Looking towards spring last year, my Mom gave us a wonderful book about making outdoor spaces for children. It’s called A Child’s Garden, by Molly Dannenmaier. The book offers simple and beautiful ideas for making even a small, blank-slate of a back-yard interesting and engaging to children. One of the most powerful elements Dannenmaier recommends is a water feature. Since our children are young, I began searching for a fountain design that would capture their interest and be safe enough for them to use unsupervised. I found it in a 2008 issue of Domino magazine. The design is by Sasha Tarnopolsky, of the California landscape architecture firm, Dry Design.
When the weather warmed a little last March, my husband and I got to work on the fountain, which consists of two water jets in a bed of smooth river stones. We dug a big hole in the ground, put in a rubber tub purchased at a livestock supply store, and installed a submersible pump. Over the tub we laid a galvanized steel grate to support the stones–and frolicking children. When we ran into a few detailing issues, I contacted Tarnopolsky, and she graciously shared some suggestions.
Children love the fountain because it’s interactive. They put a finger on one jet, and the other shoots up high. I savor watching my three-year old son explore this cause-and-effect maneuver in order to fill his watering can. My daughter steps on the jets to rinse freshly-mowed grass from her ankles. Kids take turns or collaborate to produce the water flow they want. The fountain’s babbling sound outside our dining room window brings a calm end to the day as we sit down to eat.
In the spring and summer, the fountain is a locus of activity for visiting friends, no matter their age. But the fountain has proved to be a source of changing beauty in all four seasons.
A very heavy, black rubber membrane (available from garden supply stores OR from a box store garden section) is another waterproof base/liner for garden water features. An advantage to the rubber membrane is that it can take on any form – i.e. a very large, pebbled area or a narrow, long, winding “path” that simulates a woodland brook – neither of which could easily be achieved from a pre-cast form.
Watching our children’s interaction with water, it is perennially touching to see the magnetic pull to re-unite with their primal beginnings.