Water Play in the garden with Flea Market finds

Decorate your garden With water fountains

The best of our gardeners’ water fountains and small ponds, made with old vintage pumps, galvanized tubs, metal auto shop tools and even fire extinguishers!  These are water features you can do.

Galvanized Tubs

Nancy Carter used a shepherd’s hook to hang the watering can in this simple fountain that she and her daughter made.  This works with or without a fountain pump. Easy!

 

Elzeen Torres says, “I drilled a hole in bottom of aluminum pitcher just large enough to feed the hose through to my $18. pump, Elzeen Torres says. “I placed an old galvanized tub on top of an old birdcage and hung the pitcher from an old chain. Then I hid the hose by putting a Corkscrew Rush, a water plant, in front and threw in some Water Hyacinths. I propped an old yardstick in front and decorated all this with more plants, rusty treasure and enamelware, and called it a day.  Easy!”

 

Barbara Stanley’s galvanized tub doesn’t need a pump,…she can fill it with water and set potted Elephant Ear’s and reeds right in the tub.  The only upkeep is keeping the water level filled which can be automated by adding a drip sprinkler.

 

 

Garden Sun Light APP012B 3 Watt Solar Panel with Water Pump Battery LED  available from Amazon

Hooking up a water fountain is easy!

Get a pump.
Just purchase a small submersible water pump.  Submersible means you can plug it in and the pump itself goes under the water.  one proportional to the size of your lowest basin and situate your water feature near an electrical plug.

Hide the pump under water.
You hide the pump usually with rocks or an upturned black nursery pot.  For mine, I used a small hollow cement block.

Test out the spray.
Fill the basin with water and test out the strength and adjustability of your pump

Add plants, if desired
Use bricks to raise up your plants to the height you want. Use floating water plants, too!

TIP: For locations not near electricity, get yourself a solar fountain, like Marie Niemann’s above.

 

Jolaine Smith says, “Another project at my shop using Flea Market finds, old wooden handle tub, old metal fence, sap bucket, cistern parts, etc.”

Terralea says, “This is the tipsy kettle fountain I made from my grandmothers old kettles and a very large strainer. The flowers ar now spilling over.”

 

Half barrels

Kirk Willis says, “You can’t see it but I placed a small rustic board across the back of the top of the barrel and attached the pump to that.  I drilled a hole in the board and threaded the tubing through that and an old watering can, added some glass floats. This sits by our covered, country, front porch where sit in our porch rockers and relax to the sound.”

 

 

 

“This is the whole ‘barrel pond vignette’ that I am re-tweaking,” Jeanne Sammons says, “Flea Market finds are two birdies in bath, iron fish and old rustic pieces of junk to stand the cement art on!”

 

Bathtubs

 

 

 

Common water plants to look for

Iris
Corkscrew reed
Fragrant Water Lily
Water lettuce
Water Hyacinths
Lotus
Cattails
Horsetail Rush
Elephant Ears
Umbrella Palm
Spider lily

TIP: As plants like water lettuces multiply and crowd the surface of your pond, scoop them out into the compost pile, or share with friends.

Vintage Kettles

 

Billie Hayman says, “This is a sugar kettle that they used to make sugar cane syrup in. Verbena is starting to come over the top. Creeping fig is slowly attaching itself to the sides.  The creeping fig sticks to every thing and can give buildings an old world look.”

 

Stone

 

 

Pond liners, hard shell or flexible

Margie Ann says, “I made this pond years ago just outside my sunroom, which we also made. It’s all made with leftover materials,… the only money I have in it is the pond pump.”  Easy!

 

Joan Adolf says, “We worked on our little pond some more today. I think its looking just great. Still not quite done though.”

 

Myra Glandon says, “Our pond in Central, Ohio One ground cover is Lamium. I have several different hostas, daylily, sedum, and other perennials around the pond. It sits at the edge of our circular brick patio surrounded by pine trees. That’s our cat, Scruffy. She likes to climb out on the waterfall and get a drink. She will sit and watch the fish, but she hates getting wet.”

 

Rena Bezmen says, ” My little pond with a fountain that I made by sinking a plastic bin in the ground, added slate stone and drilled a hole in a fish statue that I had on a table, it made a perfect fountain!”

 

Pam McCloud says, “I call this our puddle. We have five fish in it.”

 

Diana Daily says, “I told my son Mark that I was trying to figure out how I could put this large fish in the pond so that he would be just skimming the surface. Always up to a challenge, he found an old metal box and a flat brown stone and here is my big fish. I love it!”

 

Unusual fountains

 

Julie Scherbarth says, “This is the front of my “rusty” logging truck. We built a water feature into the engine compartment,aptly named “Blue Boot Falls.””

 

For this, a liner meant to be used for half barrel fountains was sunk into the ground. I placed the pump down inside hidden in a concrete block. The pedestal I found on trash day is also cement, very heavy and sits on the same concrete block.  There’s a hole through the pedestal where the pump hose comes through and also through the soil of the bowl shaped pot, filled with Iris.  Iris can live with all this water,…pretty much are water plants!  Try that! ~ Sue

 

 

More ways to add water!

Matt’s Cool Cream Separator Fountain

Annie’s Galvanized Tipsy Pots

Marie’s Tipsy Solar Fountain

Cool Summer Spring a small water feature

Winterizing Flea Market garden water features

Reuse And Recycle: Broken Fountain To Fabulous! Fountains to planters