I can’t help but think of Wonderwall anytime I, or someone else, brings up our latest backyard addition: the Water Wall. Not the same as the 1995 tune from Oasis, but equally as cool!
Let me tell you what this post won’t be: it’s not going to be a tutorial. For that, you can go straight to Lowes. I know at some point, our Water Wall altered from the Lowes tutorial but you can get the general idea there. This was truthfully something I saw on Pinterest and I shared it with family and they made it come to life. Everything from painting the boards, to choosing the gadgets, to running the pipes — oh, yes, it has running water — was all them and their skills, patience and creativity.
I think what drew me into this permanent fixture in the yard is that it’s totally for multiple ages. What Eva gets out of at 2, is different than Lola’s experience at 4 and is different than Javi’s experimentation at 6. It’s also something that I see us getting a lot of use out of for many years to come.
It’s built over on one side of the yard and acts as a very nice backdrop! “We” made a path of rocks over to the Water Wall which helps define the space but the rocks also act of a drainage system. It gets really wet over there! It seemed fitting to add the hopscotch stones in the path.
We have all different types of gadgets on the Wall; from pulleys, to ramps, to tubing, to fountains and funnels. It’s a mixture of things from hardware stores and actual bath toys!
It’s definitely the place in the yard where everyone wants to be! In the beginning the girls weren’t so sure about being sprayed with water and they were very cautious. (Eva still likes to play a game out of running away from the spouts!) But now Lola stands under some of the fountains and pretends she’s taking an outdoor shower. In fact, she’s usually shirtless when she’s near the Water Wall which is why I have so few pictures of her!
It is hooked up to our hose, and when we want to use it there are turn on valves. There are also smaller valves, lower, so that the kids can reach them and control them. We keep three large buckets on the ground (eventually we might invest in a nice looking troth) to catch most of the water. Once the buckets are filled, we turn off the valves and they play with the recycled water for a bit. This helps by not just running the hose consistently, and it also helps the rocks soak up the excess water so that the yard doesn’t flood!
We are so happy with the Water Wall and can’t wait to use it all summer long.
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