Every garden needs a water feature

A few years ago we wanted to add a water feature in our garden in order to get a bit of the sound of running water in the backyard. We didn’t want to spend a lot of money on it or have the headache of maintaining a big pond. Another thing we had to consider is that in our neighborhood raccoons are also a big problem with water features, so we needed something that would not turn into a raccoon Jacuzzi!  We tried various things through the years, but nothing really worked that well and the raccoons always seemed to get into them. We had seen some beautiful fountains at the up scale garden centers, but didn’t really want to pay over a thousand dollars. One day we were at the Home Depot and we noticed that there were some relatively cheap ($150 to $250) fountains that didn’t look too bad. We bought one of these fountains and a few interlocking brick wall stones to build a base for it and within a couple hours had it installed and were enjoying the sound of running water in the garden. We have had the fountain for a few years now, and it has more than paid for itself. Once in a while the robins also have a bath in it which is quite a scene.

The base for the fountain is a cap paver that you can get at Home Depot. We used this because of the semi circular shape of the fountain base.

You also will need a power source for the pump. We put our fountain against our garage/garden shed which has electricity.

To really prevent raccoons from enjoying our fountain I cut a piece of plywood in the shape of the fountain base, and every night I cover the fountain. You don’t really have to do this if you don’t fully fill the fountain as the raccoons have a hard time getting at the water unless it is right up to the top.

If you are finding the sound of running water too loud you can soften the sound by putting a few river stones in the catch basin.

Just make sure that every few days you put water in the fountain as the level will go down as the water evaporates.

In the winter we empty the fountain and store it.