How to Make Your Own Garden Fountain

A garden adds vibrance to any home. It relaxes the eye and breathes an aesthetic feel to the surroundings. Not only does it provide foliage to butterflies and little insects hopping and flying about, it also cleans the air in the immediate vicinity.

Gardens can be a place to unwind and relax, or to enjoy a good conversation with good company. However, if you really want to make your garden zen, it would be best to add an outdoor furniture or installation, like a fountain.  It’s even better if you make it yourself.

Making Your Own Garden Fountain

It has been believed that the trickling of water soothes our senses. Having a fountain  in your garden can also add a more soothing feel to the already relaxing hues of greens and pastel colors.

Making your own garden fountain may seem daunting, but with these steps, you will surely find it easier.

1. Check for available power source. Look for a spot near a socket where you can put up your fountain. It has to be stable enough for all the pots you’ll be stacking on top of each other. A clay pot, usually found in local department stores or garden shops, would be your first installation. It has to be big enough to hold water and to secure the other objects in place.

Since you have the prerogative of how you want your fountain to look like, you can either leave the big pot on the ground or dig a slightly bigger hole to hold the basin in. This is where the water pump and the water will go.

2. Place the water pump in the middle of the basin, connecting the tubes accordingly to where they should go. Cover the basin with chicken wire or mesh to keep debris away. This is important to make sure you don’t clog your pump.

3. Decide on how tall or how short your fountain is. For a regular pocket garden, it would be best to opt for a size that is space friendly. If you dig a hole to accommodate the water basin, the best thing to do is to cover it up with old wood or anything stable that can hold the weight of the remaining pots. Some choose to use big stones as support, placing the wire mesh around the pump instead.

4. Now that the important parts are in place—water basin, pump, and support structures—it is time to design it the way you want it. People who prefer elaborate designs stack small pots on a bigger one to let water flow in an artistic spout. Some even use ornamental, plants or bamboo arrangements. Those who go for minimalistic styles just stuff a clay pot with stones and pebbles to create a gentle run-off that produces the right amount of trickle.

Whichever way you choose to go, the most important thing is to make sure that the water flows out from the top of your fountain, and the tube that collects water is be sitting on the spillover basin. From here, the water goes back to the tube that sends water at the top, and on goes the circulation. You can secure the tubes in place by drilling holes or by twisting wires around them for convenience.

5. Once you are pleased with how your fountain looks like, you can already let the water flow. Make sure the water level is maintained at about 4 to 5 inches on top of the pump to ensure that the fountain does not dry up after a few couple of days. Regularly clean and check the water basin for any mosquito larvae or other unwanted dirt or pests.

Once everything is in place, you can already enjoy your fountain and take the stress away right in your own home. With minimal cost and barely any fuzz, you can truly relax in your own place of zen.

Vincent Sevilla is a Marketing consultant for Openbrook.com, an excellent source of information about patio sofa and outdoor furniture