Water - one of the elements that can make a person watch for themselves without looking up, the flow of a stream or the movement of waves can be admired for an eternity. It is also interesting for a person everything that is connected with water: bridges and ships, dams and mills. Of course, in our time to meet a water mill is not so simple, modern technologies have pushed out this amazing structure, but in ancient times the mill was of great practical importance. In addition, the mill has always been an element of giving the landscape a special attraction and romance, it seemed a mysterious structure and was considered a haven of water and mermaids.
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What is a water mill
Water mills in the old days were used to make flour - water rotated the wheel, the motion was transferred to the millstone, the grain placed between them was ground into flour. Today, large flour processing plants have been built to produce flour, and the mill has remained rather an element of the décor to which the owners of suburban areas resort.
The construction of a water mill at the dacha will beautify the landscaped garden no worse than an ornamental fountain or garden sculptures.
A decorative water mill is a wheel installed on the bank of a river or stream. Fasten it on the hinges, through a special chute to the blades, evenly located on the wheel, water is supplied and causes the wheel to move.
If there is no natural flow in the pond, you can resort to installing a pump to feed water to the blades of the mill wheel.
The installation of a water wheel alone may seem to the owners of the site not decorative enough, most often near the wheel a picturesque house is decorated with beautiful carved doors and windows, a reed roof, or a roof made of natural wood. A canopy with a weather vane, benches, original sculptures are built near the decorative mill, flowerbeds are broken. For greater decorative effect, the mill can be surrounded by chaotically located beautiful boulders, between the stones can be planted dwarf varieties of coniferous trees, tall grasses, shrubs.
Planning the construction of the mill should take into account the general style of the site, for example, the classical landscape is more suitable stone structure, for the country style, the optimal solution is to build a wooden structure of logs.
Mill on a site in the style of country
As mentioned above, the country style presupposes the construction of a wooden house with a wooden mill wheel on the site, this option is perfect to supplement the landscape with a note of romanticism. A beautifully located log bridge, a wooden gazebo or a bench, a wooden sculpture, a well with a wooden log house will look beautiful.
To give the historical authenticity of the picture, the wood from which the house and the wheel are made can be artificially aged. Plants in such a garden should match its spirit, you can use those that are found in the wild or in the kitchen gardens:
- chamomile,
- mother and stepmother,
- primrose,
- reeds,
- sunflowers,
- mallow.
Watermill in the Japanese Garden
A water mill in a dacha decorated in Japanese style will also look very attractive. The refinement of the style and its underlined minimalism will emphasize the elegant masonry of the house, the wheel can also be decorated using white pebbles or shell rock. The basis of this composition is water, stones and the original form of plants: dwarf maple, Japanese cherry blossom, arizerma.
The house can be made in the form of a castle with narrow loopholes instead of windows, next to the stone bench will look good. The noise of water and the slow rotation of the wheel - an ideal accompaniment for thinking about the eternity of being.
It is not for nothing that Japanese wisdom claims that the melody of flowing water is more eerie than melodies that can be recreated on any musical instruments.
Mill in the landscape of the Dutch garden
Since this structure was quite common in Western Europe, it could well become a highlight and the main element of the landscape in the Dutch style. Ideal environment for the object will serve as a composition of daffodils and tulips, garden roses. The construction must be of a concise and colorful design.
It can be a half-timbered house, which serves as a visiting card for the architecture of many Dutch and German cities. It will be appropriate to install a weather vane, as garden sculptures you can choose figures of dwarfs.
Mill dimensions
Dimensions of the mill wheel can be very diverse - from 1.5 m and up to 10 m in diameter, but determined with them it should be understood that they must be commensurate with the size of the site. The milling house can also have a different area, depending on how it is planned to be used - as a place for children's games, for storage of garden tools, etc.
It is not very difficult to build a water mill with your own hands, you just have to decide on the style, draw up a project and acquire the necessary building materials.
How to make a water mill in the garden with your own hands
We will begin the description of the process with the recurrence of recommendations on the commensurability of the dimensions of the mill wheel and the site - a capital structure of logs in a six-hundred-square garden will look at least illogical. Much more interesting is the current reduced copy of this water mill. First, we draw a sketch of the future structure and draw its project.
create conditions for the mill
Ideal option is the location of the mill near the reservoir with running water. But such conditions are extremely rare, i.e. in any case will have to provide a water level difference.
The easiest way is to position the mill wheel in such a way that during the rain the waste water gets on the blades from the drain pipe. In the rain, the wheel will spin independently. Flowing water can be taken along the gutter to the side of the beds and used to water the plants.
To ensure the movement of the wheel in sunny weather, it will be necessary to resort to the construction of a falling stream. For this purpose, a reservoir is installed, a plastic cube or a bath, a large barrel can be used. Next to the tank we build a kind of alpine hill, with a height of at least 0.5 m.
For work, you can use different construction waste: the remains of bricks, stones, rubble. Inside the slide, you must mount the hose, one end of it must be located in the lower header, the other - at the highest point of the hill. To mask the hose over its exit, you can place beautifully overhanging stones or climbing plants. Such a decor will look very natural, as if water naturally flows out from under the stones.
Provides a lift of water to the hill pump installed in the catchment tank. The pump should be selected so that its capacity is sufficient to lift water to the required height. When the pump is turned on, the water flows up the hose, then naturally falls down, falls on the blades of the wheel and drives it.
If the territory of the plot is terraced, you can build a beautiful water cascade. For this option, several trays or gutters (in accordance with the number of steps) are required, their length should be equal to the width of the steps of the terraces. The drains are laid across the terraces with a certain slope. When stacking, make sure that the water from the upper gutter drains into the lower one. A hose is attached to the upstream chute, and a storage tank is installed below the lower chute. The wheels of decorative water mills built into this cascade will look very attractive.
the device of a water mill with a house
For work you can use a wide variety of materials, depending on the style of the house being built. In it, by the way, it will be possible to place a pump for pumping water from the lower header into the upper reservoir.
how to make a wheel
To create it, you can use a variety of items: a plastic bay from wire, a wheel from an old bicycle, a plastic wheel from a toy windmill, a piece of plastic pipe with attached blades. The main thing is the observance of the basic constructive principle - a round base with reinforced blades on it.
In the center there should be a piece of pipe, which will be put on the axis of the corresponding diameter. The best option is to use two identical bases for the gear wheel with perforated blades fixed around the perimeter. Mounting blades can be done with screws or welding.
To mount the wheel you will need to build a support. In its quality it is possible to use a pipe rigidly fixed in the wall of the house, it is possible to build two supports with a fixed axis between them. The wheel mounted on the axis should easily rotate.
assembly features
The installation of the upstream water supply chute must be carried out in such a way that the water, falling on the blades, drives them. If wooden elements were used to create the wheel, they should be treated with impregnation and covered with high-quality varnish.
we build a house from improvised materials
The mill house can be built from any suitable material: pieces of brick or stone, thus emphasizing the capital structure, moreover, it is best to put this house on the foundation. For a rural landscape, a wooden house with a reed or thatched roof is suitable.
In the case can go boards, tiles, boxes. Used in the construction of wooden fragments should be treated with antifungal impregnations and covered with a layer of varnish - this will prolong the life of your structure. It will also be necessary to show imagination and come up with a variant of the beautiful decoration of the house.
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