it is as if the shot to begin a race has been fired. From the minute we wake until our heads hit the pillow at the end of the day, most of us lead pretty chaotic lives filled with minute-to-minute mayhem. Adding to the pandemonium of all that needs to be accomplished in a day, technological advances have resulted in mass sensory overload. Many of us recognize that the only cure...
Traditional English Landscape Gardens Included Wall Fountains
The traditional English landscape garden had lots of wall fountains and is thought to be a type of garden that was developed in 18th-century England, originating as a revolt against the architectural garden, which relied on rectilinear patterns, sculpture, and the unnatural shaping of trees. The revolutionary character of the English garden lay in the fact that, whereas gardens had formerly asserted man's control over nature, in the new style, man's work was regarded as most successful when it...
Tropical Gardens Feature Concrete Water Fountains
Tropical gardens and their lovely concrete water fountains may be found not only in the tropics, but also all over the world. Tropical gardens have been an important part of horticulture history and continue to delight people today. They may be found anywhere from large estates to the small backyard.
The First Tropical Gardens With Concrete Water Fountains
The first tropical gardens and concrete water fountains were thought to be in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia but they were designed for...
Use Of Garden Ponds
Why Choose A Garden Pond?
Do you enjoy spending time in your garden or outdoor space? Do you gain a sense of relaxation and well-being from the sound and feel of your natural surroundings? Do you enjoy the sound of birds singing, the rustle of plants in the wind, the hum of pollinating bees and the scent of flowers in full bloom?
Garden ponds can improve on that experience by adding a new dimension to any outdoor space - from bath tub-sized to a small lake, the benefits of a garden pond are...
Using Unusual Garden Features
In many ways, gardens are very personal creations, each choice and each hour of tending yields specific results. After several seasons, however, the garden you dreamed may have never bloomed or no longer pleases you as you thought it might. At these times it is worthwhile to consider some more unusual, that is to say, more interesting or less common garden features. The most important thing when planning the space of your garden is keeping in mind the visual balance between the various...
Versatility Of Outdoor Wall Fountains
When you hear the term "outdoor wall fountains," you may think of intricately carved marble statues in antique European churches, missions along the California coast, or a variety of other similar locations - but would you think about hand carved stone statues and outdoor water fountains gracing the presence of flourishing, colorful gardens, along decks and walkways, or even indoors?
Most people do not realize how versatile wall fountains really are. There are indoor wall fountains that...
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