Whether your interest is in creating a waterfall, a fountain, a water garden, a pond or any other kind of water element we can offer advice and/or equipment. Our advice is based on well over 20 years of experience of working with water and seeing what water can and will do and what it won’t do. And our practise is to sell the best quality equipment for each individual water feature.

The water gardening and ponding industry is growing and maturing right before us all. We do our best to keep up with what is new and offer what is the most relevant for this unique industry of water gardening/ ponding. Over the past few years there have been many changes; unfortunately there are some good products that are no longer manufactured and yet there are also fortunately some fabulous new developments such as smarter pumps, LED lighting and alternative methods and artistic ways of moving water and cleaning water. Despite the constant change and growth in technology which includes the fountain and water feature industry we keep distilling from the huge marketplace the most relevant equipment and best quality equipment for use in landscapes or in homes or offices.

Water Arts Inc. works with landscape architects, landscape designers, landscape contractors the hobbyist and enthusiastic home gardener/designer. The fun part of our job is seeing all the amazing projects that people are creating or designing and/or installing and being able to assist each one with choosing the best equipment for the design.

Please keep checking in to our site to see what’s new.

This month we thought it would be interesting and informative to share some questions we have been asked by some of our clients over the last few months. Water Arts Inc. has the fun of finding new products from manufacturers and artists of Fountain/Pond Equipment and hearing and seeing unique new designs and installation practises from our various clients. We are finding more and more questions regarding smaller garden spaces and more and more people looking for contemporary water features for their home gardens.

Question: I have a small to medium size garden space in which I’d like to have a water feature. I am looking for something in a contemporary style, what is available?

Answer: There are many choices of fountains available and we offered and assessed many solutions for this client. The choices available will be based on size, price, style material etc. and the option that inspired this client the most was combining the idea of a fire pit with a fountain. Please see the following photo of one of our FIRE/WATER Bowls that they ended up choosing for their patio area

The advantage of the Fire and Water Bowl concept is that it allows 2 beautiful elements to grace the patio area. This unit provides a gas torch effect which provides light and warmth whenever they wish to enjoy the garden in the evening and they have the sound and sight of moving water all the time. The size of the pool area is totally flexible this same unit can be installed so that water flows into an invisible pool where no water is visible (water fills a concealed tank under the ground ) or the other extreme could be the bowl sits on the edge of a swimming pool flowing into the pool. We always enjoy offering products that can be adapted to fit many garden designs and are not simply limited to one style or type of installation.

Question: I like the look of moving water, and I like a natural waterfall but my home is contemporary and I would rather have a smooth clean look. Our property has a change of grade and we will build a retaining wall. How can I have the look of moving water?

Answer: This is a question we are often asked? There are many many solutions to this and that is what keeps artists and designers busy and actively creating new garden/water art.

See some photos we are including here as some of the ways we have of answering this question. The idea of building up a wall that has a spout penetrating through it or a wall mask mounted to the wall offers some of the simplest methods of moving water in a more contemporary fashion.

The most important aspect of moving water is to keep it contained within a reservoir at all times, a wall mask or a wall spout are options for moving water but if the container they spill into is too small to contain the splash from the spout then this water feature will probably be relegated to a sculptural effect in the garden and seldom switched on to show it as a fountain.

If you wish more information on these products please contact us.

Over the last few months we have been asking questions of ourselves and our clients and have made some changes to our product lines. We are expanding some lines and switching to some brilliant new product lines always with the policy that we wish to offer the most professional equipment.

Please keep checking in to our site to see what’s new for 2010.

Recently I realized how easy it is to make creating a water feature complicated. So what makes it complicated?

The first thing that comes to mind is that there are so many choices. That should be a good thing but it often causes confusion.

The other night I went out for dinner and the waiter brought over this huge menu. There were pages and pages of choices and it toke us all so long to decide whether we would have the specials or the veal with lemon sauce or the salad with fish or the steak with _____? We finally make a selection but I thought to my self that the experience of all those options made the experience seem a bit too confusing.

And then I realized I have fallen into the same trap of offering all the possibilities of pond products to people only to see that glazed look come into someone’s eyes as they become overloaded with so many choices and I realize I have presented too many choices.

So I will try and remember to keep it SIMPLE SIMPLE SIMPLE!!!

It is easier when someone asks for some adivse or suggestions when they have a rough list of what they like or don’t’ like about water. Pictures are very help-ful to help define the style or ideas you hope to incorporate into your landscape. A list of all the things you hope to incorporate into your water feature will help to keep you from being swayed by all the options available. For instance why learn and talk about ponds and fish when what you want is something simple to maintain and the sound of trickling or splashing is the effect you wish to produce in the landscape? Yes it is like shopping for dinner if you visit the local supermarket to see what is available and find the salmon is fresh and on sale and the beef looks a little grey then you are going to change your menu to be a salmon dish however if you weren’t planning on having meat at all why go over to the meat counter?

Keep it simple by formulating what it is you like and then see how what you like can take shape.

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I recently visited Quebec City, a beautiful city considered to be in Hardiness Zone 4 and although this means they can experience -30 C (-25 F) the city does have some Garden areas and includes several interesting fountains, proving that Hardiness Zones don’t have to limit garden spaces, or fountain ideas.

I may be slightly biased but I always notice that pictures of fountains end up in just about everyones photo album as it seems we all love water. You always see tourists snapping photos of themselves or family members in front of fountains.

I am including some photos of some of these fountains as I too found that we had to take photos to attempt to capture the beauty and creativity of water in motion. It never ceases to amaze me what can be done with water.

The fountain at the entrance to the Parliament Buildings is in a beautiful setting and looks as if it has always been a part of this landscape. It was actually very recently installed as a gift from Peter Simons to celebrate the city of Quebec’s 400th Anniversary. The fountain was originally situated in Tourny France and in 2007 it was installed in Quebec.

The rest of the pictures speak for themselves showing how unlimited the creation of a water feature can be.

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The fountain/ water feature industry isn’t any different. Many people say I really would like to have a fountain but I don’t want the maintenance or I don’t want the concern of children near water or the concern of mosquitoes or whatever the negative implications might be. That is when we say okay ‘LETS MAKE IT SIMPLE”.

Let’s design or create something that is only operating when you are in the garden, let’s create a water feature that runs when you flick a switch and the system turns off when you flick the switch to off.

Yes it is possible and it does exist. It does take some planning; please don’t think that after you have installed a water feature that this is something that can be simply adapted to an existing feature. PLAN PLAN PLAN before you dig.

There are systems that store the water in a tank under the ground and when the pump is turned on the water from the tank is pumped up and splashes or falls filling a stream or pond or whatever your water feature design dictates. When you decide you wish to go inside or decide it is time to turn off the pump then you can simply shut off the pump and all the water flows back under ground into the tank(s). An electrician can designate an electrical line to the pond pump and set-up a switch to this designated line inside the house or porch or garage to turn on and off the pump.

The water feature can be a waterfall, a formal shallow pool, a sculptural fountain etc.etc. This system can not work with a water garden as the system is designed to drain completely into the tanks and the plants would be without water most of the time.

Some photos are included here to show a waterfall that was done to create this kind of simple easy to maintain system.

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Creating a water feature does not need to be complicated we can assist you in keeping it simple.

We do have a storefront for those of you close to the Toronto area where any of these items may be seen or purchased.. Our storefront carries other products not shown or available on our website. Our storefront changes with the seasons but we always carry a wide assortment of table top fountains In the spring/summer season we carry a vast selection of water plants and outdoor fountains and in the fall we carry all the necessary components to winterize a water feature.

As the temperatures turn colder and the light of each day gets shorter we are putting (or have put) our gardens to rest. It always seems like a good idea to make some notes now as to what you wish you could improve about the water feature. Maybe you wish to make some notes as you clean up the pond and equipment for what would make your pond even better next year. Maybe you make a note that the tubing you have now has gotten stiff and slips off the fittings or pump too easily and new tubing would be a good idea or maybe the underwater light needs a stand to properly angle the light at the water feature or maybe the pump was too hard to get at all year so next year you need to add more tubing to it or readjust the fittings so that it is easier.

Now let’s address how to prepare your pond for the winter season?

Some of you move your fish inside and take care of them over the winter seasons Here in Zone 5 we have had great success in over wintering fish in ponds that are 18” deep. The trick has always been to make sure that all of the debris is removed from the pond sometime in October and not to allow any more leaves or debris to enter the pond before it begins to freeze. A system that has worked well to keep healthy fish alive over the winter months ( in ZONE 5) is to cover the pond with a net to keep leaves from entering the pond and positioning an air pump close to the pond edge that will bubble air into the pond water over the whole winter. Now all that can be done is make sure that the air pump stays running all winter and that occasionally leaves that have collected on top of the netting are flicked or blown off the net cover. If some of you still want to bring your fish inside I don’t wish to stop any of you from bonding with your fish and so if you like moving them inside and taking care of them over the winter months then by all means bring them inside sometime in October.

Plants look after themselves pretty well. The lilies get pruned back and dropped to the deepest part of the pond and the tropical plants like hyacinths and lettuce are pulled and put in the compost heap. The plants on the shelves do very well there so in most cases you just leave them alone. The mechanical equipment such as underwater lights, pumps, etc. they must be disconnected and lifted out of the water for winter. And all filters need to be drained and stored in a frost free place.

Any sculptural elements made of fibreglass, resin, or concrete need to be drained and either stored in a dry place or turned upside down so that winter precipitation does not re-fill these kinds of products.

There is much more detailed information on winterizing tips in our Services Section so please do look at these pages for more advice.