Waterfalls As Landscape Garden Design Elements

A landscape waterfalls can be added to flow into your pond, pool, or water garden, be freestanding and fountain-like made of stone, fiberglass, or concrete, or formed by enhancing existing natural water features that exist in your property. If you don't have a stream or pond on your property, it's no problem. Waterfalls can still be designed from scratch or installed by using a kit... and, a pond or water garden can be added.

Depending on their width and height, they can create different sound and sensory effects. Larger stones and boulders can be used to create a narrower, splashier waterfall; flat flagstone will provide a wider, sheet-like fall with a more gently flowing sound. Whichever you choose, not only do waterfalls lend a sense of serenity, spirituality, and touch of class, they have also been known to improve physical and mental wellbeing.

Some say it is simply their beauty and the soothing sound of water cascading over an edge and down onto another surface or into a pool of water. More exacting afficianados know it that it is the negative ions (a molecule with an extra electron attached) that are somewhat responsible for positively affecting our serotonin levels and promoting the elevation in our mood, energy level, and health. Have you ever noticed how much more alive and full of wellbeing you feel around rushing water?

Waterfalls, as with the ocean and fast flowing rivers, are the best source for negative ions; their motion disturbs the water molecules so that electrons become displaced. That spare electron will then seek another oxygen molecule, thus adding to it an extra electron, and giving it a negative charge. With all the research correlating negative ions to health benefits, there is a new and upcoming market for negative ion salt lamps. Add one to your den or office space.

Meanwhile, especially in more metropolitan areas where smog, allergens, and cubicled or enclosed office spaces cause higher counts of positive ions to be the norm, I highly recommend adding a waterfall to your home or yard. Side bonuses? The addition of a waterfall can increase your property value, reduce traffic and pedestrian noise, and discourage mosquitoes, while creating a tranquil oasis in your yard. Your waterfall's negative ions can help to alleviate symptoms of asthma and hay fever, seasonal affective disorder and chronic fatigue, and have even been known to reduce depression to a certain extent. Of course, just knowing that you have, for a minimal cost, added a flowing water component to your home that offers aesthetic beauty and health benefits is enough to make one smile.

Article from The Landscape Design Site.com which offers free landscape design plans, pictures, advice, and a free landscape designer directory. For more information on landscape designers, visit http://www.the-landscape-design-site.com